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The Best Episodes of American Experience

Every episode of American Experience ranked from best to worst. Let's dive into the Best Episodes of American Experience!

The Best Episodes of American Experience

TV's most-watched history series brings to life the compelling stories from our past that inform our understanding of the world today.
  1. Background image for Walt Whitman
    10.0/10(1 votes)

    #1 - Walt Whitman

    S20:E11

    This American Experience tells Whitman's life story, from his working class childhood in Long Island, to his years as a newspaper reporter in Brooklyn when he struggled to support his impoverished family, then to his reckless pursuit of the attention and affection he craved for his work, to his death in 1892.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  2. Background image for Chasing the Moon - A Place Beyond the Sky
    10.0/10(1 votes)

    #2 - Chasing the Moon - A Place Beyond the Sky

    S31:E3

    On 4 October 1957, Soviet scientists launched Sputnik 1 - a beach ball-sized, radio-transmitting aluminium alloy sphere - into orbit. The satellite caused a sensation. Amid Cold War tensions, the Soviet Union’s accomplishment signalled a dramatic technological advantage and American felt it had little choice but to join the Space Race.

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    Director:Robert Stone
    Writer:Unknown
  3. Background image for Chasing the Moon - Earthrise
    10.0/10(1 votes)

    #3 - Chasing the Moon - Earthrise

    S31:E4

    What exactly was it going to take for America to beat the Soviets to the moon? Cold War tensions persisted, as rumours circulated that the Soviets were preparing to send an unmanned spacecraft to the moon. Nasa quickly developed the Gemini program, sending astronauts into orbit around the Earth to practice critical manoeuvres for the eventual trip to the moon.

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    Director:Robert Stone
    Writer:Unknown
  4. Background image for Chasing the Moon - Magnificent Desolation
    10.0/10(1 votes)

    #4 - Chasing the Moon - Magnificent Desolation

    S31:E5

    After the immediate celebration of 1968’s successful Apollo 8 mission, underlying questions about the space programme emerged with new intensity as politicized young Americans challenged the nation’s priorities. Nasa pushed brashly forward.

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    Director:Robert Stone
    Writer:Unknown
  5. Background image for The Lobotomist
    9.0/10(1 votes)

    #5 - The Lobotomist

    S20:E2

    In the 1940s Dr. Walter Freeman gained fame for perfecting the lobotomy, then hailed as a miracle cure for the severely mentally ill. But within a few years, lobotomy was labeled one of the most barbaric mistakes of modern medicine.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  6. Background image for FDR (1): The Center of the World (1882-1921)
    8.5/10(157 votes)

    #6 - FDR (1): The Center of the World (1882-1921)

    S7:E1

    Polio at age 39, president at age 50. Explore the public and private life of a determined man who steered the United States through two monumental crises: the Depression and World War II. FDR served as president longer than any other, and his legacy still shapes our understanding of the role of government and the presidency. A film by award winning filmmaker David Grubin. This first episode looks at the early life of FDR. Born into a wealthy family, there was little about his youth that would suggest the giant of history that he would become. His entry into state politics and a significant meeting with a woman named Eleanor would change his life and the course of a nation.

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    Director:David Grubin
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  8. Background image for America 1900
    8.3/10(47 votes)

    #7 - America 1900

    S11:E1

    Over one hundred years ago, Americans looked forward to the uncertainty of a new century with a mixture of confidence, optimism and anxiety. Following a range of characters from famous public figures to ordinary citizens, this chronicle of a year in the life of America examines the forces of change that would come to shape the twentieth century.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  9. Background image for New York (1): The Country and the City
    8.3/10(81 votes)

    #8 - New York (1): The Country and the City

    S12:E1

    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 India Company, sailed into its harbor. Part 1 also focuses on New Yorker Alexander Hamilton, the first Treasury Secretary; and Gov. DeWitt Clinton, who built the Erie Canal. "All America," says Stiers, "now met in New York."

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  10. Background image for Freedom Summer
    8.3/10(370 votes)

    #9 - Freedom Summer

    S26:E6

    Recalling the summer of 1964 in Mississippi, when student volunteers from around the country joined local activists in an effort to register to vote as many African-Americans as possible. (Due to intimidation and arcane tests, less than seven percent of the state's African-Americans were registered.) Activists also set up schools to teach children about African-American history; and created a rival Democratic Party to challenge the all-white delegation to the 1964 Democratic National Convention.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  11. Background image for George W. Bush (Part 1)
    8.3/10(136 votes)

    #10 - George W. Bush (Part 1)

    S32:E4

    The latest in our award-winning series of presidential biographies, this film looks at the life and presidency of George W. Bush, from his unorthodox road to the presidency to the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and the myriad of challenges he faced over his two terms, from the war in Iraq to the 2008 financial crisis.

