The BEST episodes of American Experience season 12

#1 - New York (5): Cosmopolis (1919-1931)

Season 12 - Episode 5 - Aired 11/18/1999

In this short but dazzling period, New York became the focal point of an extraordinary array of human and cultural energies, reaching its highest levels of urban excitement and glamour. In just over a decade, New York gave birth to its signature skyscrapers, the Chrysler and Empire State Buildings, and to artistic creations like F. Scott Fitzgerald's THE GREAT GATSBY, George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue," and to the jazz compositions of Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong. Along the way, Harlem emerged as the undisputed capital of the African- American experience and the new media industries of advertising, radio networks, public relations, and magazines found their homes in midtown Manhattan.

#2 - New York (3): Sunshine and Shadow (1865-1898)

Season 12 - Episode 3 - Aired 11/16/1999

Now the spotlight shines on the growth, glamour and grief of New York during America's giddy postwar "Gilded Age." Exploring the incomparable wealth of the robber barons and the unabashed corruption of political leaders, such as Tammany Hall boss William M. Tweed, the episode examines the era when the expansion of wealth and poverty -- and the schism between them -- built to a crescendo. The program ends as the city itself dramatically expands its boundaries, annexing Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island into a single massive metropolis -- Greater New York.

#3 - New York (1): The Country and the City (1609-1825)

Season 12 - Episode 1 - Aired 11/14/1999

The series begins by identifying the key themes that shaped New York's history: commerce and capitalism, diversity and democracy, transformation and creativity. The episode charts the development of the city founded by the Dutch as a purely commercial enterprise, first as New Amsterdam, a freewheeling enclave of trade and opportunity; then as the British New York, a colony fueled by slavery which was bestowed as a birthday gift upon the Duke of York by his brother, King Charles; soon after as a strategically pivotal locale in the American Revolution; and ultimately as the city of New York: the nation's first capital and the place destined to define urban life in America -- and American ideals.

#4 - New York (2): Order and Disorder (1825-1865)

Season 12 - Episode 2 - Aired 11/15/1999

Already established as America's premier port, New York City swelled into the nation's greatest industrial metropolis as a massive wave of German and Irish immigration turned the city into one of the world's most complex urban environments, bringing with it a host of new social problems. Episode Two reveals how the city's artists, innovators and leaders, from poet Walt Whitman to Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux (the designers of Central Park) grappled with the city's growing conflicts -- which culminated in the catastrophic Civil War Draft Riots of 1863.

#5 - New York (4): The Power and the People (1898-1918)

Season 12 - Episode 4 - Aired 11/17/1999

As New York spilled into the new century, the extraordinary interplay of capitalism, democracy and transformation surged to a climax. During a single generation, over 10 million immigrants arrived in New York. The city itself became an even more dramatic lure with the construction of the first subways and skyscrapers. And arising from the plight of New York's most exploited citizens came landmark legislation that would eventually transform the lives of all Americans.

#6 - Jubilee Singers: Sacrifice and Glory

Season 12 - Episode 13 - Aired 5/1/2000

Traveling singers from an all-Black school tour the north and overseas in the decade after the Civil War.

#7 - Nixon's China Game

Season 12 - Episode 8 - Aired 1/31/2000

Nixon and Kissinger decide to engage China as leverage in the Cold War.

#8 - Eleanor Roosevelt

Season 12 - Episode 6 - Aired 1/10/2000

Biography of the wife of FDR, her early life, marriage, and rise to the position of one of the most influential and respected women of the 20th century.

#9 - The Duel

Season 12 - Episode 9 - Aired 2/14/2000

The background and aftermath of the 1804 conflict between Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton.

#10 - John Brown's Holy War

Season 12 - Episode 10 - Aired 2/28/2000

Rise and fall of the volatile and sometimes violent abolitionist.

#11 - Houdini

Season 12 - Episode 7 - Aired 1/24/2000

In 1912 Harry Houdini was lowered into New York's East River in a crate wrapped in chains. The crowd of spectators gasped; reporters pulled out their stop watches. Houdini was out in less than a minute. The resulting media blitz established him forever as the world's greatest escape artist. On stage, Houdini subjected himself to the Water Torture Cell, being buried alive, and other perils of his own design. Throughout his rise from Hungarian immigrant to international star, Houdini confronted our greatest fears entrapment, pain, death -- and emerged victorious. Produced by Nancy Porter. Mandy Patinkin narrates.

#12 - George Wallace: Settin' the Woods on Fire (1)

Season 12 - Episode 11 - Aired 4/23/2000

The tumultuous career of the controversial politician from Alabama.

#13 - George Wallace: Settin' the Woods on Fire (2)

Season 12 - Episode 12 - Aired 4/24/2000

#14 - Joe DiMaggio: The Hero's Life

Season 12 - Episode 14 - Aired 5/8/2000

The life of the "Yankee Clipper," from his humble beginnings as the son of an Italian-American fisherman in California to his world-wide acclaim.

#15 - The Wizard of Photography

Season 12 - Episode 15 - Aired 5/22/2000

The story of the innovations that made photography affordable and easy enough for any American to enjoy.