The Best Episodes of American Experience Season 29

Episode Rankings

1. #1 Fan Favorite
   

   8.2/10(167 votes)

   #1 - The Great War: Part 1

   S29:E64/10/2017

   Part 1 of 3. President Woodrow Wilson vowed to keep the U.S. out of World War I after hostilities erupted in Europe in August 1914. It was a promise he kept until 1917, when the Germans resumed "unrestricted submarine warfare"— a policy it had started and then stopped in 1915 — and began sinking U.S. ships. An intercepted telegram also showed Germany trying to convince Japan and Mexico to declare war on America.

   Director:Unknown

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2. 

   8.2/10(161 votes)

   #2 - The Great War: Part 3

   S29:E84/12/2017

   Part 3 of 3. In the fall of 1918: a major American offensive that could bring a swift end to the war, a lost U.S. battalion surrounded by German forces, a deadly flu epidemic on the homefront.

   Director:Unknown

   Writer:Unknown

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3. 

   7.9/10(120 votes)

   #3 - The Race Underground

   S29:E31/31/2017

   The dramatic story of the country's first subway.

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4. 

   7.9/10(157 votes)

   #4 - Oklahoma City

   S29:E42/7/2017

   On April 19, 1995, Timothy McVeigh, a former soldier deeply influenced by literature and ideas of the radical right, killed 168, and injured 675 others.

   Director:Unknown

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5. 

   7.8/10(549 votes)

   #5 - Rachel Carson

   S29:E21/24/2017

   She set out to save a species...us. An intimate portrait of the woman whose groundbreaking books revolutionized our relationship to the natural world.

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6. 

   7.5/10(433 votes)

   #6 - The Great War: Part 2

   S29:E74/11/2017

   Part 2 of 3. America's entry into World War I is recalled, including the breathtaking speed of mobilization and the profound transformations required for America to play a central role in the conflict.

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7. 

   7.2/10(210 votes)

   #7 - Ruby Ridge

   S29:E52/14/2017

   A riveting account of the event that helped give rise to the modern American militia movement.

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8. 

   7.1/10(599 votes)

   #8 - Command and Control

   S29:E11/10/2017

   An account of an incident at a Titan II missile complex in Damascus, Ark., in 1980 that almost caused the explosion of a ballistic missile carrying a nuclear warhead 600 times more powerful than the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima. The near-calamity was kicked off when a socket fell from the wrench of an airman performing maintenance in a Titan II silo and punctured the missile, releasing a stream of highly explosive rocket fuel.

   Director:Robert Kenner

   Writer:Unknown

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   Director:Robert Kenner

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