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The Environment

Since pre-colonial times, Americans' relationship to the natural world has shaped politics, policy, commerce, entertainment and culture. In this collection, delve into our complicated history with the environment through American Experience films exploring wide-ranging topics, from our struggles to exert dominion over nature to our attempts to understand and protect it.

Films

  • The Sun Queen poster image The Sun Queen
    Film

    The Sun Queen

    Scientist Mária Telkes dedicated her career to harnessing the power of the sun. Though undercut and thwarted by her male colleagues, she persevered to design the first successfully solar-heated house in 1948 and held more than 20 patents.

  • Flood in the Desert poster image Flood in the Desert
    Film

    Flood in the Desert

    Explore the 1928 dam collapse, the second deadliest disaster in California history. A colossal engineering failure, the dam was built by William Mulholland, who had ensured the growth of Los Angeles by bringing water to the city via aqueduct.

  • Rachel Carson poster image Rachel Carson
    Film

    Rachel Carson

    An intimate portrait of the woman whose groundbreaking writings revolutionized our relationship to the natural world and launched the modern environmental movement.

  • The Civilian Conservation Corps poster image The Civilian Conservation Corps
    Film

    The Civilian Conservation Corps

    One of the most popular New Deal programs, the Civilian Conservation Corps put three million young men to work in the nation's forests and parks at the height of the Great Depression.

  • Earth Days poster image Earth Days
    Film

    Earth Days

    A meditation on man’s complex relationship with nature and an engaging history of the revolutionary achievements and missed opportunities of eco-activism.

  • The Swamp poster image The Swamp
    Film

    The Swamp

    The Swamp, explores the repeated efforts to reclaim, control and transform what was seen as a vast wasteland into an agricultural and urban paradise, and, ultimately, the drive to preserve America’s greatest wetland.

Watch

  •  poster image Clip
    Flood in the Desert | Clip

    Water Wars

    Environmental scientist Peter Gleick and CEO of the U.S. Water Alliance Mami Hara speak with historian Jessica Marie Johnson about access, availability and conflicts around clean water in the United States.

  •  poster image Digital Short
    The Sun Queen | Digital Short

    Off the Grid: New Mexico

    Zani, Yaseen and Khari live on a 25-acre homestead in the New Mexico desert. Join us as we visit them to find out what modern off-grid living looks like.

  •  poster image Digital Short
    Rachel Carson | Digital Short

    Malaria and the Silent Spring

    In this co-production with Retro Report, scientists and historians weigh in on Rachel Carson, and today’s battle against malaria.

  •  poster image Digital Short
    The Swamp | Digital Short

    The Price of Feathers

    The surprisingly violent history of women's hats — and the women who set a new, humane trend in fashion.

  •  poster image Clip
    Earth Days | Clip

    The First Earth Day

    The first national observation of Earth Day took place on April 22, 1970, when an estimated 20 million people across the country took to the streets in protest against environmental pollution. 

Articles

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Additional funding for the Environment collection provided by

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