Resources
World History
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World War I and II
Coronavirus: Lessons From Past Epidemics
Dr. Larry Brilliant, who helped eradicate smallpox, says past epidemics can teach us to fight coronavirus.
10:42
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What Japan’s Atom Bomb Survivors Have Taught Us About the Dangers of Nuclear War
Japanese survivors recall the day the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, and warn of future risks.
10:05
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American Samoa Dodged a Pandemic in 1918. Here’s What We Learned.
Two territories, two wildly different outcomes as a pandemic terrorized the world.
06:04
Holocaust and Genocide
How Saba Kept Singing
The Emmy-nominated “How Saba Kept Singing” traces the journey of Holocaust survivor David Wisnia as he returns to the Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau to uncover his past.
79:00
Holocaust Survivors Fleeing Ukraine Find a New Home in Germany
In Ukraine, elderly Jewish citizens threatened by the war with Russia are being evacuated. As children, they escaped the Nazi invasion. Now some are finding refuge in a most unlikely place: Germany.
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How a Folk Singer’s Murder Forced Chile to Confront Its Past
Víctor Jara was a legendary Chilean folk singer and political activist, whose brutal killing during a military coup in 1973 went unsolved for decades. Now, his family may finally get justice.
13:44
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Global Cold War
How a Cold War Airlift Saved Berlin With Food, Medicine and Chocolate
A Soviet blockade around Berlin cut the divided city off from the West. But in 1948 U.S. and British pilots began to fly food, fuel and medicine to the Allied sectors.
08:05
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Putin’s Nuclear Threats Evoke Cold War Tensions of the Cuban Missile Crisis
Russia’s recent nuclear threats have revived Cold War animosity with roots in the Cuban missile crisis. During a standoff in 1962, a tense confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union nearly resulted in a nuclear war.
11:22
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Nuclear Meltdowns Raised Fears, but Growing Energy Needs May Outweigh Them
Catastrophic accidents at power plants like Three Mile Island and Fukushima Daiichi have heightened fears about the safety of nuclear energy, but environmentalists and others are giving it renewed attention as a way to fight global warming.
11:16
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How the U.S. Has Treated Wartime Refugees
What obligation does the United States have toward people who are uprooted by war?
10:24
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Dictators and Civil Wars: The Cold War in Latin America
Driven by fears of the rise of communism, the United States adopted a policy of containment, intervening in the politics of countries across the globe. In Latin America, the consequences of those efforts are still unfolding.
06:30
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As Massacre Survivors Seek Justice, El Salvador Grapples With 1,000 Ghosts
“Massacre in El Salvador,” a collaboration with Frontline and ProPublica, tells the story of El Mozote, the worst massacre in recent Latin American history, and why a final reckoning is at risk.
26:39
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Why the Cold War Race for Nuclear Weapons Is Still a Threat
Russian President Vladimir Putin controls the world’s largest nuclear arsenal, and his invasion of Ukraine is a reminder that Russia, the U.S. and many other countries have thousands of nuclear missiles, even as safeguards once in place have fallen away.
06:05
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How the Korean War Changed the Way the U.S. Goes to Battle
In the Cold War, North Korean Communists invaded South Korea. President Truman’s decision to intervene had consequences that shape the world today.
06:35
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Could We Geo-engineer Ourselves Out of Climate Change?
Is geo-engineering the climate an answer to global warming? Cold War science has some lessons.
10:35
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The Murder of US Churchwomen in El Salvador That Exposed a Government Coverup
The murder of four American churchwomen focused attention on the United States’ involvement in El Salvador. Decades later, the case continues to take surprising turns.
13:17
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Sisters Search for Lost Brother Separated by Argentine Dictatorship
Flavia Battistiol has turned to social media in hopes of being reunited with the sibling who disappeared in 1977, when the military junta ruled Argentina.
02:42
Separated from Parents as a Child, Argentine Man Finds his Family
The story of one man’s search for his identity after his parents disappeared during Argentina’s military dictatorship.
02:35
Agent Orange: Last Chapter of the Vietnam War
The use of the defoliant Agent Orange during the Vietnam War continues to cast a dark shadow over both American veterans and Vietnamese citizens.
09:59
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Argentina’s Stolen Babies, and the Grandmothers Leading the Search
The Mothers and Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, a group of women dedicated to finding babies who were taken by Argentina’s military regime in the 1970s and 1980s, have reunited their 130th family.
15:01
Revolutions
Students’ Tiananmen Protest Turned Deadly, Transforming U.S.-China Relations
Students in Beijing rallied for free speech and democratic reforms in 1989. The crackdown that followed altered U.S.-China relations.
12:37
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Labor Union Activism Is on the Rise, Recalling the Great Depression
Spurred by the pandemic, new groups of workers are pushing to form unions in activism not seen since the 1930s.
08:13
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Fixing the Code: Genetically Engineering Your DNA to Cure Disease
For the past 20 years, scientists have been trying to cure disease by altering DNA. We examine how with CRISPR Cas-9 gene editing and the revival of gene therapy, they’re closer than ever.
13:09
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Future of Work
A remote Oregon mountainside offers a window into the workplace of the future.
08:32
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Future of Food
A small South Dakota farm holds lessons for feeding a crowded and less predictable world.
07:38
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The Secret C.I.A. Operation That Haunts U.S.-Iran Relations
A 1953 C.I.A.-backed coup that ousted Iran’s Cold War leader has colored U.S.-Iran relations for decades.
14:00
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Other resources
Send In the Special Ops Forces
The rise of special operations units today can be traced to two historic military missions: one a legendary success, the other a spectacular failure.
07:38
How the Military Response to 9/11 Led to Two Decades of War in Afghanistan
Officials who drove the decades-long war in Afghanistan look back on the strategic mistakes and misjudgments that led to a 20-year quagmire.
11:59
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Coronavirus Has a Playlist. Songs About Disease Go Way Back.
Coronavirus songwriting has gone as global as the pandemic itself, creating a new genre called pandemic pop. It’s a tradition with a long history.
04:14
Forever Prison
Guantanamo Bay has become a symbol of the war on terror, but its story actually begins a decade before, when it was first used to detain thousands of Haitians outside the reach of U.S. law.
14:26
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A Mother, a Dingo and an Australian Media Frenzy
In 1982, an Australian mother was convicted of murdering her baby daughter. She was later exonerated, but soon fell victim to a joke that distracted the world from the real story.
13:50
Healing the Ozone: First Steps Toward Success
A worldwide effort to heal damage to the ozone layer is showing early progress.
12:33
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Princess Diana Brought Attention to Land Mines, but Their Danger Lingers
In the late 1990s, Princess Diana brought public attention to land mine victims. But since her death, how much progress has been made in the worldwide fight against leftover munitions?
09:33
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Israel Survived an Early Challenge With War Planes Smuggled by U.S. Vets
In 1948, World War II aviators risked their lives in a secret operation to smuggle weapons and planes to the Israeli military.
07:45
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What History Can Teach Us About Mass Killings
A century ago, a culture rid itself of the problem of mass murder. How did that happen and what can the modern-day world learn from it?
04:08
