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This biography of Ulysses S. Grant paints a nuanced portrait of one of America's most paradoxical leaders. The greatest hero of the Civil War, Grant was a brilliant military strategist who rose from obscurity to a rank held previously only by George Washington. However, the strength of the Confederate resistance forced Grant into a hard war that destroyed the South and led to his being labeled "a butcher." Propelled into the White House by his battlefield...
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George Washington, was a social climber, land-hungry Virginia surveyor, and military officer who often blamed others for his own errors. He gradually built a reputation as a gentleman by educating himself in the classics and sciences, entering politics, and marrying one of the wealthiest women in Virginia. The battle of Trenton changed everything with a victory both for America and Washington himself. His skill and bravery transformed Washington into...
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This program examines the life of author and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston. The film follows Hurston, best known for her novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, to the subtropical paradise that shaped her childhood and her life's work - where she returned again and again for inspiration and solace. This documentary tells her story through the people who knew her and the places and events that she brought to the world through her writing.
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Join Caillou as he explores everyday life, where ordinary daily events spark his imagination. Children will be inspired by Caillou's pretend play, and they will join in the role-playing fun where beds become boats, a garden becomes a jungle, and they can become anything they can imagine. Includes character bios, information for parents, and more.
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Like everything else about General George Custer, his martyrdom was shrouded in controversy and contradictions. The final act of his larger-than-life career played out on a grand stage with a spellbound public engrossed in the drama. In the end, his death would launch one of the greatest myths in American history. Part of the Wild West collection.
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What are dreams and why do we have them? NOVA joins the leading dream researchers as they embark on a variety of neurological and psychological experiments to investigate the world of sleep and dreams. Delving deep into the thoughts and brains of a variety of dreamers, scientists are asking important questions about the purpose of this mysterious world we escape to at night.
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Immerse in three iconic Scandinavian landscapes: the hauntingly beautiful coast; the magical seasonal forests, and the volcanic and arctic extremes. Surprising wildlife stories of lynx and puffins, orca and wolves reveal the resilient spirit of Scandinavia. Myth and modernity co-exist: Odin and Thor, basejumpers and reindeer herders are all woven into this icy natural world.
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The modern music scene was created in 1969, at Woodstock. Half a million fans, dozens of artists, and the politics of the times came together as a big bang moment that eventually would generate billions of dollars. But over the last twenty years, MTV, compact discs, corporate consolidation, Internet piracy, and greed have contributed to a perfect storm for the recording industry. Frontline examines how the business that has provided the soundtrack...
11) Houdini
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Wrapped in chains and encased in a crate, magician Harry Houdini was dropped into New York's icy East River. Horrified onlookers watched him emerge, unharmed, less than 60 seconds later. Easily the world's most famous escape artist, Houdini mesmerized audiences with astonishing acts of magic like the Water Torture Cell. A circus performer turned gifted artist, Houdini confronted humanity's greatest fears: entrapment, pain, and death.
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Historian Michael Wood chronicles the history of the Indian subcontinent, focusing especially on the diversity of its peoples, cultures and landscapes. The world's largest democracy and a rising economic giant, India is now as well known across the globe for its mastery of computer technology as it is for its many-armed gods and its famous spiritual traditions. But India is also the world's most ancient surviving civilization, with unbroken continuity...
13) Conquistadors
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One of history's most fateful chapters and greatest adventures. The exploration of the America's by Spanish soldier-explorers, and the experiences and tragedies they had once there.
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Ever since their brutal murders one hundred years ago, Tsar Nicholas II and his wife, Empress Alexandra, have fascinated the world. Through the couple₂s politically damning, sexually intimate, and personally revealing letters, this two-part docudrama, presented by historian Dr. Suzannah Lipscomb, explores Nicholas and Alexandra₂s complex love story and the couple₂s role in the lead-up to the Russian Revolution of 1917, which led to their eventual...
15) Napoleon
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Framed by the grand sweep of history, woven from intimate accounts of and by the man himself, this program is a tale as grand as any novel, a story of passion, vaunting ambition, and pride ending in exile and loss.
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Carved from a hundred million pounds of stone, soaring effortlessly atop a spiderweb of masonry, Gothic cathedrals are marvels of human achievement and artistry. But how did medieval builders reach such spectacular heights? Consuming the labor of entire towns, sometimes taking a hundred years to build, these architectural marvels were crafted from just hand tools and stone. Many now teeter on the brink of catastrophic collapse.
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The four-part series hosted by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., chronicles the vast social networks and organizations created by and for Black people beyond the reach of the "White gaze." The series recounts the establishment of the Prince Hall Masons in 1775 through the formation of all-Black towns and business districts, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, destinations for leisure, and the social media phenomenon of Black Twitter. Professor Gates...
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Where do nature's building blocks, called the elements, come from? They're the hidden ingredients of everything in our world, from the carbon in our bodies to the metals in our smartphones. To unlock their secrets, David Pogue, the lively host of NOVA's popular "Making Stuff" series and technology correspondent of The New York Times, spins viewers through the world of weird, extreme chemistry: the strongest acids, the deadliest poisons, the universe's...
19) The Mormons
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Dig deep into the Mormon past to understand the church today. One of America's fastest-growing religions and, relative to its size, one of the richest. Church membership, now at twelve million and growing, sweeps the globe. From the moment of its founding in 1830, the church has been controversial. In the early years Mormons were hated, ridiculed, persecuted and feared. In the past several decades, the Mormon Church has transformed itself from a fringe...
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"With stunning recreations of their historic performances and a rich spiritual score, Jubilee Singers: Sacrifice and Glory draws on letters and diaries to bring to life these ex-slaves' fundraising tours. Dressed in rags, they first met with racial hostility. But eventually their beautiful voices and powerful songs moved audiences from New York to Berlin."--cover.