Series ・ 10 parts

American History: From the New World to Superpower

The land Europeans believed they had 'discovered' was already home to countless peoples. The contact that followed Columbus, the Mayflower settlers, the making of the Thirteen Colonies — a story of hope, and the sacrifice of Native peoples that unfolded behind it. We trace both the light and the shadow on the eve of a nation's birth.

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01 The Illusion of a New World — Native Peoples and the Dawn of Settlement The land Europeans believed they had 'discovered' was already home to countless peoples. The contact that followed Columbus, the Mayflower settlers, the making of the Thirteen Colonies — a story of hope, and the sacrifice of Native peoples that unfolded behind it. We trace both the light and the shadow on the eve of a nation's birth.
02 The Revolution — The Declaration of Freedom and Its Contradiction In 1776, the Thirteen Colonies declared independence from Britain. All men are created equal — that single line became an ideal that endures in human history. Yet many who drafted the declaration owned enslaved people, and equality remained the province of white men. The Revolutionary War, the Constitution, the Founding Fathers — we look at the radiant ideal and the deep contradiction rooted within it.
03 Westward — The Light and Shadow of Manifest Destiny The young republic that had won its independence pushed westward, ever westward. The Louisiana Purchase that doubled its land, the idea of 'Manifest Destiny' that cast expansion as a calling from God, and the forced removal of Native peoples that unfolded just behind that light. From the tragedy known as the Trail of Tears, we look at the light and shadow of a century of expansion.
04 A Nation Torn Apart — The Civil War and Slavery Upon an expanding territory, the conflict between north and south over slavery became a rift that could no longer be contained. Before long the nation split in two, and fellow countrymen turned their guns on one another. From Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation, the four-year Civil War, and the collapse of Reconstruction in which hard-won freedom was once again stripped away, we trace the light and shadow of America's greatest internal war.
05 The Gilded Age — A Nation of Industry and Immigrants Before the wounds of the Civil War had healed, America raced to become an industrial giant at an extraordinary pace. Railroads spanned the continent, oil and steel surged, and millions of immigrants crossed the ocean. Yet the glow of prosperity, some say, was only skin deep. We look at the light and shadow of the Gilded Age, from both wealth and inequality.
06 Into the World — A Step Toward Empire and the First World War Having gathered strength within its borders, America at last stepped out beyond the seas. It won colonies in the Spanish-American War, the Progressive movement budded as it sought to mend society's distortions, and it eventually entered the First World War to shape the fate of the world. Yet the nation that raised its ideals turned back once more toward isolation after the war. A story of expansion, idealism, and hesitation.
07 The Roar and the Crash — Prosperity's Collapse and the New Deal Having won the First World War and turned from debtor into creditor nation, America was intoxicated by an unprecedented prosperity. But in 1929, that euphoria collapsed along with stock prices. From the Roaring Twenties to the Great Depression, and on to Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal — this is the story of an age in which the role of the state was profoundly transformed.
08 Birth of a Superpower — The Second World War and the Cold War With the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, America at last entered the Second World War. It sustained the Allies with overwhelming productive power, created the ultimate weapon in the atomic bomb, and after the war seized hegemony over the world. But beyond that lay a long Cold War with the Soviet Union. This is the story of the age in which America was transformed into a superpower.
09 The Struggle for Freedom — Civil Rights and the Turbulent Sixties The banner of 'the land of the free,' raised to win the Cold War. Yet inside that very country, there were people who could not even choose where to sit because of the color of their skin. A resistance that began with a bus boycott grew into 200,000 in Washington, and then into the reform of the law. But alongside victory, the quagmire of Vietnam and the gunshots of assassination violently shook America's ideals.
10 The Sole Superpower, and Beyond — From the End of the Cold War to the Present The long Cold War ended, and America stood at the summit as the world's one and only superpower. But the elation of victory did not last long. The smoke of 9/11, wars with no end in sight, financial crisis, and a deep division that split the nation in two. What came into view from the summit was not a new peace, but a succession of unanswerable questions. The story that began in the New World connects to the present day.