"SHENANDOAH" AND THE ATTIC OF OUR PAST
A shrill song is stuck in our heads. Once it plays out, we should listen to the old tunes.
ART FROM THE ALLEYS -- THE ASHCAN SCHOOL
American art was pretty and pink until The Ashcan School took the streets as its canvas.
THIS IS LONDON!
Radio news was dead on arrival until Edward R. Murrow went live from the rooftops of London.
MISS MITCHELL'S COMET
Alone on an island rooftop, Maria Mitchell’s telescope “swept” the stars. Could a woman calculate the clockwork of heaven?
THE SOUL OF A MAN
The guitar growls, moans, weeps. A bass riff surrenders to a squeal of pain. . .
LANGSTON HUGHES -- "LET AMERICA BE AMERICA AGAIN"
How Langston Hughes touched bottom during the Depression and wrote an American anthem.
BACK TO "HARLAN COUNTY, USA"
Coal miners distrusted Barbara Kopple until she hunkered down with them -- for three years -- and came home with a living, breathing masterpiece.
THE CHICKEN WHO SAVED BASEBALL
Baseball was a fading relic. Then a Chaplinesque college kid put on a chicken suit.
IN THE ORCHARD OF DOLORES HUERTA
Single mother of seven, Dolores Huerta left her teaching job and went into the fields. The United Farm Workers was born.
THE MYTH OF THE MILL GIRLS
History’s Mill Girls were models of labor. Until they went on strike and sowed the seeds of the Labor movement.
CAMPING WITH JOHN AND TEDDY
When the president and the naturalist camped in Yosemite, America got greener.
FLYING THE WRONG/RIGHT WAY
Took off for L.A. Landed in Ireland. Was “Wrong Way” Corrigan confused or just clever?
SILENT SENTINELS
Women had marched, picketed protested for 70 years. Then the Silent Sentinels were jailed, tortured, force fed. And you’re too busy to vote? (As seen in “Iron Jawed Angels.”)
VICTORIA FOR PRESIDENT -- IN 1872
"They cannot roll back the rising tide of reform. The world moves."
WHY WE LAUGH, OR DO WE?
"In America, there are two kinds of travel -- first class and travel with children."
-- Meet Robert Benchley.
THE MAD POTTER OF BILOXI
"Would y'all like to see my Daddy's pottery?" The garage door opened to reveal reds, blues, yellows, and genius.