Explore the life and times of author L. Frank Baum, the creator of one of the most beloved, enduring and classic American narratives - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Baum never lost his childlike sense of wonder and eventually crafted his observations into a magical tale of survival, adventure and self-discovery, reinterpreted through the generations in films, books and musicals.

Meet the influential author and key figure of the Harlem Renaissance. Also a trained anthropologist, Hurston collected folklore throughout the South and Caribbean — reclaiming, honoring and celebrating Black life on its own terms.

AMERICAN EXPERIENCE Taken Hostage, revisits the Iran hostage crisis that began on November 4, 1979. The taking of 52 Americans hostage in Tehran began a crisis that would transform both the U.S. and Iran and forever, and upend the focus and direction of American foreign policy.

AMERICAN EXPERIENCE Taken Hostage, revisits the Iran hostage crisis that began on November 4, 1979. The taking of 52 Americans hostage in Tehran began a crisis that would transform both the U.S. and Iran and forever, and upend the focus and direction of American foreign policy.

In the summer of 1910, hundreds of wildfires raged across the Northern Rockies. By the time it was all over, more than three million acres had burned and at least 78 firefighters were dead. It was the largest fire in American history, and it assured the future of the still-new United States Forest Service.

The murder and the trial horrified the nation and the world. Till's death was a spark that helped mobilize the Civil Rights movement. Three months after his body was pulled from the Tallahatchie River, the Montgomery bus boycott began.

Follow the gripping story of the race against time to save San Francisco and the nation from an outbreak of bubonic plague in 1900.

Flood in the Desert explores the 1928 collapse of the St. Francis Dam and its aftermath, the second deadliest disaster in California history.

Zoot Suit Riots is a powerful film that explores the complicated racial tensions and the changing social and political landscape that led up to the explosion on Los Angeles' streets in the summer of 1943.

The American Diplomat explores the lives and legacies of three African American ambassadors — Edward Dudley, Terence Todman and Carl Rowan — who pushed past historical and institutional racial barriers to reach high-ranking appointments in the Truman, Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations. At the height of the civil rights movement in the United States, the three men were asked to represent the best of American ideals abroad while facing discrimination at home.