History at American Experience

Mark Samuels

It is hard to believe, but some students may not think history is cool. Those of us who love history do not understand why anyone would opt for a Linkin Park CD over a Lincoln biography, but for many young people today, heavy metal bands or Harry Potter movies trump chronicles of our past. That does not mean that educators need to pander to popular tastes and rap the Gettysburg Address to grab their students’ attention. We think we have found a better way.

At PBS’s American Experience, for which I serve as executive producer, our foremost charge is to produce accurate and in-depth documentaries that explore the people and events that have shaped our nation. The more than 160 programs to date feature prominent historians and scholars who bring a unique voice to their areas of expertise. Recent productions have included commentary from distinguished University of California-Berkeley professor Leon Litwack, who was one of the advisors to the program Reconstruction: The Second Civil War, and Kenneth T. Jackson, Columbia University professor and president emeritus of the New-York Historical Society, who helps tell the story of the World Trade Center in Ric Burns’ Emmy Award-winning New York: The Center of the World.

These two documentaries illustrate our desire to present many facets of a subject to viewers and for use in the classroom. With the technology available today, the documentary film becomes just one part of a dynamic multimedia experience. We complement our documentaries with a web site that includes expanded interviews, video clips, and primary source material, plus special features like timelines, maps, interactive forums, and related films. Viewers of New York, for instance, which examines the rise and fall of the World Trade Center, can access on the web Building the World Trade Center, an eighteen-minute film produced by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in 1983 with original footage of the towers under construction. And the site for Reconstruction offers a behind the scenes look at filming at historic locations from Louisiana to Massachusetts with the production team.

American Experience also offers teacher’s guides. For Reconstruction, suggested activities include comparing the rebuilding of the South after 1865 with U.S. efforts in Iraq today, evaluating the arguments for and against reparations for the descendants of slaves, and studying the changes in the electoral map in presidential contests of the last one-hundred years. For New York, students can design a memorial for the victims of the September 11th attacks or discuss prospects for urban renewal in their own communities.

This engagement in history reinforces the words of historian Simon Schama, who noted that “History is not just a walk down memory lane,” but it helps to “understand who we are, where we go as a community, as a city, as a nation.” The challenge for historians, he said, is to represent people in history as living people, in all their complexity. Of course, the study of history often focuses on famous people&emdash;presidents, soldiers, captains of industry, inventors, explorers&emdash;who changed society. American Experience has profiled many of them, such as Lincoln, FDR, Nixon, Reagan, Carnegie, Edison, Byrd, and Earhart. We also explore less celebrated people and stories that have shaped who we are today. Subjects like Tupperware! and Miss America offer unique vantage points from which to examine the changing roles of women in society. Programs on natural disasters like Fatal Flood and Surviving the Dust Bowl reveal people’s flaws and bravery in times of tragedy. The accomplishments spotlighted in Hoover Dam, Mount Rushmore, and Transcontinental Railroad show the innovation that has driven the nation from its beginnings.

Even popular culture, as it has developed over different eras, can provide insights into all aspects of society. In fact, a subject of common interest like sports can be tapped to expose students to myriad issues that affect the nation. The Fight, an American Experience documentary on the 1938 boxing match between Joe Louis and Max Schmeling, investigates the events leading to World War II, the rise of fascism in Europe, race relations in America, the relationship between the individual and government, the early years of broadcast media, African-American migration to the north, the cultural and social milieu of Harlem, and the nature of role models and heroism.

For presenters of history to succeed, we must use every resource available not only to reach history buffs but also help spark the next generation’s interest in the subject. We strive to do both at American Experience and hope that when teachers race to a bookstore to purchase the next great history book, their students will be right behind them. Or perhaps someday one of those students will even write a great book or create a groundbreaking documentary that will enlighten another generation about the wonders of history. Nothing would be cooler than that.

Mark Samuels is the Executive Producer of American Experience.