20th century

A 16-part series that examines the events between the end of World war I in 1918 and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 through newsreels, soundtracks, and archival footage.

The author, a Rhodes scholar and combat veteran, analyzes the various sociocultural factors that influenced him as well as another man of the same name and from the same neighborhood who was drawn into a life of drugs and crime and ended up serving life in prison, focusing on the influence of relatives, mentors, and social expectations that could have led either of them on different paths.

As London is emerging from the shadow of World War II, writer Juliet Ashton discovers her next subject in a book club on Guernsey--a club born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi after its members are discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island.

On the eve of a popular rebellion, the Chinese government starts to crack down in cities across the country. Fleeing the turmoil, Wang Yuan, the son of a famous general and grandson of the patriarch of The Good Earth, leaves for America to study agriculture. When he returns to China six years later, Wang is torn by the tensions between old traditions and new ways, and by his formidable family, whose struggles he hopes to solve.

The classic story of sons rising against their father reflects the conflict between the old and new in China as revolution sweeps across the nation.

Investigates the reasons North Carolina, long seen as the most progressive state in the South, became home to the largest Klan organization in the country, with more members than all the other Southern states combined, during the 1960s.

Examines the experiences of immigrants to the United States in the years between 1900 and 1940, and discusses the transforming effect of their arrival on the country.

Pu Yi, the emperor of China who comes from a long history that is irreversibly altered by two world wars and fierce political upheaval, is forced to leave the protective walls of the Forbidden City and build a new life in a strange world he has always longed to explore, but has never really known.

When the Depression hits in Cairo, Illinois, and Oscar Ogilvie's father must sell their home and vast model train set-up to look for work in California, eleven-year-old Oscar is left with his dour aunt, where he befriends a mysterious drifter, witnesses a stunning bank robbery, and is suddenly catapulted onto a train that takes him to a different time and place.

When fourteen-year-old Norvia moves from Beaver Island to Boyne City in 1914, she has to contend with a new school, a first crush, and a blended family, but she also must keep secret her parents' divorce and her Ojibwe heritage. Includes author's note.