American Experience: Online and Upcoming Programs

PBS's American Experience has a number of great episodes available online now so you do not need to await the broadcast nor worry about one that you may have missed.  You cannot do much better than getting insights on American history via these broadcasts.  This is truly one of the jewels of PBS.  Here is a list that includes upcoming and available episodes you may want to check out: 

- The Amish (January 18, full episode online):  An intimate portrait of contemporary Amish faith and life, this film examines how such a closed and communal culture has thrived within one of the most open, individualistic societies on earth. What does the future hold for a community whose existence is so rooted in the past? And what does our fascination with the Amish say about deep American values?

- The Amish: Shunned (February 4, preview available):  What is it like to be cut off from your faith and your family?The Amish: Shunned follows seven people who have chosen to leave their closed and tightly-knit communities for the outside world, knowing they can never return. Each has paid deeply for their decision. Estranged from loved ones, these former Amish find themselves struggling to make their way in modern America.

- Billy the Kid (February 11, episode online):  A fascinating look at the myth and the man behind it, who, in just a few short years transformed himself from a skinny orphan boy to the most feared man in the West and an enduring western icon.

- Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (February 11):  Long before Paul Newman and Robert Redford immortalized them on screen, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid captivated Americans from coast to coast.

- Grand Coulee Dam (February 18, episode online):  It would be the "Biggest Thing on Earth," the salvation of the common man, a dam and irrigation project that would make the desert bloom, a source of cheap power that would boost an entire region of the country. Of the many public works projects of the New Deal, Grand Coulee Dam loomed largest in America's imagination during the darkest days of the Depression. It promised to fulfill President Franklin Roosevelt's vision for a "planned promised land" where hard-working farm families would finally be free from the drought and dislocation caused by the elements.

- The Rise and Fall of Penn Station (February 18):  In 1910, the Pennsylvania Railroad successfully accomplished the enormous engineering feat of building tunnels under New York City's Hudson and East Rivers, connecting the railroad to New York and New England, knitting together the entire eastern half of the United States. The tunnels terminated in what was one of the greatest architectural achievements of its time, Pennsylvania Station. Penn Station covered nearly eight acres, extended two city blocks, and housed one of the largest public spaces in the world. But just 53 years after the station’s opening, the monumental building that was supposed to last forever, to herald and represent the American Empire, was slated to be destroyed.

- Triangle Fire (February 25, episode online):  It was the deadliest workplace accident in New York City’s history. A dropped match on the 8th floor of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory sparked a fire that killed over a hundred innocent people trapped inside. The private industry of the American factory would never be the same.

I watched the two-minute preview of the upcoming The Amish:Shunned and was intrigued.  One of the Amish speakers said "You're never taught to live in freedom."  That is quite a statement related to this quiet civilization residing in the middle of America.  

Many more episodes are available on line, from JFK to Henry Ford to Mount Rushmore.  Its a gold-mine of material.