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Episode 1. Jazz is born in New Orleans at the turn of the century emerging from several forms of music including ragtime, marching bands, work songs, spirituals, creole music, funeral parade music and above all, the blues. Musicians profiled here who advanced early jazz are Buddy Bolden, Jelly Roll Morton, Sidney Bechet, Freddie Keppard, and musicians of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band. Episode 2. From 1917 through 1924, the "Jazz Age" begins with...

Season two returns as the Great War rages across Europe, and not even the serene Yorkshire countryside is free from its effects. The men and women of Downton are doing their part both on the front lines and the home front, but the intensity of war only serves to inflame the more familiar passions of love, loss, blackmail, and betrayal.

When pioneering environmentalist Rachel Carson published Silent Spring in 1962, the backlash from her critics thrust her into the center of a political maelstrom. Despite her love of privacy, Carson's convictions and her foresight regarding the risks posed by chemical pesticides forced her into a very public and controversial role. An intimate and poignant reflection of Carson's life as she emerges as America's most successful advocate for the natural...

The story of the world's most incredible city, capturing the rich mosaic of the city's Christian, Jewish and Muslim communities. Covering a history of over 4,000 years, the film explores the founding of the city, and the birth and convergence of the world's three major monotheistic religions, and the key events in Jerusalem's history as described in the Hebrew and Christian Bibles, the Talmud, the Hagaddah, the Koran, and the Hadith. Highlights include:...

Destination America looks at the driving forces that have compelled individuals to immigrate to America and, in particular, the immigration of women who have come to this country in search of opportunity and basic human rights denied them in their homelands.

Ken Burns documents the worst man-made ecological disaster in American history, when a frenzied wheat boom on the southern Plains, followed by a decade-long drought during the 1930s, nearly swept away the breadbasket of the nation. Vivid interviews, dramatic photographs, and seldom-seen movie footage bring to life incredible stories of human suffering and perseverance. Includes bonus features.

This videodisc explores the extraordinary story of what happens when a freedom-loving nation outlaws the sale of intoxicating liquor, and the disastrous unintended consequences that follow. The utterly relevant cautionary tale raises profound questions about the proper role of government and the limits of legislating morality. When the country goes dry in 1920, after a century of debate, millions of law-abiding Americans become lawbreakers overnight....

This series chronicles the history of New York City from its beginnings in 1609 as a Dutch trading post, through the depression, onto the turbulent years of change in the following decades after WWII, to its present day status as one of the most important and influencial cities in the world. The final episode was created in response to the destruction of the World Trade Center.

American Experience presents The Presidents: ten 20th century biographies that offer an intimate and compelling look at the men who have defined and re-defined the modern presidency, and who led the country through some of the most turbulent and consequential moment in our history.

"I.O.U.S.A. tells the story of America in debt. Faced with key deficits in budget, savings, trade and leadership, increased foreign competition and ballooning financial obligations, the federal government is critically overextended. With the economy already in shambles, 78 million baby boomers are now expecting retirement benefits from their indebted federal government. Weaving together archival footage, economic data and candid interviews with Warren...