American Experience: Season 19
Season 19 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 18.
- 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 19 Progress Shield
Eyes on the Prize (1 & 2): Awakenings 1954-1956 / Fighting Back 1957-1962
Oct 2, 2006 · 55 min
Part 1 of 3 of the award-winning 1987 documentary "Eyes on the Prize." Included: profiles of Mose Wright and Rosa Parks; conflicts sparked by the Supreme Court's 1955 ruling that s
Eyes on the Prize (3 & 4): Ain't Scared of Your Jails 1960-1961/No Easy Walk 1961-1963
Oct 9, 2006 · 55 min
Part 2 of the 1987 documentary "Eyes on the Prize." Included: the 1960 Greensboro, N.C., lunch-counter sit-in; the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee; the rise of mass demon
Eyes on the Prize (5 & 6): Is This America? 1963-1964 / Bridge to Freedom 1965
Oct 16, 2006 · 55 min
Conclusion of the 1987 documentary “Eyes on the Prize.” Included: events of 1963 and '64, when Mississippi became a battleground in the civil-rights movement; the 1963 assassinatio
Test Tube Babies
Oct 23, 2006 · 55 min
History of in vitro fertilization, traces IVF from an early success with rabbits to the present. Included: controversy and setbacks; the 1978 birth of Louise Joy Brown, the first I
The Great Fever
Oct 30, 2006 · 55 min
The history of yellow fever, and how it was determined that the disease was transmitted by mosquitoes. Included: the work of Carlos Finlay, the Cuban physician who found the link t
The Gold Rush
Nov 6, 2006 · 55 min
A vibrant retelling of the mania that followed the discovery of gold in San Francisco in 1848. "Next to the Civil War in the 19th century," says historian J.S. Holliday, "no other
The Berlin Airlift
Jan 29, 2007 · 55 min
One of the first skirmishes of the Cold War, the 1948-49 Soviet blockade of rail and road traffic to and from West Berlin, is recalled. The U.S. and its allies responded with an ai
The Living Weapon
Feb 5, 2007 · 55 min
"The Living Weapon" explores the history of America's biological-weapons program, which began in 1942 with a group that worked parallel to the Manhattan Project, and continued to 1
New Orleans (1 & 2)
Feb 12, 2007 · 55 min
A history of New Orleans, from its origins as a French settlement to its post-Katrina present. Included: archival photos and film footage; and comments from New Orleans historians,
Sister Aimee
Apr 2, 2007 · 55 min
A profile of Sister Aimee Semple McPherson (1890-1944), a popular Pentecostal evangelist during the 1920s and '30s. Included: comments from biographer Matthew Avery Sutton, author
Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple
Apr 9, 2007 · 55 min
Examines the story behind the November 1978 mass murder-suicide in Jonestown, Guyana, where more than 900 people were led to their deaths by cult leader Jim Jones. Included: commen
Summer of Love
Apr 23, 2007 · 55 min
In 1967, San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district became a mecca for young people seeking free music, free love and cosmic oneness, but quickly became home to rampant drug abuse, fo
The Mormons (1): History
Apr 30, 2007 · 55 min
Historian Sarah Barringer Gordon says of the LDS Church "that from the moment of its birth, Mormons were under a kleig light." This insightful documentary explores the religion's r
The Mormons (2): Church and State
May 1, 2007 · 112 min
An examination of the modern-day LDS Church, including its missionary program; how its followers have entered into the American mainstream; Mormon theology and rituals; and how mem
Alexander Hamilton
May 14, 2007 · 55 min
A profile of Alexander Hamilton, the nation's first treasury secretary and a leading force in the post-Revolutionary War push for a Constitution and strong central government. Incl