In this 26-part series, prominent historians present America’s story as something that must be presented and debated from a variety of perspectives in order to be truly understood. Their thought-provoking debates and lectures — using first-person narratives, photos, film footage, and documents — will pique students’ interest and encourage them to think critically about the forces that have shaped America.
New world encounters
English settlement
Growth and empire
The coming of independence
A new system of government
Westward expansion
The rise of capitalism
The reform impulse
Slavery
The coming of the civil war
The civil war
Reconstruction
America at its centennial
Industrial supremacy
The new city
The west
Capital and labor
Tr and wilson
A vital progressivism
The twenties
Fdr and the depression
World war ii
The fifties
The sixties
Contemporary history
The redemptive imagination
NextFilm 2025