Playlist American Experience
American Experience
The Brazilian Explorer Who Saved Theodore Roosevelt's Life
Daniel HautzingerIn 1913, Theodore Roosevelt set off on a journey down a river in the Amazonian jungle. The expedition was led in part by one of the little-known heroes of modern Brazil: the explorer and advocate for indigenous peoples Cândido Rondon.
The Atomic Age's Beginnings on a Squash Court in Chicago
Daniel Hautzinger75 years ago on December 2, scientists at the University of Chicago inaugurated the nuclear era by engineering the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction. Learn about the origins of nuclear power and the upsides and downsides of its future.
How World War I Transformed Chicago
Daniel HautzingerWorld War I helped trigger huge shifts in Chicago, with the rapid Americanization of Germans, an influx of African Americans, Mexicans, and single women, Prohibition, and more all occured or began because of developments during the Great War.
Buried History: Chicago’s Forgotten Cable Cars
Daniel HautzingerChicago had the largest cable car system in the world, in terms of riders and equipment. The city's adoption of the new transit system sparked a nationwide boom in cable cars--but it lasted for less than 25 years.
Lincoln's Funeral Train
Daniel HautzingerIn advance of the premiere of the second season of PBS's original Civil War drama Mercy Street and of the airing of a documentary about Lincoln's assassination, revisit the story of a man who built a working replica of the funeral train that carried Lincoln's body from Washington, D.C. to Springfield, Illinois.
