American Experience: Season 12
Season 12 Lore Primer
Key plot threads, lore context, and character stakes you need to remember before diving into this season.
- Directly follows the overarching narrative developments of American Experience Season 11.
- Faction dynamics and core character alliances shift under escalating external stakes.
- Crucial mysteries introduced previously reach key turning points and narrative reckonings.
- Sets up serialized story arcs that build directly toward the climactic season finale.
Episode Guide
Season 12 Progress Shield
New York (1): The Country and the City
Nov 14, 1999 · 55 min
The Country and the City, 1609-1825: New York, notes narrator David Ogden Stiers, "was a business proposition from the very start," when Henry Hudson, exploring for the Dutch East
New York (2): Order and Disorder
Nov 15, 1999 · 55 min
"Order and Disorder: 1825-1865" recalls a period of tremendous growth and ferment. Most of the new arrivals were Irish immigrants (100,000 by 1842—and that was before the potato fa
New York (3): Sunshine and Shadow
Nov 16, 1999 · 55 min
"Sunshine and Shadow: 1865-1898" During the Gilded Age, New York "was home to the greatest concentration of wealth in human history," says narrator David Ogden Stiers. And, he adds
New York (4): The Power and the People
Nov 17, 1999 · 55 min
"The Power and the People: 1898-1914" recalls the era of mass immigration. "The entire world would arrive on the city's doorstep," says narrator David Ogden Stiers (1.2-million in
New York (5): Cosmopolis
Nov 18, 1999 · 55 min
"Cosmopolis: 1914-1931" recalls the WWI years and the "Roaring '20s" in the city that F. Scott Fitzgerald called "the land of ambition and success." Of course, an egg was laid on W
Eleanor Roosevelt
Jan 10, 2000 · 55 min
Profiling Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962), the wife of one president, the niece of another and, says historian Geoffrey Ward, "one of the best politicians of the 20th century" in her
Houdini
Jan 24, 2000 · 55 min
Mandy Patinkin narrates a biography of Harry Houdini (1874-1926) that focuses on his amazing feats (later ones are seen in clips; others are re-created) and the obsessions---notabl
Nixon's China Game
Jan 31, 2000 · 55 min
Charting the tortuous three-year gambit that led to Richard Nixon's historic February 1972 visit to the People's Republic of China. What it did, says narrator David Ogden Stiers, w
The Duel
Feb 14, 2000 · 55 min
The duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, narrator Linda Hunt says, was an 1804 gunfight between “the founder of American capitalism and the first modern American politic
John Brown's Holy War
Feb 28, 2000 · 55 min
John Brown could be seen as a hero or a madman (perhaps both), but either way, there's no doubt he played a role in igniting the Civil War. Actor Joe Morton narrates a chronicle of
George Wallace: Settin' the Woods on Fire (1)
Apr 23, 2000 · 55 min
A haunting two-part profile of George Wallace, who, says narrator Randy Quaid, "divided a nation and launched a conservative movement that transformed the country." Part 1 covers W
George Wallace: Settin' the Woods on Fire (2)
Apr 24, 2000 · 55 min
The conclusion of a two-part profile of George Wallace (1919-98) focuses on his Presidential campaigns and the 1972 attempt on his life, which left him paralyzed. "He loved power,"
Jubilee Singers: Sacrifice and Glory
May 1, 2000 · 55 min
Former slaves spread the gospel of African-American music in an inspiring 2000 chronicle of the 1870s Tennessee vocal group Jubilee Singers that introduced such songs as "Swing Low
Joe DiMaggio: The Hero's Life
May 8, 2000 · 55 min
An atmospheric profile of Joe DiMaggio (1914-99), baseball's "Yankee Clipper," explores how and why he played what narrator (and co-writer) Richard Ben Kramer calls "the hero's gam
The Wizard of Photography
May 23, 2000 · 55 min
Profiling George Eastman (1854-1932), whose Kodak and Brownie cameras "forever changed the way people see their world," says narrator Judith Light. The hour uses interviews with hi