The BEST episodes of American Experience

#1 - Vietnam: A Television History (4): America Takes Charge

Season 9 - Episode 14 - Aired 6/9/1997

With the South Vietnamese army in disarray, the U.S. military assumes control of the war, leading to increased American casualties in a country both beautiful and horrific. An edited re-broadcast of the 1983 series Vietnam: A Television History.

#2 - Eyes on the Prize II (1): The Time Has Come (1964-1966)

Season 20 - Episode 3 - Aired 2/3/2008

Examines a lead member of the Nation of Islam - Malcolm X. It also chronicles the political organizing work of the Lowndes County Freedom Organization (LCFO) in Alabama and the shooting of James Meredith during the March Against Fear.

#3 - Grand Central

Season 20 - Episode 5 - Aired 2/4/2008

The story of the origins of New York's re-imagined Grand Central Station in the early 20th century, proclaimed in its time as the most majestic and advanced train terminal of all.

#4 - Eyes on the Prize II (3): Power! (1966-1968)

Season 20 - Episode 6 - Aired 2/10/2008

Chronicles the election of Carl Stokes as the mayor of Cleveland and one of the first two African Americans to become mayor of a major U.S. city. The film also covers the formation of the Black Panther Party (BPP) and community control of the Ocean Hill-Brownsville school district in Brooklyn during the New York City teachers' strike of 1968.

#5 - Eyes on the Prize II (5): Ain't Gonna' Shuffle No More (1964-1972)

Season 20 - Episode 8 - Aired 2/17/2008

Chronicles the emergence of boxer Muhammad Ali, the student movement at Howard University, and the gathering of the National Black Political Convention in Gary, Indiana.

#6 - Buffalo Bill

Season 20 - Episode 13 - Aired 2/25/2008

The varied career of William Cody - from western legend to even greater fame in preserving the culture and mystique of the lifestyle through his "Wild West" shows.

#7 - Minik: The Lost Eskimo

Season 20 - Episode 14 - Aired 3/31/2008

A documentary of a young Greenland Inuit who experiences New York City at the end of the 19th century.

#8 - FDR (3): The Grandest Job in the World (1933-1940)

Season 7 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/12/1994

In episode three, the subject is FDR's leadership of America during the Great Depression. The nation turned to this son of great wealth for a host of social programs that promised a New Deal for the common man.

#9 - We Shall Remain (4): Geronimo

Season 21 - Episode 8 - Aired 5/4/2009

A portrait of the Chiracahua Apache who was one of the last Native Americans to continue armed resistance in North America.

#10 - We Shall Remain (5): Wounded Knee

Season 21 - Episode 9 - Aired 5/11/2009

Rebellious Lakota and allies take up arms in 1973 and force an examination of the failures of the reservation system in the United States.

#11 - FDR (4): The Juggler (1940-1945)

Season 7 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/12/1994

In this last episode, the story turns to the war years. The days leading up to the bombing of Pearl Harbor and America's entry into World War II were turbulent ones in America. FDR's strong leadership charted America's course, as the newly emerging world power took on the responsibilities of the war in Europe. Meanwhile, back in America, the New Deal was still a work in progress.

#12 - FDR (2): Fear Itself (1922-1933)

Season 7 - Episode 2 - Aired 10/11/1994

In this second episode, the subject is FDR's courageous fight with polio. With his wife Eleanor Roosevelt at his side, FDR, wins the Democratic nomination for president. He takes office at the beginning of the Great Depression. Exhorting the nation to keep the faith, FDR utters his famous words: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

#13 - T.R.: The Story of Theodore Roosevelt (3-4): The Good Fight / Black Care

Season 9 - Episode 2 - Aired 10/6/1996

#14 - Vietnam: A Television History (2): America's Mandarin

Season 9 - Episode 12 - Aired 5/26/1997

The United States is drawn into Vietnam through its support − then abandonment − of South Vietnam's president, Ngo Dinh Diem, who is assassinated in a coup. An edited re-broadcast of the 1983 series Vietnam: A Television History.

#15 - Lindbergh

Season 3 - Episode 1 - Aired 10/1/1990

After his famous flight, Charles Lindbergh becomes known to all the world but struggles with life in the limelight.

#16 - Vietnam: A Television History (6): Tet 1968

Season 9 - Episode 16 - Aired 6/23/1997

North Vietnam's dramatic offensive on the lunar New Year stuns American military and political leaders, leading to calls for the withdrawal of U.S. troops. An edited re-broadcast of the 1983 series Vietnam: A Television History.

#17 - Vietnam: A Television History (8): Cambodia and Laos

Season 9 - Episode 18 - Aired 7/7/1997

With fighting already spread to neighboring Laos, President Richard Nixon orders a secret bombing campaign against Cambodia, which will soon endure a nightmarish post-war holocaust. An edited re-broadcast of the 1983 series Vietnam: A Television History.

#18 - Vietnam: A Television History (10): Homefront USA

Season 9 - Episode 20 - Aired 7/21/1997

Americans at home divide over a distant war, clashing in the streets as demonstrations lead to bloodshed, bitterness and increasing doubts. An edited re-broadcast of the 1983 series Vietnam: A Television History.

#19 - Rachel Carson's Silent Spring

Season 5 - Episode 11 - Aired 2/8/1993

Her 1963 warnings about the effects of pesticides and herbicides - especially DDT - sparked a revolution in environmental policy and created a new ecological consciousness.

#20 - The Rise and Fall of Penn Station

Season 26 - Episode 8 - Aired 2/18/2014

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.

#21 - Freedom Summer

Season 26 - Episode 9 - Aired 6/24/2014

In the summer of 1964, more than 700 students join with organizers and local blacks to canvas for voter registration, create Freedom Schools and establish the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party.

#22 - The Boys of '36

Season 28 - Episode 10 - Aired 8/2/2016

A group of working-class boys from the University of Washington, in the United States, surprise a nation when they capture the gold medal in rowing at the 1936 Summer Olympic Games in Berlin.

#23 - The Crash of 1929

Season 3 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/19/1990

The unbounded optimism of the Jazz Age and the shocking consequences when reality finally hit on October 29th, ultimately leading to the Great Depression.

#24 - Eyes on the Prize (2): Fighting Back (1957-1962)

Season 19 - Episode 2 - Aired 10/2/2006

States' rights loyalists and federal authorities collide in the 1957 battle to integrate Little Rock's Central High School, and again in James Meredith's 1962 challenge to segregation at the University of Mississippi. Both times, a Southern governor squares off with a U.S. president, violence erupts -- and integration is carried out.

#25 - Eyes on the Prize II (6): A Nation of Law? (1968-1971)

Season 20 - Episode 9 - Aired 2/17/2008

Chronicles the leadership and assassination of Fred Hampton of the Black Panther Party (BPP) in Chicago. The second part of the film covers the Attica Prison riot in Attica, New York.