"Excursions presents texts of nine essays, including some of Thoreau's most engaging and popular works, newly edited and based on the most authoritative versions of each. These essays represent Thoreau in many stages of his writing career, ranging from 1842-when he accepted Emerson's commission to review four volumes of botanical and zoological catalogues in an essay that was published in The Dial is "Natural, History of Massachusetts" to 1862, when...

Riveted: The History of Jeans reveals the fascinating and surprising story of the iconic American garment. They're more than just a pair of pants -America's tangled past is woven deeply into the indigo fabric. From its roots in slavery to the Wild West, youth culture, hippies, high fashion and hip-hop, jeans are the fabric on which the history of American ideology and politics are writ large.

"It is blatant, it is cheap, it is the apotheosis of the ridiculous. But it is something more; it is like Niagara Falls or the Grand Canyon or Yellowstone Park; it is a national playground, and not to have seen it is not to have seen your own country," said Reginald Wright Kauffman in 1909 of Coney Island, the tiny spit of land at the foot of Brooklyn that, at the turn of the century, became the most extravagant playground in the country and one of...

They were charismatic and forward thinking, imaginative and courageous, compassionate and resolute. At times they were arrogant, vengeful and reckless. For hundreds of years, Native American leaders from Massasoit, Tecumseh, and Tenskwatawa, to Major Ridge, Geronimo, and Fools Crow valiantly resisted expulsion from their lands and fought the extinction of their culture. Sometimes, their strategies were militaristic, but more often they used what influence...

Tells the story of the 250,000 teenagers who left their homes and hopped freight trains during the Great Depression.

I saw the whale ahead of us, coming with twice his ordinary speed, and with tenfold fury and vengeance in his aspect. The surf flew in all directions about him and his course toward us was marked by a white foam which he made with continual violent thrashing of his tail, his head was about half out of water and in that way he came upon and again struck the ship." An angry whale rams and destroys a whale ship in 1820. The helpless crew stranded 1500...

Based on the best-selling book by Drew Gilpin Faust, this film will explore how the American Civil War created a 'republic of suffering' and will chart the far-reaching social, political, and social changes brought about by the pervasive presence and fear of death during the Civil War.

Tecumseh's Vision - In the course of his brief and meteoric career, Tecumseh would become one of the greatest Native American leaders of all time, orchestrating the most ambitious pan-Indian resistance movement ever mounted on the North American continent. After his death he would live on as a potent symbol of Native pride and pan Indian identity.

Explore the complex life and enduring legacy of the iconic filmmaker from his early days creating Mickey Mouse through the making of Snow White, the first full-length animated film.

He has been portrayed in countless movies and television shows by some of Hollywood's greatest actors, including Henry Fonda, Jimmy Stewart and, more recently, Kevin Costner, but these popular fictions belie the complexities and flaws of a man whose life is a lens on politics, justice and economic opportunity on the American frontier. As a young man, Wyatt Earp was a caricature of the Western lawman, spending his days drinking in saloons, gambling,...