Lessons
(Select One)
1.  New World Encounters
Professor Miller introduces A Biography of America and its
team of historians. The program looks at the beginnings of American history from west to
east, following the first Ice Age migrations through the corn civilizations of Middle
America, and the explorations of Columbus, DeSoto, and the Spanish.
2. English Settlement
As the American character begins to take shape in the early
seventeenth century, English settlements develop in New England and Virginia. Their
personalities are dramatically different. Professor Miller explores the origins of values,
cultures, and economies that have collided in the North and South throughout the American
story.
3. Growth and Empire
Benjamin Franklin and Franklin’s Philadelphia take
center stage in this program. As the merchant class grows in the North, the economies of
southern colonies are built on the shoulders of the slave trade. Professor Miller brings
the American story to 1763 with the Peace of Paris and English dominance in America.
4. The Coming of Independence
Professor Maier tells the story of how the English-loving
colonist transforms into the freedom-loving American rebel. The luminaries of the early
days of the Republic — Washington, Jefferson, Adams — are featured in this
program as they craft the Declaration of — and wage the War for — Independence.
5. A New System of Government
After the War for Independence, the struggle for a new
system of government begins. Professor Maier looks at the creation of the Constitution of
the United States. The Republic survives a series of threats to its union, and the program
ends with the deaths of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson on the Fourth of July, 1826.
6. Westward Expansion
At the dawn of the nineteenth century, the size of the
United States doubles with the Louisiana Purchase. The Appalachians are no longer the
barrier to American migration west; the Mississippi River becomes the country’s
central artery; and Jefferson’s vision of an Empire of Liberty begins to take shape.
American historian Stephen Ambrose joins Professors Maier and Miller in examining the
consequences of the Louisiana Purchase — for the North, the South, and the history of
the country.
7. The Rise of Capitalism
Individual enterprise merges with technological innovation
to launch the Commercial Revolution — the seedbed of American industry. The program
features the ideas of Adam Smith, the efforts of entrepreneurs in New England and Chicago,
the Lowell Mills Experiment, and the engineering feats involved in Chicago’s early
transformation from marsh to metropolis.
8. The Reform Impulse
The Industrial Revolution has its dark side, and the
tumultuous events of the period touch off intense and often thrilling reform movements.
Professor Masur presents the ideas and characters behind the Great Awakening, the
abolitionist movement, the women’s movement, and a powerful wave of religious fervor.
9. Slavery
While the North develops an industrial economy and culture,
the South develops a slave culture and economy, and the great rift between the regions
becomes unbreachable. Professor Masur looks at the human side of the history of the
mid-1800s by sketching a portrait of the lives of slave and master.
10. The Coming of the Civil War
Simmering regional differences ignite an all-out crisis in
the 1850s. Professor Martin teams with Professor Miller and historian Stephen Ambrose to
chart the succession of incidents, from ‘Bloody Kansas’ to the shots on Fort
Sumter, that inflame the conflict between North and South to the point of civil war.
11. The Civil War
As the Civil War rages, all eyes turn to Vicksburg, where
limited war becomes total war. Professor Miller looks at the ferocity of the fighting, at
Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, and at the bitter legacy of the battle —
and the war.
12. Reconstruction
Professor Miller begins the program by evoking in word and
picture the battlefield after the battle of Gettysburg. With the assassination of
President Lincoln, one sad chapter of American history comes to a close. In the fatigue
and cynicism of the Civil War’s aftermath, Reconstructionism becomes a promise
unfulfilled.
13. America at Its Centennial
As America celebrates its centennial, 5 million people
descend on Philadelphia to celebrate America’s technological achievements, but some
of the early principles of the Republic remain unrealized. Professor Miller and his team
of historians examine where America is in 1876 and discuss the question of race.
14. Industrial Supremacy
Steel and stockyards are featured in this program as the
mighty engine of industrialism thunders forward at the end of the nineteenth century.
Professor Miller continues the story of the American Industrial Revolution in New York and
Chicago, looking at the lives of Andrew Carnegie, Gustavus Swift, and the countless
workers in the packinghouse and on the factory floor.
15. The New City
Professor Miller explores the tension between the messy
vitality of cities that grow on their own and those where orderly growth is planned.
Chicago — with Hull House, the World’s Columbian Exposition, the new female
workforce, the skyscraper, the department store, and unfettered capitalism — is the
place to watch a new world in the making at the turn of the century.
16. The West
Professor Scharff continues the story of Jefferson’s
Empire of Liberty. Railroads and ranchers, rabble-rousers and racists populate
America’s distant frontiers, and Native Americans are displaced from their homelands.
Feminists gain a foothold in their fight for the right to vote, while farmers organize and
the Populist Party appears on the American political landscape.
17. Capital and Labor
The making of money pits laborers against the forces of
capital as the twentieth century opens. Professor Miller introduces the miner as the
quintessential laborer of the period — working under grinding conditions, organizing
into unions, and making a stand against the reigning money man of the day, J. Pierpont
Morgan.
18. TR and Wilson
Professor Brinkley compares the presidencies of Theodore
Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson — the Warrior and the Minister — in the first
decades of the twentieth century. Professor Miller discusses American socialism, Eugene
Debs, international communism, and the roots of the Cold War with Professor Brinkley.
19. A Vital Progressivism
Professor Martin offers a fresh perspective on
Progressivism, arguing that its spirit can be best seen in the daily struggles of ordinary
people. In a discussion with Professors Scharff and Miller, the struggles of Native
Americans, Asian Americans, and African Americans are placed in the context of the
traditional white Progressive movement.
20. The Twenties
The Roaring Twenties take to the road in Henry Ford’s
landscape-altering invention — the Model T. Ford’s moving assembly line, the
emergence of a consumer culture, and the culmination of forces let loose by these entities
in Los Angeles are all explored by Professor Miller.
21. FDR and the Depression
Professor Brinkley continues his story of twentieth century
presidents with a profile of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Brinkley paints a picture of
America during the Depression and chronicles some of Roosevelt’s programmatic and
personal efforts to help the country through its worst economic crisis. First Lady Eleanor
Roosevelt is at FDR’s side and, in many respects, ahead of him as the decade unfolds.
22. World War II
America is enveloped in total war, from mobilization on the
home front to a scorching air war in Europe. Professor Miller’s view of World War II
is a personal essay on the morality of total war, and its effects on those who fought,
died, and survived it, including members of his own family.
23. The Fifties
World War II is fought to its bitter end in the Pacific and
the world lives with the legacy of its final moment: the atomic bomb. Professor Miller
continues the story as veterans return from the war and create new lives for themselves in
the '50s. The GI Bill, Levittown, civil rights, the Cold War, and rock 'n' roll are
discussed.
24. The Sixties
Professor Scharff weaves the story of the Civil Rights
movement with stories of the Vietnam War and Watergate to create a portrait of a decade.
Lyndon Johnson emerges as a pivotal character, along with Stokely Carmichael, Fanny Lou
Hamer, and other luminaries of the era.
25. Contemporary History
The entire team of historians joins Professor Miller in
examining the last quarter of the twentieth century. A montage of events opens the program
and sets the stage for a discussion of the period — and of the difficulty of
examining contemporary history with true historical perspective. Television critic John
Leonard offers a footnote about the impact of television on the way we experience recent
events.
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