The BEST episodes of American Experience season 30
Every episode of American Experience season 30, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of American Experience season 30!
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.
#1 - The Island Murder
Season 30 - Episode 5 - Aired 4/17/2018
In the summer 1931, Honolulu's tropical tranquility was shattered when a young Navy wife made a drastic allegation of rape against five nonwhite islanders. What unfolded in the following days and weeks was a racially-charged murder case that would make headlines across the nation, enrage Hawai'i's native population, and galvanize the island's law enforcers and the nation's social elite.
#2 - The Eugenics Crusade
Season 30 - Episode 9 - Aired 10/16/2018
The Eugenics Crusade tells the story of the unlikely –– and largely unknown –– campaign to breed a “better” American race, tracing the rise of the movement that turned the fledgling science of heredity into a powerful instrument of social control. Populated by figures both celebrated and obscure, The Eugenics Crusade is an often revelatory portrait of an America at once strange and eerily familiar.
#3 - The Chinese Exclusion Act
Season 30 - Episode 6 - Aired 5/29/2018
Examine the origin, history and impact of the 1882 law that made it illegal for Chinese workers to come to America and for Chinese nationals already here ever to become U.S. citizens. The first in a long line of acts targeting the Chinese for exclusion, it remained in force for more than 60 years.
#4 - The Gilded Age
Season 30 - Episode 3 - Aired 2/6/2018
Meet the titans and barons of the glittering late 19th century, whose materialistic extravagance contrasted harshly with the poverty of the struggling workers who challenged them. The vast disparities between them sparked debates still raging today.
#5 - The Circus (1)
Season 30 - Episode 7 - Aired 10/8/2018
The Circus explores the history of this popular and American form of entertainment, from the first one-ring show at the end of the 18th century to 1956, when the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey big top was pulled down for the last time. The Circus brings to life an era when Circus Day would shut down a town, its stars were among the most famous people in the country, and multitudes gathered to see the improbable and the impossible, the exotic and the spectacular.
#6 - Into the Amazon
Season 30 - Episode 1 - Aired 1/9/2018
The remarkable story of President Theodore Roosevelt’s journey with legendary Brazilian explorer Candido Rondon into the heart of the South American rainforest to chart an unexplored tributary of the Amazon.
#7 - The Bombing of Wall Street
Season 30 - Episode 4 - Aired 2/13/2018
Explore the story behind the first terrorist attack in the U.S., a mostly-forgotten 1920 bombing in the nation’s financial center that left 38 dead – a crime that remains unsolved today.
#8 - The Circus (2)
Season 30 - Episode 8 - Aired 10/9/2018
The Circus explores the history of this popular and American form of entertainment, from the first one-ring show at the end of the 18th century to 1956, when the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey big top was pulled down for the last time. For more than a century, the circus had brought daily life to a standstill. And then, when day broke, the miracle had vanished.
#9 - The Secret of Tuxedo Park
Season 30 - Episode 2 - Aired 1/16/2018
In the fall of 1940, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill delivered his country’s most valuable military secret — a revolutionary radar component — to a Wall Street tycoon, Alfred Lee Loomis. Using his connections, his money, and his brilliant scientific mind, Loomis and his team of scientists developed radar technology that played a more decisive role than any other weapon in World War II.