The BEST episodes of PBS Specials season 2007

#1 - The Supreme Court: A New Kind of Justice

Season 2007 - Episode 14 - Aired 1/31/2007

A New Kind of Justice explores the issues before the Court during the period after the Civil War -- a time of unprecedented economic growth, when industrialists like Carnegie and Rockefeller were earning millions. As corporations grew more powerful, they found an unlikely ally in the Supreme Court. Although the Fourteenth Amendment was passed to ensure that the states recognized the rights of the newly freed slaves, the Court would for almost 100 years interpret the amendment not as a protect not blacks but rather for big business, recognizing corporations as "persons" and awarding them sweeping legal protections.

#2 - The Supreme Court: A Nation of Liberties

Season 2007 - Episode 15 - Aired 2/7/2007

A Nation of Liberties focuses on the Court's reaction to state and federal legislation on Bill of Rights freedoms, with special attention to the explosion of civil rights cases from the early 1940s to the present. This program highlights the Warren Court as it confronted the issues of race, gender and religion in the post-war period, when six newly-appointed justices were just beginning to find their way on the Court. Over the next quarter century, the belief in individual freedoms and rights would push the nation, and the Supreme Court, towards a new agenda.

#3 - The Supreme Court: The Rehnquist Revolution

Season 2007 - Episode 16 - Aired 2/7/2007

The Rehnquist Revolution details the extraordinary opportunity availed by President Richard Nixon: to name four of the Court's nine judges, effectively replacing almost half of the Warren court. The last hour of the series also investigates how the Court, especially under the leadership of Chief Justice William Rehnquist, rose in importance to become the institution most responsible for resolving the central questions of American life. The program also addresses the right to privacy, a key component in 1973's Roe v. Wade, and the surprising actions of an activist court in Bush v. Gore.

#4 - The Supreme Court: One Nation Under Law

Season 2007 - Episode 13 - Aired 1/31/2007

One Nation Under Law examines the creation of the Court and follows it through the brink of the Civil War, paying particular attention to the fourth chief justice of the Supreme Court -- John Marshall -- and to his successor, Roger Taney. Marshall presided over one of the most famous cases before the Court; Taney, over one of the most infamous. In Marbury v. Madison (1803), Marshall used an obscure case involving an unsigned judicial appointment as an opportunity to assert the Court's most important power -- that of judicial review, which gives federal courts the right to strike down laws that clash with the Constitution. A half century later, in Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857), Taney exercised that same power against the national government, this time to protect slavery.

#5 - The Marines

Season 2007 - Episode 2 - Aired 2/21/2007

"Semper Fidelis, always faithful. You'll take the corpse off the battlefield even if it means your own life ... Alive or dead, they come back with you." - Nancy Sherman, professor and author of Stoic Warriors THE MARINES, airing Wednesday, February 21, 2007, 9:00-10:30 p.m. ET on PBS, examines the unique "Warrior Culture" of the smallest but fiercest branch of the U.S. armed services. With significant access to Marine Corps training facilities in Parris Island, South Carolina; Quantico, Virginia; and Twentynine Palms, California, THE MARINES reveals what it takes and what it means to be a Marine - from the first moments of a recruit's arrival at boot camp. THE MARINES offers extensive coverage of the often grueling Marine Corps training, including the Martial Arts Program, confidence course and intense rifle range instruction. The program also demonstrates how the Marines evaluate and shape their future leaders with the rigorous Officer Candidate Leadership reaction course and infamous "Quigley" exercise. More than 30 current and former Marines of all ranks, authors and military correspondents were interviewed to tell the story of the rich history, traditions and continuing importance of the Marine Corps and the warrior ethos it instills. "How the Warrior Culture is engrained and how it sets the Marines apart from other armed services branches are critical aspects of Marine development and understanding," said producer/writer/director John Grant. "This program offers an in-depth and unvarnished look at the rigorous physical and psychological training employed to create this tenaciously loyal, highly skilled breed of combatant ready to defend country and comrade at any cost." Other segments of THE MARINES focus on the Wounded Warrior Barracks in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina; the new Marine Corps Museum in Quantico, Virginia; and women in the Marines. The program also travels to the country's largest Marine base in California, where Marines are seen

#6 - Andrew Jackson: Good, Evil and the Presidency

Season 2007 - Episode 29 - Aired 9/14/2007

This biography explores whether Americans should celebrate Jackson or apologize for him. The program reveals the world of America's 7th president, who founded the Democratic Party, yet was viewed by his enemies as an American Napoleon. The film contains reenactments, lithographs, letters and the insights of distinguished scholars.

#7 - Where the River Bends: A History of Northern Kentucky, Part 3

Season 2007 - Episode 25 - Aired 3/11/2007

The disastrous Ohio River flood of 1937, World War II, reform efforts to drive organized crime out of Newport, how interstate highways and the new Greater Cincinnati airport reshaped the region, the tragic 1977 Beverly Hills Supper Club fire, and late-20th-century riverfront redevelopment efforts.

