The inaugural round-the-world air race, commissioned by the Army Air Service to demonstrate the commercial viability of flight, represented the ultimate trial for both pilot and aircraft. Four pilots departed in single-engine planes with op…

Detroit, Michigan, the first major American city to embrace Prohibition, experienced a unique consequence: smuggling liquor across the Canadian border became its second largest industry. Residents who lived through this national experiment,…

Lise Yasui traces the history of her Japanese-American family across three generations, beginning with their arrival in Oregon in the early 1900s and continuing through the period of their incarceration in World War Two internment camps.

The romantic illusions of battle that clung to the 19th century dissolved entirely before the brutal reality of 20th-century mechanized warfare. At Verdun, France bled 300,000 soldiers; at the Somme, Britain lost a million. Against this bac…

The story of those who dared to defy convention, fueled by ambition and hardship, and who reshaped an American industry. Beginning with the fateful strike at Spindletop in 1902, the first Texas oil gusher, this narrative weaves together rar…

Few communities escape the presence of a baseball field. More than just a game, baseball represents a tradition, a rite of passage, a lasting passion, and even a lens through which to understand the national character. This is a thoughtful …

Their first venture was the sale of watches. But then Richard Sears and Alva Curtis Roebuck ignited a revolution with their "wish book," offering a glimpse of easier lives for those on the farm and bringing consumer goods within reach of al…

This film presents a breathtaking portrait of Yosemite National Park. Its narrative draws from the 1851 journal of the first military expedition to enter the valley, the ancestral home of the Ahwahnechee people, offering modern visitors a g…

He possessed a striking appearance: affluent, handsome, with light skin and blond hair – features that allowed him to pass as white. Yet, his pronouncements on economics and employment would establish him as one of the most compelling black…

This work is a tribute to the twelve million individuals who journeyed to the United States between 1890 and 1920. It recounts their passage through Europe to bustling port cities, their arrival in New York Harbor, and the first months of t…

Bascom Lamar Lunsford, a pioneering folklorist of the 1920s, dedicated himself to the preservation of Appalachian music and dance. He elevated what was then dismissed as "hillbilly music," seeking to give it respectability. By visiting the …

She was born into bondage, yet forged a path as a journalist and newspaper proprietor in Memphis. The lynching of three friends ignited a fierce resolve within her, transforming her into a tireless advocate. Her relentless campaign against …

The summer of 1940 saw the commencement of the German Luftwaffe's attacks on England, prompting the evacuation of ten thousand British children to safer shores in the United States. In America, these young people established enduring bonds…

Prior to the Second World War, San Francisco’s Chinatown existed as a distinct enclave, largely inaccessible to those outside its walls and governed by unwavering traditions of the homeland. Yet, during the 1930s, the second generation of C…

The fate of wilderness preservation first truly ignited in 1906 with the proposed construction of the Hetch Hetchy Dam within Yosemite National Park. A deep divide emerged: one faction championed the untouched beauty of wildlands, insisting…

In the mid-1800s, people of all races—black and white—faced grave danger to construct a complex network of escape routes from slavery. These paths consisted of hidden trails and backroads, safe houses, perilous river crossings, and clandest…