Poster for History of the United States, 2nd Edition

2003 1 season 84 eps Ended

History of the United States, 2nd Edition

2003 1 season 84 eps

Season 1

No results found

Specials

Season 1

30 min

S1 · E1 · Jan 1, 2003

Living Bravely Episode 1

Columbus's discovery of a New World allowed Europeans to, first, exploit natural and human resources, and later, to write new social, economic, and political scripts for their lives in a place where European ideas of society no longer applied.

30 min

S1 · E2 · Jan 2, 2003

Spain, France, and the Netherlands Episode 2

The Spanish tapped sources of wealth in the Americas, displaying the most wanton cruelty in obtaining it. By 1600 they had evolved from an extraction society to a settler society. The French attempted extraction incursions and to settle in North America but did not succeed as the Spanish had in the South.

30 min

S1 · E3 · Jan 3, 2003

Gentlemen in the Wilderness Episode 3

The English joined the great game of extraction and settlement last of all the major European nations. By 1680 settlements around the Chesapeake Bay achieved success with tobacco and the forced recruitment of a workforce of African slaves. Virginia worked its way through what became a typical English pattern: from company colony, to unstable free-for-all, to stable aristocracy.

30 min

S1 · E4 · Jan 4, 2003

Radicals in the Wilderness Episode 4

If the southern English colonies were motivated by economic self-interest—be it piracy, tobacco, or slaves—the northern settlements were motivated by ideas. In New England's case, the ideas were religious. The "godly commonwealth" of the first Puritans was succeeded by the same slow tendency toward aristocracy, based on transatlantic commerce rather than commodities, that characterized Virginia.

30 min

S1 · E5 · Jan 5, 2003

Traders in the Wilderness Episode 5

The broad stretch of coastal territory between the Chesapeake and Long Island had been settled by the Swedes along the Delaware Bay and the Dutch along the Hudson River. Dutch settlements (renamed New York) developed into a major commercial center. Quaker William Penn's Pennsylvania emerged, by the 1750s, with a commercial aristocracy similar to that of New England, centered around its principal city.

30 min

S1 · E6 · Jan 6, 2003

An Economy of Slaves Episode 6

The transition of these settlements to stable commercial success would not have been possible without a source of cheap labor. America's immensity of land and lack of labor to develop it required forced migration of laborers: convicts, indentured servants, beggars. But a less expensive and more permanent source of labor was the 11 million Africans who were torn from their homes to be slaves.

30 min

S1 · E7 · Jan 7, 2003

Printers, Painters, and Preachers Episode 7

Americans developed cultural forms in both music and art that were uniquely American. The most important cultural transition, part of the European Enlightenment, was from a religious to a scientific and secular understanding of the world. Three illustrative figures of this transition are Cotton Mather, Benjamin Franklin, and Jonathan Edwards.

30 min

S1 · E8 · Jan 8, 2003

The Great Awakening Episode 8

The stresses of Colonial life—natural, social, economic, religious, and political— produced unusual social eruptions that were aimed at regaining some sense of control. The Great Awakening, a revival of radical Protestant religion across New England, helped people recover a sense of spiritual significance and moral direction; it also touched off violent religious controversy.

30 min

S1 · E9 · Jan 9, 2003

The Great War for Empire Episode 9

By the mid-1700s, Britain and France were the two rivals for dominance of America. The war for empire, the French and Indian War, broke out in 1754, and at first went badly for England—but the British Empire had greater resources to draw on. The Treaty of Paris in 1763 forced the French to withdraw entirely from North America.

30 min

S1 · E10 · Jan 10, 2003

The Rejection of Empire Episode 10

The Great War for Empire beggared the British economy. In 1765 Parliament moved to levy direct taxes on the colonies and to regulate colonial trade so that it profited Britain. The legislatures of the North American colonies protested. Americans insisted on "no taxation without representation." More protests led to outright conflict, the suspension of colonial governments by Parliament, the creation of a Continental Congress to speak for North America, and finally, an organized military confrontation at Lexington and Concord in April 1775.

30 min

S1 · E11 · Jan 11, 2003

The American Revolution - Politics and People Episode 11

Parliament's responses to American protests increasingly alienated Americans. By the spring of 1776, the determination of the British and the agitation of pro-independence thinkers wore down resistance to independence in the colonies. In the second Continental Congress of July 1776, a resolution declaring independence was adopted by the Congress and framed by a Declaration of Independence composed by Thomas Jefferson. In the Articles of Confederation of 1781 a joint government for the United States was created.

30 min

S1 · E12 · Jan 12, 2003

The American Revolution - Howe's War Episode 12

From a military viewpoint, the Revolution started well and spiraled downward. The Continental Army, under the command of George Washington, faced humiliating defeats, abandoning all of New York and New Jersey to the British. Lost more by British incompetence than won by American planning, victory at Saratoga in the summer of 1777 salvaged American hopes.

