The NAACP and Its Architects

American Experience

History Series / 15 Seasons

American Experience, TV's most-watched history series, brings to life the compelling stories from our past that inform our understanding of the world today.

Watch Latest: S37 E1

1h 52m / TV-14

Eugene Bullard: An American in France

1m 11s

Filmmaker Stephen Ives introduces Eugene Bullard, a young boy from who escaped the poverty and racism of Georgia, and years later found himself in Europe as war broke out and joins the ranks to fight for France during the First World War. To Ives, Eugene Bullard is emblematic of so many who believed that they needed to be a part of this war. Bullard fights in the Battle of Verdun.

The Great War: Culture Change

30s

The Great War tells the rich and complex story of WWI through the voices of nurses, journalists, aviators and the American troops who came to be known as “doughboys.” The series explores the experiences of African American and Latino soldiers, suffragists, Native American “code talkers” and others whose participation in the war to “make the world safe for democracy” has been largely forgotten.

Resolute Desk

2m 31s

It’s lived at the White House since 1879 and been the centerpiece of the Oval Office on and off since 1961. You’ve no doubt seen pictures of many a president sitting behind it, and even a few presidents’ kids hiding under it. But here's a lot more to the Resolute Desk.

Ruby Ridge, Chapter 1

9m 18s

Drawing upon eyewitness accounts, including interviews with Weaver’s daughter, Sara, and federal agents involved in the confrontation, Ruby Ridge is a riveting account of the event that helped give rise to the modern American militia movement.

Ruby Ridge: An Inside Look

2m

PBS and American Experience present an inside look at the new film RUBY RIDGE, a detailed look at the deadly 1992 standoff in northern Idaho between the federal government and the Weaver family. Drawing upon eyewitness accounts, including interviews with Weaver’s daughter, Sara, and federal agents, RUBY RIDGE is a riveting account of the event that helped give rise to the modern American militia.

Ruby Ridge scene breakdown

2m 40s

Telling the story of what happened on Ruby Ridge in 1992—when a standoff between the Weaver family and the federal government turned deadly—took a great deal of investigation and trust. In this Scene Breakdown, director Barak Goodman explains how he combined never-before-seen footage shot by the marshals on the ground, with surveillance footage, and original interviews.

Oklahoma City, Chapter 1

8m 23s

OKLAHOMA CITY traces the events — including the deadly encounters between American citizens and law enforcement at Ruby Ridge and Waco — that led McVeigh to commit the worst act of domestic terrorism in American history. With a virulent strain of anti-government anger still with us, the film is both a cautionary tale and an extremely timely warning.

Oklahoma City trailer

2m 49s

OKLAHOMA CITY traces the events — including the deadly encounters between American citizens and law enforcement at Ruby Ridge and Waco — that led McVeigh to commit the worst act of domestic terrorism in American history. With a virulent strain of anti-government anger still with us, the film is both a cautionary tale and an extremely timely warning.

OKC Press Tour Filler

2m 13s

PBS and American Experience present an inside look at the new film OKLAHOMA CITY, which explores how a series of deadly encounters between American citizens and federal law enforcement—including the standoffs at Ruby Ridge and Waco—led to the bombing of the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City in April 1995, the worst act of domestic terrorism in American history. Streaming now at pbs.org.

OKC scene breakdown

1m 32s

In 1995, the aerial image of the Murrah Federal Building after the Oklahoma City bombing stunned America. In this Scene Breakdown, Director Barak Goodman discusses the decision to open the documentary with this image, and how the film connects the dots between the 1995 bombing, and earlier events at Waco and Ruby Ridge.

Timothy McVeigh at Waco, from Oklahoma City

1m 53s

During the stand-off between federal agents and the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas in 1993, people gathered on a hill roughly three miles away to see what was happening at the compound. One of those drawn to Waco was a 24-year-old Army veteran named Timothy McVeigh.

The Race Underground, Chapter 1

8m 24s

It was Boston — a city of so many firsts — that overcame a litany of engineering challenges, the greed-driven interests of businessmen, and the great fears of its citizenry to construct America’s first subway.

The Race Underground promo

30s

It was Boston — a city of so many firsts — that overcame a litany of engineering challenges, the greed-driven interests of businessmen, and the great fears of its citizenry to construct America’s first subway.

The Race Underground Scene Breakdown

2m 59s

Bringing to life the story of an engineer and a massive construction project from more than 100 years ago is a challenge. Filmmaker Michael Rossi takes viewers behind-the-scenes of the production of Race Underground, the story of building America’s first subway, in Boston.

StartUp Success Story

2m 41s

The creation of the Boston subway system — the country’s first — is the subject of the new American Experience film, The Race Underground. It’s also one of our nation’s oldest startup success stories. To explore that angle, we turned to Scott Bailey, managing director of MassChallenge Boston.

Malaria and the Silent Spring

12m 30s

In 1963, the publication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring—which some called the most controversial book of the year—put the nation and world on alert to the dangers of overuse and misuse of chemical pesticides—in particular, Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, better known as DDT.

Rachel Carson, Chapter 1

8m 59s

Rachel Carson is an intimate portrait of the woman whose groundbreaking books revolutionized our relationship to the natural world. When Silent Spring was published in September 1962 it became an instant bestseller and would go on to spark dramatic changes in the way the government regulated pesticides.

Rachel Carson preview

30s

Rachel Carson is an intimate portrait of the woman whose groundbreaking books revolutionized our relationship to the natural world. When Silent Spring was published in September 1962 it became an instant bestseller and would go on to spark dramatic changes in the way the government regulated pesticides.

Command and Control, Accident Report

1m 8s

Bob Purifoy joined Sandia National Laboratories as an engineer in 1952, and later became its leading advocate for nuclear weapon safety. Bill Stevens was an engineer who served as the first head of Sandia’s nuclear safety department. Both men were shocked when they realized how vulnerable the nation’s nuclear weapons were to accidents.

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