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What made America? What makes us? These two questions are at the heart of the new PBS series Faces of America with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. The Harvard scholar turns to the latest tools of genealogy and genetics to explore the family histories of 12 renowned Americans

PROHIBITION is a three-part, five-and-a-half-hour documentary film series directed by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick that tells the story of the rise, rule, and fall of the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the entire era it encompassed.

The poet reading "Facing It." It includes a bio of the poet and resources for using it in the classroom.

website companion to the documentary

As the Bush White House weighs its options, what are the lessons from America's first "War on Terrorism" in the 1980s? Includes interviews, a timeline, video, and the evolution of Islamic terrorism.

Frontline terrorism search results

Use the treatment of citizens of Japanese and German ancestry during World War II--looking specifically at media portrayals of these groups and internment camps--as historical examples of ethnic conflict during times of trial; explore the problems inherent in assigning blame to populations or nations of people. Students will also look at contemporary examples of ethnic conflict, discrimination, and stereotyping at home and abroad.

"So what's to be done? Civic energy is going to have to come from the ground up to strengthen social cohesion, civic participation, and our ability to solve big challenges together. One big idea to strengthen our civic stocks and create pathways to better outcomes in education and employment is universal national service - an opportunity for every 18-28 year-old to perform at least a year of civilian national service through well-known groups like City Year, Teach for America and Habitat for Humanity or to join one of the branches of our Armed Services. Another bold idea would be to engage philanthropy in a $1 billion annual campaign to restore American history and civic education to its rightful place in American schools. We need "problems of American democracy" courses that teach students about the importance of bedrock American values, educate them through real-world experience about institutions that secure rights, check power, and enable public service, and provide practical skills to turn the wheels of a diverse democracy to address public problems. A final idea is for community leaders from different parties and sectors to experiment boldly with ways to fix public problems. "

"This lesson examines some of the obstacles to equal education that African Americans faced in the 20th century, the segregation that triggered the Civil Rightsmovement, and the different strategies people used to effect change. Students begin by reviewing the basic tenets of the U.S. Constitution that guarantee equal rights for all people, specifically, the Fourteenth Amendment, which was used toargue the case for school desegregation in the courts. Next, students work in small groups to study the impact of segregated schools and how individuals and communitiesresponded. Each small group focuses on a specific response or strategy. Finally, students come together to present what they learned, the advantages and disadvantages of thestrategy they examined, and what they might do in that situation and in a similar situation today."

This six minute video excerpt from "Target America" comes at the end of the documentary, and just after the last terrorist attack during the Reagan administration is cited-the bombing of Pan Am Flight #103 on Dec. 21, 1988. This excerpt begins with the seeming policy shift by the Reagan White House in the war against terrorism. And it ends with the thoughts of key policymakers who had participated in the battles against terrorists during the 1980s, and the lessons they learned.

This 5:00 video clip from "Looking for Answers" is from that part of the program dealing with the rise of militant Islam in Egypt. And it features Ayman al-Zawahiri, the young medical student who helped establish the radical Egyptian Islamic Jihad in the 1970s; he is now one of Osama bin Laden's top aides and on the FBI's most wanted terrorist list for the September 11th attacks. This video excerpt shows al-Zawahiri in the early 1980s ferociously condemning torture and other human rights violations by the Egyptian government - from the jail cell he is sharing with dozens of other Egyptian militant

When times are tough, ingenuity's importance increases, as PBS's American Experience demonstrates both on the screen and in its operations, conserving resources as it stays relevant with a new, five-part series about the '30s. The 1930s, premiering tomorrow and running five consecutive Mondays at 9 p.m. on WHYY TV12, is fascinating in the way it draws parallels to these tough times, both the causes and the potential solutions