Lowell's political passion encompasses much of his greatest poetry. Lowell himself reads from his work. Elizabeth Hardwick, Robert Hass, and others discuss his development and style as illustrated by Lord Weary's Castle and Life Studies.

Learn about the Presidents of the U.S.A. Great way to learn American history using classical, gospel, light opera, rock, pop and rap! Twelve catchy songs written in the musical style of each historical period. Comprehensive, encyclopedic summary of the history of the American Presidents from George Washington to George W. Bush.

The stories in Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book are set deep in the Indian jungle, in a dangerous world without parents - and with few rules. First published as a collection in 1894, the book's themes of belonging and identity are still relevant today.

The Rocky Mountains were "like the stairs of heaven after the last soul has ascended earth," said Fitz Hugh Ludlow. Said Sitting Bull of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, "Our young men rained lead across the river and drove the white braves back. This is the time of the Civil War in the East, the last of the Indian Wars, the final spike in the transcontinental railroad. Thomas Moran and Albert Bierstadt paint a mythical Eden, while pioneer photographers...

It began as a protest against the Conscription Act of 1863 – but quickly descended into the bloodiest race riot in US history. So why did New York’s White working class kill at least 120 people during the New York Draft Riots?

In the first half of the 19th century, Americans pushed westward across the Appalachians, the Mississippi River, and the Rocky Mountains, en route to the Pacific Ocean. The frontier experience shaped the American character. At the same time, land hunger, gold fever, and the pursuit of “Manifest Destiny” resulted in the removal of many American Indian nations, acquisition of vast swaths of Mexico through the Mexican-American War, and a painful...

Middlemarch is a television mini-series adaptation of George Eliot's novel. In this episode, Dr. Tertius Lydgate is put in charge of the fever hospital in Middlemarch and Dorothea Brooke agrees to marry ageing scholar Edward Casaubon. Starring Juliet Aubrey, Rufus Sewell, Douglas Hodge, and Patrick Malahide.

The world's major religions and philosophies have their origins in ancient civilizations - and while much has changed since then, countless millions of people through history have maintained a faith and belief in religious principles and teachings that have remained unchanged for millennia. This charming program on the origins, sacred texts and beliefs of Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam is an ideal introduction to...

Walt Whitman rises from a hardscrabble boyhood in New York to write Leaves of Grass in 1855; a work that revolutionizes poetry. This episode explores the mystery of how a seemingly ordinary writer, with little education or training, could have created such a literature-altering masterpiece. Many of Whitman’s most famous poems are profiled, including “There Was a Child Went Forth,” “I Hear America Singing,” “Song of the Open Road,” “I...