30 min

S1 · E13 · Jan 13, 2003

The American Revolution - Washington's War Episode 13

The Saratoga victory and the diplomacy of Benjamin Franklin in Paris persuaded France ally itself with the United States. The money, credit, weapons, and French naval and military resources forced the British to shift the focus of their war. Field forces fell under a combined land-and-sea campaign conducted by Washington and the French at Yorktown, where the British surrendered. The Treaty of Paris in 1783 reluctantly conceded American independence.

30 min

S1 · E14 · Jan 14, 2003

Creating the Constitution Episode 14

The Revolution was not even over before the ramshackle nature of the Articles of Confederation began to show at the seams. A convention assembled in Philadelphia in 1787 to construct a constitution, which proposed a single executive president, a bicameral Congress, and a judiciary. The Constitution was ratified by the states, and George Washington was inaugurated as the first president in New York City in March 1789.

30 min

S1 · E15 · Jan 15, 2003

Hamilton's Republic Episode 15

For Alexander Hamilton, the first secretary of the treasury, the republic depended on keeping the jealous interests of the individual states at bay, and on developing the republic's systems of finance, manufacturing, and commerce. Opposing him were Thomas Jefferson in the cabinet and the southern agricultural interests in Congress, both of whom believed that the future of America lay in independent domestic agriculture.

30 min

S1 · E16 · Jan 16, 2003

Republicans and Federalists Episode 16

The surprise development in the new republic's political life was the formation of political parties. The threat this posed to the Founders was that parties might thrive on sanctioning and perpetuating disagreements and disunion. James Madison became the organizer of the Democratic-Republicans, and Hamilton recruited his Congressional supporters into the Federalist Party. The Federalists only barely managed to elect their candidate, John Adams, as Washington's successor in 1796.

30 min

S1 · E17 · Jan 17, 2003

Adams and Liberty Episode 17

Few people liked John Adams, so it was fortunate that the first major challenge of his administration involved a foreign policy problem, where few had more expertise than he. But Adams squandered all the political capital he accumulated. By persuading the Federalists to dump Adams before the election of 1800, Hamilton succeeded in dividing his party and guaranteeing that Thomas Jefferson and the Democratic-Republicans would win.

30 min

S1 · E18 · Jan 18, 2003

The Jeffersonian Reaction Episode 18

Thomas Jefferson proved incapable of creating a practical set of alternatives to Hamilton's hard-headed fiscal policies, particularly in defense and in foreign trade. He was also surprised by the activism of the federal judiciary, which under Chief Justice John Marshall, began to operate as a serious restraint on the scope of Jefferson's actions.

30 min

S1 · E19 · Jan 19, 2003

Territory and Treason Episode 19

With renewed war in Europe on the horizon, Napoleon needed cash more than he needed Louisiana. In 1803, he offered to sell the entire Louisiana province—830,000 square miles—for $15 million. Jefferson asked Congress to finance a secret scouting party under Lewis and Clark. Vice President Aaron Burr, who attempted to set up his own independent republic, was thwarted and saved from a treason indictment only by Chief Justice John Marshall.

30 min

S1 · E20 · Jan 20, 2003

The Agrarian Republic Episode 20

Jefferson was committed to keeping the American Republic an agrarian society, a culture of independence, nonmarket agriculture, and community. No regard was paid to the claims of the North American Indians. As Americans poured West in search of cheap land, disheartened Indians either accommodated, as with the Seneca and Cherokees, or resisted, as in the revolt of Tenskwatawa and Tecumseh.

30 min

S1 · E21 · Jan 21, 2003

The Disastrous War of 1812 Episode 21

In 1812, Madison sent a request to Congress for a declaration of war. The War of 1812 was a debacle. In October 1814, the Massachusetts legislature passed a peace resolution and threatened secession from the Union. Only the signing of the Treaty of Ghent at the end of 1814 ended talk of a New England separatist movement.

30 min

S1 · E22 · Jan 22, 2003

The "American System" Episode 22

The War of 1812 collapsed the U.S. Treasury, bankrupted hundreds of businesses, and soaked up the tiny hoard of American financial capital by government borrowing. Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun became the principal spokesmen for rebuilding the infrastructure of the American economy after 15 years of Jeffersonianism.

30 min

S1 · E23 · Jan 23, 2003

A Nation Announcing Itself Episode 23

By the 1820s, immigrants flowed through America's seaports from Europe; and with the clearance of Indian resistance, the Northwest Territory was opened by massive government land sales. Many emigrants chose to stay in the cities they first entered, and their numbers soon swelled the size of the American urban population.