#8 - Where the River Bends: A History of Northern Kentucky, Part 2

Season 2007 - Episode 24 - Aired 3/11/2007

The Civil War and Reconstruction, industrialization and new transportation options, Germans and other immigrants, Newport's growing reputation as a gambling center, the first World War, and the onset of the Great Depression.

#9 - Where the River Bends: A History of Northern Kentucky, Part 1

Season 2007 - Episode 23 - Aired 3/11/2007

Prehistoric Native American settlements around the Licking River, the arrival of European explorers and settlers, 19th-century excitement over the megafossils at Big Bone Lick, the antebellum era and Northern Kentucky's importance to the Underground Railroad, and the 1860 election of Abraham Lincoln.

#10 - City At War, London Calling

Season 2007 - Episode 21 - Aired 5/29/2007

It was the city that Hitler's Third Reich could not defeat. Led by one of the 20th century's most indomitable statesmen, Winston Churchill, London during World War II confronted each threat with stoic heroism - from the ferocious Blitz of German bombers to the indiscriminate carnage wrought by V-1 and V-2 "robot" bombs. Throughout, such American radio and print correspondents as Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite - names that would become synonymous with journalism of the highest integrity - reported from the frontlines.

#11 - Unbelievable Flying Objects

Season 2007 - Episode 20 - Aired 1/12/2007

#12 - Jonestown: The Life and Death of the People's Temple

Season 2007 - Episode 28 - Aired 4/9/2007

On November 17, 1978, Congressman Leo Ryan traveled to an isolated rain forest in Guyana to investigate the concerns of his San Francisco-area constituents. Their alarming stories focused on a jungle compound known as Jonestown, a group called the Peoples Temple, and its leader, Rev. Jim Jones. According to news filtering back to America, U.S. citizens were being held against their will in prison camp conditions. There were allegations of physical and sexual abuse and even rumors of a planned mass suicide. Congressman Ryan, an impassioned human rights advocate, decided to get the facts for himself. Within forty-eight hours, Ryan, Jones, and over 900 Jonestown settlers were dead -- casualties of the largest mass murder-suicide in history. In the next few days, horrifying details of cyanide-laced soft drinks and disturbing images of children poisoned by their parents emerged from the jungle. American Experience goes beyond the salacious headlines to provide a revealing portrait of Jones, his followers, and the times that produced the calamity in the Guyanese jungle. The film's compelling narrative is told by the people who know the story firsthand, including Jonestown survivors, Temple defectors, and the families of the dead.

#13 - Secret Files of the Inquisition, Part 4: End of the Inquisition

Season 2007 - Episode 12 - Aired 5/16/2007

The secret kidnapping of an Italian Jewish boy in the 1800's by the Pope is documented by long secret records of the Church.

#14 - Secret Files of the Inquisition, Part 3: The War on Ideas

Season 2007 - Episode 11 - Aired 5/16/2007

The decadence of a Medici Pope in Rome outrages a German priest. Leaders of the Church are arrested.

#15 - Secret Files of the Inquisition, Part 2: The Tears of Spain

Season 2007 - Episode 10 - Aired 5/14/2007

Spaniards live in religious harmony until Roman Catholic zealots begin attacking Jews.

#16 - Secret Files of the Inquisition, Part 1: Root Out Heretics

Season 2007 - Episode 9 - Aired 5/14/2007

The Church of Rome declares itself the one true religion. The Inquisition takes hostage the entire village of Montaillou, France.

#17 - Cities of Light: The Rise and Fall of Islamic Spain

Season 2007 - Episode 6 - Aired 8/1/2007

Over a thousand years ago, Europe experienced one of its greatest periods of cultural enlightenment. For more than three centuries in Medieval Spain, Muslims, Jews and Christians lived together and prospered in a thriving multicultural civilization. Here, remarkable individuals of different faiths made lasting contributions in such areas as poetry, art, architecture, music, dining etiquette, science, agriculture, medicine, engineering, navigation, textiles, and even hydraulic technology. Their rich, complex culture reached a high point in the Mediterranean Middle Ages. However, larger forces in conquest of land and power brought about puritanical judgments, absolutism and religious extremism. The conflict they triggered extinguished the shared learning that once flourished in this enlightened land

#18 - Liberty or Death

Season 2007 - Episode 5 - Aired 3/26/2007

To avoid interference from the royal governor of the colony and his marines, the Second Virginia Convention met in Richmond, Virginia on March 20, 1775 to discuss recent proceedings at the First Continental Congress. The meeting turned into a debate over whether or not to arm the colony to resist British forces whose numbers were steadily increasing in North America. Many members preferred to adopt conciliatory measures, but Patrick Henry delivered an impassioned speech, arguing Virginia needed a "well-regulated militia." It was imperative, he declared, that the colony be prepared to oppose King George III. He ended his oration with the phrase: "Give me liberty or give me death!" This documentary, filmed at site of the original convention, provides the historical context for the debates and recreates the most important speeches delivered during the meeting, concluding with Henry's famous address