"It is blatant, it is cheap, it is the apotheosis of the ridiculous. But it is something more; it is like Niagara Falls or the Grand Canyon or Yellowstone Park; it is a national playground, and not to have seen it is not to have seen your own country," said Reginald Wright Kauffman in 1909 of Coney Island, the tiny spit of land at the foot of Brooklyn that, at the turn of the century, became the most extravagant playground in the country and one of...

During World War II, bent on conquest, the German strategies became completely amoral, challenging and perhaps ending the concept of 'civilized warfare.' Through interviews with veterans, historians and ethicists from all the countries engaged in World War II, this American Experience film recounts the story of the Anglo-American bombing campaign against Germany, exploring the moral conundrums imposed by the reality of the war.

In scale, in variety, in sheer inventiveness, Coney Island was unlike anything anyone had ever seen, and eventually, everyone came to see it. At the turn of the century, Coney Island exploded in a forest of glittering electric towers and a riot of rides, restaurants, recreated disasters, freak shows, and historical displays when three vast amusement parks -- Steeplechase, Luna Park, and Dreamland -- were built. Indicative of its overwhelming popularity,...

The drought of 1931 brought financial and emotional ruin to thousands of families in the Southern Plains. Dust Bowl was America's worst ecological disaster.

For generations, Monopoly has been America's favorite board game, a love letter to unbridled capitalism and, for better or worse, the impulses that make our free-market society tick. An exhilarating game of no-holds-barred competition and brutal domination of opponents, it's a celebration of greed and accumulation of wealth with only one player standing at the end.

In the early 1900s, San Francisco stood as a proud and flourishing symbol of America's recent conquest of the once-wild West. But on April 19, 1906, the city would experience an awesome reminder of the uncontrollable forces lying dormant just beneath the splendors of its cosmopolitan surface. Thirty times more powerful than the temblor that decimated northern California in 1989, this earthquake measured a ground-wrenching 8.3 on the Richter scale,...

He was bumbling, yet ambitious. He volunteered to serve his country, but insisted on being reimbursed for expenses. He owned five sets of dentures--even a set from pigs' teeth--but not one of them wooden. He was the most famous general of the Revolution, but a dismal tactician on the battelfield. His overall record was 3 wins, and 9 losses--but his retreat was brilliant. George Washington has been sculpted, painted, emulated and deified for more than...

Discover how the 1900 outbreak of bubonic plague set off fear and anti-Asian sentiment in San Francisco. A fascinating medical mystery and timely examination of the relationship between the medical community, city powerbrokers and the Chinese-American community, Plague at the Golden Gate tells the gripping story of the race against time to save San Francisco and the nation from the deadly plague.

A Real President: Shattered by the Republican victory, Clinton begins to sideline his most trusted advisors in favor of an aggressive political consultant named Dick Morris who uses extensive polling to diagnose the administration's weaknesses and develop strategies to correct them. The Republican "Contract with America" is riding high and by spring 1995, Gingrich and his allies select the ground on which to wage their war: a plan to eliminate the...

Tecumseh's Vision - In the course of his brief and meteoric career, Tecumseh would become one of the greatest Native American leaders of all time, orchestrating the most ambitious pan-Indian resistance movement ever mounted on the North American continent. After his death he would live on as a potent symbol of Native pride and pan Indian identity.