The BEST episodes of American Experience season 25

Every episode of American Experience season 25, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of American Experience season 25!

Presents an absorbing look at the personalities, events and resources that have had a profound impact on the shaping of America's past and present.

Last Updated: 11/17/2024Network: PBSStatus: Continuing
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The Abolitionists: 1854-Emancipation and Victory
star
8.91
11 votes

#1 - The Abolitionists: 1854-Emancipation and Victory

Season 25 - Episode 4 - Aired 1/22/2013

Examine the forces leading to war and to the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment.

Directors: Rob Rapley
Watch Now:Amazon
star
8.78
9 votes

#2 - Silicon Valley

Season 25 - Episode 6 - Aired 2/5/2013

Led by physicist Robert Noyce, Fairchild Semiconductor began as a start-up company whose radical innovations would help make the United States a leader in both space exploration and the personal computer revolution, changing the way the world works, plays, and communicates. Noyce's invention of the microchip ultimately re-shaped the future, launching the world into the Information Age.

Directors: Randall MacLowry
Watch Now:Amazon
The Abolitionists: 1838-1854
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8.67
6 votes

#3 - The Abolitionists: 1838-1854

Season 25 - Episode 3 - Aired 1/15/2013

See how the activities of the five principals intersect and affect the anti-slavery movement.

Directors: Rob Rapley
Watch Now:Amazon
star
8.31
13 votes

#4 - Henry Ford

Season 25 - Episode 5 - Aired 1/29/2013

An absorbing life story of a farm boy who rose from obscurity to become the most influential American innovator of the 20th century, Henry Ford offers an incisive look at the birth of the American auto industry with its long history of struggles between labor and management, and a thought-provoking reminder of how Ford's automobile forever changed the way we work, where we live, and our ideas about individuality, freedom, and possibility.

Directors: Sarah Colt
Writer: Sarah Colt
Watch Now:Amazon
star
8.22
9 votes

#5 - Death and the Civil War

Season 25 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/18/2012

With the coming of the Civil War, and the staggering casualties it ushered in, death entered the experience of the American people as it never had before -- permanently altering the character of the republic and the psyche of the American people. Contending with death on an unprecedented scale posed challenges for which there were no ready answers when the war began. Americans worked to improvise new solutions, new institutions, and new ways of coping with death on an unimaginable scale.

Directors: Ric Burns
Writer: Ric Burns
Watch Now:Amazon
The Abolitionists: 1820s-1838
star
7.10
31 votes

#6 - The Abolitionists: 1820s-1838

Season 25 - Episode 2 - Aired 1/8/2013

Abolitionist allies Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, Harriet Beecher Stowe, John Brown and Angelina Grimké turned a despised fringe movement against chattel slavery into a force that literally changed the nation.

Directors: Rob Rapley