American Experience

The Model T

In October of 1908, Henry Ford introduced the newest addition to his alphabet line—the Model T. It had a four-cylinder, 20 horsepower engine, a vastly improved transmission and an ingenious magnetic generator that provided power for an ignition and lights. At a time when the average car cost more than two thousand dollars, the Model T sold for just eight hundred and fifty.

The Model T

2m 35s

  • American Coup: Wilmington 1898: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    American Coup: Wilmington 1898

    S36 E7 - 1h 51m

    American Coup: Wilmington 1898 tells the little-known story of a deadly race massacre and carefully orchestrated insurrection in North Carolina’s largest city in 1898. Stoking fears of “Negro Rule,” self-described white supremacists used intimidation and violence to destroy Black political and economic power and overthrow Wilmington’s democratically-elected, multi-racial government.

  • The American Vice President: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    The American Vice President

    S36 E6 - 52m 36s

    The American Vice President tells the little-known story of the second-highest office in the land, tracing its evolution from a constitutional afterthought to a position of political consequence. Focusing on the fraught period between 1963 and 1974, the film examines the passage and first uses of the 25th Amendment and offers a fresh perspective on succession in the executive branch.

  • The Riot Report: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    The Riot Report

    S36 E5 - 1h 53m

    When Black neighborhoods across America erupted in violence during the summer of 1967, President Johnson appointed a commission to determine what happened, why it happened, and what could be done to keep it from happening again. The bi-partisan commission’s final report offered a shockingly unvarnished assessment of American race relations that would doom its finding to political oblivion.

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