Filter By Subjects
British literature History and criticism Constitutional history United States English literature Middle English, 1100-1500 Indians of North America History Irish literature History and criticism Literature, Medieval North America History United States History Civil War, 1861-1865 United States History Revolution, 1775-1783 United States Politics and government 1783-1865Filter By Subjects
British literature History and criticism Constitutional history United States English literature Middle English, 1100-1500 Indians of North America History Irish literature History and criticism Literature, Medieval North America History United States History Civil War, 1861-1865 United States History Revolution, 1775-1783 United States Politics and government 1783-1865Summary: This episode of New York: A Documentary Film begins by identifying the key themes that shaped New York's history: commerce and capitalism, diversity and democracy, transformation and creativity. Filmmaker Ric Burns charts the development of the city founded by the Dutch as a purely commercial enterprise, first as New Amsterdam, a freewheeling enclave of trade and opportunity; then as the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2003
View online at AVOD
Summary: Uncover the events leading up to the tragic assassination of President Abraham Lincoln with this A&E Special. This program untangles the myths and misconceptions, and offers a deeper understanding of the emotional state of the country in April, 1865, that precipitated such an act of violence.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 1996
View online at AVOD
Summary: This production is part of the historic 1998 staging of the Corpus Christi Cycle in York, England, and captures the majesty and color of the original 14th- to 16th-century plays. Sponsored by the Company of Butchers, performed on a story wagon on the streets of York amidst an enraptured crowd, and using medieval materials and techniques, the performance strives for authenticity. The affecting...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: From the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, this production of Shakespeare's rollicking classic battle of the sexes stars Len Cariou as Petruchio, the strutting male chauvinist suitor who sets out to undermine the spirit of young Katharina. Taped before a live audience, this production is treated in a solidly traditional fashion by British stage director Peter Dews, retaining the integrity of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 1982
View online at AVOD
Summary: When Death comes to take Everyman to his final judgment, Everyman attempts to bribe Death-and when that fails, Everyman instead tries to find a companion to accompany him on the fearful journey. In this adaptation of The Summoning of Everyman by Douglas Morse, a cast of classically trained actors, period music, opulent costumes, and captivating cinematography breathe new life into an enduring...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: In its time, their journey equaled a voyage to the moon. It took place before the American west became known as "the frontier," when Europeans understood little about what lay within the continent. Courageous in spirit and unyielding in their dedication to the mission, Meriweather Lewis and William Clark led 31 people from the mouth of the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean and back. In doing...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: A young Thomas Jefferson from the Virginia wilderness is transformed by the fire of the Enlightenment into his country's most articulate voice for human liberty. Torn between serene family life at Monticello and his passion for politics, Jefferson suffers heartrending personal loss, even as he gives voice to a new era of democratic government. He then journeys to Paris as U.S. Minister to...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 1997
View online at AVOD
Summary: Picking up with the presidency of Thomas Jefferson, this classic program completes the story of a visionary who advanced the cause of freedom everywhere and changed the course of human events: Returning from France, Jefferson strives to preserve the new, fragile American government and helps create the Democratic-Republican Party to temper the policies of the Federalists. As third president of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 1997
View online at AVOD
Summary: 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...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 1988
View online at AVOD
Summary: Of all the legendary figures in American history, George Washington is in a class by himself. So many trials and triumphs lie behind that face on the dollar bill-expeditions in the French and Indian War, command of the Continental Army, and leadership as America's first president under the Constitution. But many facts of his life are not common knowledge, and researchers are discovering that...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: The brutal roots of the American slave trade are exposed in this program, focusing on the years 1450-1750 when Native Americans first encountered Europeans and when their world was transformed - and largely destroyed - by white settlers. Not only did the settlers exploit the natural wealth of the Americas, they also traveled to Africa, where they began a transatlantic slave trade that would...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 1998
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program examines the impact of slavery and the Civil War in the West. Viewers learn about “Bleeding Kansas,” the “Gettysburg of the West,” and how the end of the fighting brought on the beginning of the military campaign against Indians. Included are portrayals of individuals who resisted federal authority, such as Brigham Young and Black Kettle.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 1996
View online at AVOD
Summary: An Emmy® award-winning program, this episode from the PBS American Experience collection investigates the 1876 event that has become American folklore—the Battle of Little Big Horn—also known as “Custer's Last Stand.” Using journals, oral accounts, and Native American ledger drawings as well as archival and feature films, this program explores this watershed moment from two views: white and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2004
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program presents the Spanish-American War as the defining event of America’s rise to superpower status.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 1998
View online at AVOD
Summary: With the intensity and commitment of an ancient Norse warrior, Benjamin Bagby brings the epic poem Beowulf to incandescent life. This program documents Bagby's brilliant iteration of the saga before a live audience in Helsingborg, Sweden-demonstrating the spellbinding qualities of both the poem and the performer. Reciting the entire 1,062-line Grendel story in the original Old English and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
View online at AVOD
Summary: Written around 1400 in Middle English by an unknown hand, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a mysterious poem about an uncanny event that takes place in the legendary realm of King Arthur. In this program, renowned Gawain translator Simon Armitage seeks a richer understanding of the poem by walking the fading trail that ends at the Green Chapel, the climax point of the famously alliterative...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: Writing in the late 1200s, the Spanish nobleman Ramon Lull listed various duties which no knight could ignore. They included fidelity to the monarch, defense of the Christian faith-and, only slightly lower on the list, maintaining order among the tenants on one's estate. This program examines the means by which such political "ideals" were implemented and enforced during the Middle Ages....
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: The richly embroidered story of King Arthur as set down by Sir Thomas Malory during the Middle Ages has unfailingly intrigued generations of readers. P. J. C. Field, one of the world's top authorities on Malory and president of the British branch of the International Arthurian Society; Helen Cooper, editor of the Oxford World's Classics edition of Le Morte Darthur; and medievalist Kevin J....
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Recently re-translated by Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney, Beowulf has caused a sensation in both the U.S. and the U.K. In this program, NewsHour correspondent Elizabeth Farnsworth speaks with Heaney about his attraction to that epic poem, the probable background of the bard who created the original, similarities between Old English and bits of Anglo-Saxon that still crop up in rural Ireland, and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: The History Channel’s acclaimed series, Civil War Journal, takes viewers beyond the battles and into the personal stories of the War Between the States. Drawing on diaries, photographs and dramatic re-enactments, the intimate side of the epic conflict is exposed. This program covers the three-day battle at Gettysburg including Pickett's Charge and the Gettysburg Address.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 1997
View online at AVOD
Summary: Founded in 1230, Scotland's Pluscarden Abbey still pulses with the prayers and spiritual pursuits of Benedictine monks. Abbot Hugh Gilbert describes their work in reassuringly human terms, framing the Christian battle against Satanic evil as an inner struggle within one's own psyche. But, as this program shows, the culture which brought Pluscarden into existence was rigidly institutional-and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: Experience the rich cultural diversity of Native American tribes and the impact that early white explorers had on their lives. In this program, viewers will learn about the mysterious disappearance of the Anasazi culture and the successful Pueblo revolt against their Spanish conquerors. First-person accounts bring to life the adventures of early explorers, from Cabeza de Vaca, the first white...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 1996
View online at AVOD
Summary: The story of a woman who borrows her friend's necklace, only to lose it, this dramatization of Maupassant's cynical and caustic tale will delight students of all levels.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: A gripping story that explores the ambiguities between the supernatural and the natural, this dramatization portrays one man's descent into the "fantastic" and his ensuing madness.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006