S1 · E24

National Republican Follies Episode 24

soon

S1 · E25

The Second Great Awakening Episode 25

soon

S1 · E26

Dark Satanic Mills Episode 26

soon

S1 · E27

The Military Chieftain Episode 27

soon

S1 · E28

The Politics of Distrust Episode 28

soon

S1 · E29

The Monster Bank Episode 29

soon

S1 · E30

Whigs and Democrats Episode 30

soon

S1 · E31

American Romanticism Episode 31

soon

S1 · E32

The Age of Reform Episode 32

soon

S1 · E33

Southern Society and the Defense of Slavery Episode 33

soon

S1 · E34

Whose Manifest Destiny? Episode 34

soon

S1 · E35

The Mexican War Episode 35

soon

S1 · E36

The Great Compromise Episode 36

soon

S1 · E37

Sectional Tensions Escalate Episode 37

soon

S1 · E38

Drifting toward Disaster Episode 38

soon

S1 · E39

The Coming of War Episode 39

soon

S1 · E40

The First Year of Fighting Episode 40

soon

S1 · E41

Shifting Tides of Battle Episode 41

soon

S1 · E42

Diplomatic Clashes and Sustaining the War Episode 42

soon

S1 · E43

Behind the Lines: Politics and Economies Episode 43

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S1 · E44

African Americans in Wartime Episode 44

soon

S1 · E45

The Union Drive to Victory Episode 45

soon

S1 · E46

Presidential Reconstruction Episode 46

soon

S1 · E47

Congress Takes Command Episode 47

soon

S1 · E48

Reconstruction Ends Episode 48

soon

S1 · E49

Industrialization Episode 49

soon

S1 · E50

Transcontinental Railroads Episode 50

soon

S1 · E51

The Last Indian Wars Episode 51

soon

S1 · E52

Farming the Great Plains Episode 52

soon

S1 · E53

African Americans after Reconstruction Episode 53

soon

S1 · E54

Men and Women Episode 54

soon

S1 · E55

Religion in Victorian America Episode 55

soon

S1 · E56

The Populists Episode 56

soon

S1 · E57

The New Immigration Episode 57

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S1 · E58

City Life Episode 58

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S1 · E59

Labor and Capital Episode 59

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S1 · E60

Theodore Roosevelt and Progressivism Episode 60

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S1 · E61

Mass Production Episode 61

soon

S1 · E62

World War I—The Road to Intervention Episode 62

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S1 · E63

World War I—Versailles and Wilson’s Gambit Episode 63

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S1 · E64

The 1920s Episode 64

soon

S1 · E65

The Wall Street Crash and the Great Depression Episode 65

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S1 · E66

The New Deal Episode 66

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S1 · E67

World War II—The Road to Pearl Harbor Episode 67

soon

S1 · E68

World War II—The European Theater Episode 68

soon

S1 · E69

World War II—The Pacific Theater Episode 69

soon

S1 · E70

The Cold War Episode 70

soon

S1 · E71

The Korean War and McCarthyism Episode 71

soon

S1 · E72

The Affluent Society Episode 72

soon

S1 · E73

The Civil Rights Movement Episode 73

soon

S1 · E74

The New Frontier and the Great Society Episode 74

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S1 · E75

The Rise of Mass Media Episode 75

soon

S1 · E76

The Vietnam War Episode 76

soon

S1 · E77

The Women’s Movement Episode 77

soon

S1 · E78

Nixon and Watergate Episode 78

soon

S1 · E79

Environmentalism Episode 79

soon

S1 · E80

Religion in 20th-Century America Episode 80

soon

S1 · E81

Carter and the Reagan Revolution Episode 81

soon

S1 · E82

The New World Order Episode 82

soon

S1 · E83

Clinton’s America and the Millennium Episode 83

soon

S1 · E84

Reflections Episode 84

soon

84 episodes in Season 1

Some details come from TheTVDB.

This is the story of a country in which immigrants of the late 19th and early 20th centuries huddled in cramped tenement apartments lit by hazardous kerosene lamps. And a country that, little more than a half-century later, renowned economist John Kenneth Galbraith described as "The Affluent Society." This is the chronicle of a nation that enslaved a race of people. And of a nation that fought a Civil War that freed its slaves, and outlawed segregation and discrimination. This is history shaped by Revolutionary War and Vietnam, Thomas Jefferson and William Jefferson Clinton, Puritanism and Feminism, Booker T. Washington and Martin Luther King, Jamestown and Disneyland, Harpers Ferry and Henry Ford, oil wells and Orson Welles. This is a review of the extraordinary blend of people, ideas, inventions, and events that comprise The History of the United States.

Documentary History

Where to watch

Not streaming anywhere

Not on any streaming service in United States, and not available to rent.

Your rating

Your review

Cast

3 people

Allen C. Guelzo, Ph.D.

Patrick N. Allitt, Ph.D.

Gary W. Gallagher, Ph.D.

Total runtime 42h 0m · Episode length 30 min · Country United States

Show info

Premiered

January 1, 2003

Final episode

January 23, 2003

Status

Ended

Country

United States

Episode length

30 min

Total runtime

42h 0m

Original language

English

Production

T

The Great Courses

Production

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