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American Social History Project • Center for Media and Learning

Documentaries

Our ten award-winning documentaries explore the central role of working women and men in U.S. history. These accessible and exciting programs have withstood the test of time and continue to engage students in middle school through college level classes. Each documentary has a downloadable Viewer’s Guide that is written for student readers. It introduces the main topics, events, and composite characters that help to dramatize the historical themes in many of the programs.

All programs are approximately 30 minutes long and available to stream online.

The six documentaries in Series One are our earliest productions originating as slide-tape shows:

“These documentaries capture the drama and richness of American history while raising crucial questions about how we study and understand the past. These programs present history that resonates with issues and events today.”
—Eric Foner, DeWitt Clinton Professor of History, Columbia University

The four programs in Series Two were completed later on film and video formats:

The Ford Foundation provided funding for both series.