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  12. Background image for The Donner Party
    8.2/10(499 votes)

    #11 - The Donner Party

    S5:E3

    Of all the 19th century pioneer stories, none exerts so powerful a hold on the American imagination as this, during the worst winter ever recorded in the High Sierras. In June, 1846, 87 men, women and children began their legendary 2,000 mile journey from Illinois to California. They packed huge wagons, took food, hired servants. When family leaders made the fateful decision to take an untried short cut to beat the coming winter, only half would come out alive.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  13. Background image for FDR (2): Fear Itself (1922-1933)
    8.2/10(86 votes)

    #12 - FDR (2): Fear Itself (1922-1933)

    S7:E2

    In this second episode, the subject is FDR's courageous fight with polio. With his wife Eleanor Roosevelt at his side, FDR, wins the Democratic nomination for president. He takes office at the beginning of the Great Depression. Exhorting the nation to keep the faith, FDR utters his famous words: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

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    Director:David Grubin
  14. Background image for New York (2): Order and Disorder
    8.2/10(63 votes)

    #13 - New York (2): Order and Disorder

    S12:E2

    "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 famine), and the subsequent overcrowding led to the construction of Central Park (1857-58). But that didn't quell the ferment, which exploded in 1863 with the racially charged draft riots. "It was the largest incident of civil disorder in U.S. history," notes historian Mike Wallace.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  15. Background image for New York (3): Sunshine and Shadow
    8.2/10(63 votes)

    #14 - New York (3): Sunshine and Shadow

    S12:E3

    "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, "the greatest concentration of poverty." This episode surveys that dichotomy, from Fifth Avenue mansions to slums documented by Jacob Riis in "How the Other Half Lives." Also recalled: the fall of William H. "Boss" Tweed ("he took a fall for the system," claims Pete Hamill).

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  16. Background image for Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple
    8.2/10(109 votes)

    #15 - Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple

    S19:E11

    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: comments from Jones' son, Jim Jr.; survivor Stanley Clayton; and Hue Fortson, whose wife and child died in the incident.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  17. Background image for The Amish: Shunned
    8.2/10(141 votes)

    #16 - The Amish: Shunned

    S26:E3

    The Amish practice of shunning those who leave their faith is explored through the experiences of individuals who have left their communities. Also: faithful Amish men and women share the heartbreak they feel when a loved one leaves.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  18. Background image for Blackout
    8.2/10(101 votes)

    #17 - Blackout

    S27:E7

    First responders, journalists, shop owners, those inside the pressure-packed control center of Con Edison on West End Avenue, and other New Yorkers tell about what happened when the lights went out on July 13, 1977

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  19. Background image for The Great War: Part 3
    8.2/10(152 votes)

    #18 - The Great War: Part 3

    S29:E8

    Part 3 of 3. In the fall of 1918: a major American offensive that could bring a swift end to the war, a lost U.S. battalion surrounded by German forces, a deadly flu epidemic on the homefront.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  20. Background image for LBJ (1)
    8.1/10(140 votes)

    #19 - LBJ (1)

    S4:E1

    LBJ's career started in 1938 when he was elected a congressman, one of the youngest ever. He was elected to the Senate in 1948 under a cloud of suspicion. LBJ won by only 87 votes. In 1954, when the Democrats took over the Senate, LBJ became the youngest majority leader ever at age 46. In 1957, LBJ engineered passage of the first civil rights bill since Reconstruction, but the bill had too many compromises and no teeth. By 1960, LBJ felt he was ready for the presidency, but John Kennedy got there first and then picked LBJ as his vice president.

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    Director:David Grubin
    Writer:Unknown
  21. Background image for LBJ (2)
    8.1/10(130 votes)

    #20 - LBJ (2)

    S4:E2

    Lyndon Johnson's ascension to the Presidency and the controversial events of his tenure such as the Great Society and the Vietnam War are chronicled here.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  22. Background image for Telegrams from the Dead
    8.1/10(105 votes)

    #21 - Telegrams from the Dead

    S7:E5

    For 40 years, a new religion called spiritualism affected the nation as no other ever had. Abraham Lincoln, P.T. Barnum, Frederick Douglass, senators, and scientists argued over the discoveries of the spirit world as revealed through mediums. Congress debated whether to provide $40,000 to research the feasibility of using the new wireless technology to reach the other world. But by 1880, as one spectacular fraud after another was revealed, the movement began to fade.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  23. Background image for Truman (1): An Accident of Democracy
    8.1/10(122 votes)

    #22 - Truman (1): An Accident of Democracy

    S10:E1

    A study of Harry S. Truman, the 33rd president. Part 1 covers his service during World War I; his accomplishments as a small-time Kansas City politician; his two terms as a Missouri senator.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  24. Background image for New York (4): The Power and the People
    8.1/10(61 votes)

    #23 - New York (4): The Power and the People

    S12:E4

    "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 1907 alone). "There was a message," says writer Pete Hamill. "Come here, everything is possible." The program also follows the political career of "Happy Warrior" Al Smith; and charts the construction of the subways and the rise of skyscrapers in the clogged city.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  25. Background image for John Brown's Holy War
    8.1/10(50 votes)

    #24 - John Brown's Holy War

    S12:E10

    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 Brown's life (1800-59), which features archival stills, atmospheric re-creations and the comments of historians. Interviewed: Russell Banks, Bruce Olds, Margaret Washington, Dennis Frye, Edward Renehan, James Horton, James Stewart, Paul Finkelman and Charles Joyner.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  26. Background image for Eugene O'Neill
    8.1/10(137 votes)

    #25 - Eugene O'Neill

    S18:E9

    An absorbing profile of the esteemed playwright (1888-1953). Included: excerpts from his plays are performed by Al Pacino, Zoe Caldwell, Christopher Plummer, Vanessa Redgrave, Liam Neeson and Natasha Richardson. Also: comments from Tony Kushner, John Guare, Sidney Lumet and Jason Robards. Plays include “The Iceman Cometh” and “Long Day's Journey into Night.”

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

Best Episodes Summary

"Walt Whitman" is the best rated episode of "American Experience". It scored 10/10 based on 1 votes. Directed by Unknown and written by Unknown, it aired on 4/14/2008. This episode scored 0.0 points higher than the second highest rated, "Chasing the Moon - A Place Beyond the Sky".