In 1953, the author Langston Hughes was called before Senator Joseph McCarthy’s Subcommittee on Investigations to answer questions about Communist influences in his writing. The private, closed-door interrogation pitted Hughes against the Subcommittee’s chief counsel, Roy Cohn. We dramatized the actual hearing transcripts of Hughes’s testimony, made public 50 years later.

The rise and fall of Joseph McCarthy, the Wisconsin senator whose zealous anti-communist crusade would test the limits of American decency and democracy.

Senator Joseph McCarthy hired Cohn in 1953 as Chief Counsel for the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. McCarthy relied heavily on Cohn—for contacts, information, ideas, and political advice.

Senator Margaret Chase Smith asked Senator Joseph McCarthy for evidence to support his allegations of communists in the State Department, but he ignored her requests. In June 1950, Smith delivered a Declaration of Conscience against "the selfish political exploitation of fear, bigotry, ignorance and intolerance. "

McCarthy chronicles the rise and fall of Joseph McCarthy, the Wisconsin senator who led a Cold War crusade against Communists.

In February 1950, McCarthy gave a Lincoln Day address in Wheeling, West Virginia. He claimed that over 200 communists held jobs at the State Department.

McCarthy chronicles the rise and fall of Joseph McCarthy, the Wisconsin senator who led a Cold War crusade against Communists. His zealous campaign to root out those he viewed as enemies of the state would test the limits of American decency and democracy.

On February 2, Carter addressed the nation in a fireside chat on energy. The country had been through an oil scare in 1973. To head off a new crisis, Carter appealed directly to Americans to rally around a new program.

Tony Sarg delighted children and adults, alike, with wondrous puppets: from the huge, other-worldly sea serpent that washed up on Nantucket’s shore in 1937 to the giant balloons bounding along New York’s streets in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. An artist and visionary, Sarg was known as the father of modern American puppetry.

In the chaotic decade following the Civil War, a group of young ex-slaves in Nashville, Tennessee, set out on a mission to save their financially troubled school by giving concerts.

In the chaotic decade following the Civil War, a group of young ex-slaves in Nashville, Tennessee, set out on a mission to save their financially troubled school by giving concerts.

The most famous family conflict in American history, the Hatfield-McCoy feud evolved into a mythic American tale.

n 1878, Randall accused a relative of Anderson “Devil Anse” Hatfield of stealing one of the McCoys’ hogs. Randall took the more affluent Hatfields to court in Kentucky but lost. A vicious, decades-long family feud ensued.

The most famous family conflict in American history, the Hatfield-McCoy feud evolved into a mythic American tale of jealousy, rage and revenge.

In 1882, Anderson “Devil Anse” Hatfield's brother was murdered by three sons of Randolph McCoy. Within a matter of days, Devil Anse and his ad hoc militia executed the three McCoys. Despite warrants for his arrest, Devil Anse was never captured.

The story of small people going up against very big forces for a better nation. In the first two decades of the 20th century, coal miners and coal companies in West Virginia clashed in a series of brutal conflicts over labor conditions and unionization. "The Mine Wars" premieres on American Experience January 26 at 9/8c.

50 years ago, organizers of the historic Woodstock Music and Art Fair in upstate New York searched for someone who could handle the unprecedented challenge of running their sound system. Luckily for them, “this crazy guy in Boston,” Bill Hanley, was available. Hanley’s innovative setup and the resulting recording forever shaped our collective memory of this generation-defining concert.

In 1969, Joel Rosenman and his business partner John Roberts joined hands with Artie Kornfeld and Michael Lang to hold a big concert in New York. This concert would eventually become the legendary Woodstock music festival.

In August 1969, nearly half a million people gathered at a farm in upstate New York to hear music. What happened over the next three days, however, was far more than a concert.

In August, 1969, half a million people from all walks of life and every corner of the country converged on a small dairy farm in upstate New York. They came to hear the concert of their lives, but most experienced something far more profound.