American Experience: My Lai

Description

From PBS:

What drove a company of American soldiers—ordinary young men from around the country—to commit the worst atrocity in American military history? Were they "just following orders" as some later declared? Or, did they break under the pressure of a vicious war in which the line between enemy soldier and civilian had been intentionally blurred? American Experience focuses on the 1968 My Lai massacre, its subsequent cover-up, and the heroic efforts of the soldiers who broke ranks to try to halt the atrocities, and then bring them to light.

American Experience: The Trials of J. Robert Oppenheimer

Description

From PBS:

J. Robert Oppenheimer's life and legacy are inextricably linked to America's most famous top-secret initiative—the Manhattan Project. But after World War II, this brilliant and intense scientist fell from the innermost circles of American science, and at the height of the Red Scare, the veil of suspicion fell over Oppenheimer. This biography presents a complex and revealing portrait of one of America's most influential scientists.

American Experience: The Living Weapon

Description

From PBS:

Soon after the United States entered World War II, President Roosevelt received information that Germany and Japan were developing biological weapons. In response, the U.S. and its allies rushed to develop their own germ warfare program, enlisting some of America's most promising scientists in the effort. This American Experience program examines the race to develop biological weapons in the 40s and 50s, and the challenges and moral dilemmas the scientists faced.

American Experience: Influenza 1918

Description

From PBS:

As the nation mobilized for war in the spring of 1918, ailing Private Albert Gitchell reported to an army hospital in Kansas. He was diagnosed with the flu, a disease about which doctors knew little. Before the year was out, America would be ravaged by a flu epidemic that killed 675,000 people—more than died in all the wars of this century combined—before disappearing as mysteriously as it began.

This American Experience documentary traces the epidemic.

American Experience: Victory in the Pacific

Description

From PBS:

In this provocative, thorough examination of the final months of the war, American Experience looks at the escalation of bloodletting from the vantage points of both the Japanese and the Americans. Despite warnings that his country, brought to its knees by the conflict, might erupt in a Communist revolution, Emperor Hirohito believed that one last decisive battle could reverse Japan's fortunes. From the U.S. capture of the Mariana Islands through the firebombing of Tokyo and the dropping of the atomic bomb, Victory in the Pacific chronicles the dreadful and unprecedented loss of life and the decisions made by leaders on both sides that finally ended the war.

Fort Fisher, NC

Description

From the Civil War Traveler website:

"This massive Confederate fort between the Atlantic Ocean and the Cape Fear River 20 miles south of Wilmington protected that critical port until the final months of the war.

Fort Fisher's guns also shielded blockade runners as they traveled in and out of the Cape Fear River carrying important supplies in and cash crops out. This walking tour describes the fort and the battle that finally conquered it."

Limited War, Unlimited

Description

From the Library of Congress website:

"Historian Marilyn B. Young, in a lecture at the Library of Congress, discusses the nature of America's limited wars, from Korea to the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Sponsored by the John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress, the lecture is presented in conjunction with the National History Center's Decolonization Seminar."

Lincoln Theme 2.0

Description

Professor Matthew Pinsker looks at the state of Lincoln studies, commenting on recent Lincoln texts and the growing number of digital resources on Lincoln available.

To listen to this presentation, follow the link below, scroll down to "Lincoln Theme 2.0" and click on the title, scroll down to September 2009 and click on the file link "200909.mp3."