WGBH Educational Foundation.
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Scientists have struggled for centuries to pinpoint the qualities that distinguish humans from the millions of other animal species with which we share the vast majority of our DNA. In this NOVA scienceNOW program, we explore those traits once thought to be uniquely human to discover their evolutionary roots.
4) Kit Carson
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"This film draws upon rich archival materials, original recreations, and interviews with authors and historians to bring the legendary trapper, scout, and soldier to vivid life, and provide a lens on a pivotal but little-understood era in American history"--Container
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Explores the impact of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline on culture and society in Alaska, as well as on the environment and Alaskan wilderness. Features commentary by the men and women who worked on the line, as well as long-time Alaska residents, members of the Native Alaskan community, environmentalists, government geologists, and local and national politicians. Examines the conflict between the desire to bring Alaskan oil to market and increase the energy...
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In this episode, Last Human Standing explores the origins of "us"--Where modern humans and our capacities for art, invention, and survival came from, and what happened when we encountered the mysterious Neanderthals. Crucial new evidence comes from the recent decoding of the Neanderthal genome. Did modern humans interbreed with Neanderthals? Exterminate them? Becoming Human examines why "we" survived while our other ancestral cousins - including Indonesia's...
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Documents a reunion of Iowa teacher Jane Elliott and her third-grade class of 1970, subjects that year of an ABC News television documentary entitled "The eye of the storm." Shows how her experimental curriculum on the evils of discrimination had a lasting effect on the lives of the students. Includes scenes of her lesson being used in a prison setting.
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"Dolley Madison lived through two wars, knew the first twelve Presidents, and watched America evolve from a struggling young republic to the first modern democracy in the world. At a time when women could neither vote nor participate officially in politics, Dolley Madison, wife of the fourth president James Madison, became one of the most influential and best loved figures of her day. When she died in 1849 at the age of 81-- one of the last remaining...
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The crash of 1929 left a country--once reeling with optimism--with 25% of its citizens unemployed and at a near complete loss of hope. But in March, 1933, within weeks of his election, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt stepped in with a solution: the Civilian Conservation Corps. As told by four veterans of this unique organization, The Civilian Conservation Corps, from the PBS American Experience collection, takes us back to this most ambitious...
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For decades in the 19th century, Apache tribes resisted the westward advance of the pioneers and the threat they posed to traditional ways of life. Fighting the longest was Geronimo--one of the most famous, feared, and misunderstood Native American warriors in history. Geronimo and the Apache Resistance, from the PBS American Experience collection, separates myth from reality in the tragic collision of two cultures with dramatically different views...
12) Woodrow Wilson
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Using photos, letters, newsreels, archival footage and beautifully filmed reenactments, this program tells the story of a professor who became one of America's greatest presidents. It's the tale of an emotionally complex man who craved affection and demanded unquestioned loyalty. And it's a fascinating portrait of a towering intellectual, one who appeared to espouse unwavering moral principles but who nonetheless shredded civil liberties during wartime...
13) First steps
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In this episode, NOVA encounters "Selam," the amazingly complete remains of a 3-million-year-old child packed with clues to why we split from the apes, came down from the trees, and started walking upright.
14) Panama Canal
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On August 15th, 1914, the Panama Canal opened, connecting the world's two largest oceans and signaling America's emergence as a global superpower. This film, using an extraordinary archive of photographs and footage, interviews with canal workers, and firsthand accounts of life in the Canal Zone, unravels the remarkable story of one of the world's most significant technological achievements.
15) The Jesus factor
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"As an evangelical Christian, President Bush has something in common with 46 percent of Americans who descirbe themselves as being 'born again' or having personal relationships with Jesus Christ ... To what extent do the President's spiritual beliefs impact or influence his political decision-making? And how closely do Bush's religious views mirror those of the country's burgeoning, and politically influential, evangelical movement?"--Container
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The murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till, a black boy who whistled at a white woman in a Mississippi grocery store in 1955, was a powerful catalyst for the civil rights movement. Although Till's killers were apprehended, they were quickly acquitted by an all-white, all-male jury and proceeded to sell their story to a journalist, providing grisly details of the murder. Three months after Till's body was recovered, the Montgomery Bus Boycott began.
18) Anna Karenina
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"This richly detailed film charts the tragic romantic triangle formed when the dashing Count Vronsky defies social conventions and falls into forbidden love with Anna, the ignored wife of an aristocrat. Soon, Anna's children--a son by Karenin and an illegitimate daughter by Vronsky--become pawns in Karenin's game to see that Anna pays a terrible price for her indiscretion."--Container.
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Storytelling is a relentless human urge and its power forges with memory to become the foundation of history. Novelists Charles Johnson (Middle Passage), Arthur Golden (Memoirs of a Geisha), and Esmeralda Santiago (America's Dream) join Professor Miller in discussing the intersection of history and story. Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., closes the series with a reflection on the power of the human imagination. About the Series: A Biography of America presents...
20) Zoot Suit Riots
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In June 1943, Los Angeles erupted into the worse race riots in the city to date. For ten straight nights, American sailors armed with make-shift weapons cruised Mexican-American neighborhoods in search of "zoot-suiters:" hip, young teens dressed in baggy pants and long-tailed coats- symbols that blurred cultural lines and pushed the boundaries of race and class. Their posturing and self-assurance made Anglos nervous and soon a violent street battle...