Free History Documentaries

Leftist filmmaker Emile de Antonio compiled this documentary out of 187 hours' worth of kinescopes recorded during the 1954 Senate Army-McCarthy Hearings.

In The Ascent of Money, Niall Ferguson seeks to explain the financial history of the world, exploring how our complex system of global finance evolved, how money has shaped the course of human affairs and how the mechanics of this economic system work to create seemingly unlimited wealth or catastrophic loss.

500 Nations is an eight-part documentary on the Native Americans of North and Central America. It documents from pre-Columbian to the end of the 19th century.

The documentary unit of APM Reports (formerly American RadioWorks) has produced more than 140 programs on topics such as health, history, education and justice.

This is the story of bubonic plague, starvation, espionage and cannibalism-and the founding of America's first colony. In 1607, a handful of English adventurers set sail across the Atlantic, they landed in Jamestown expecting a paradise teeming with gold and riches.

As Nelson Mandela prepares to step down as president of South Africa, FRONTLINE presents a deeply personal biography of one of the great figures of the 20th century.

The eminent art historian Sir Kenneth Clark was commissioned to write and present an epic examination of Western European culture, defining what he considered to be the crucial phases of its development. Civilisation: A Personal View by Lord Clark would be more than two years in the making, with filming in over 100 locations across 13 countries.

American Experience, television's most-watched history series, brings to life the incredible characters and epic stories that helped form our nation.

Coney Island is the story of a tiny spit of land at the foot of Brooklyn that at the turn of the century became the most extravagant playground in the country. In scale, in variety, in sheer inventiveness, Coney Island was unlike anything anyone had ever seen, and sooner or later everyone came to see it.

The Minoan civilization on the Mediterranean island of Crete flourished from 2000-1500 BC. Then it gradually declined, its palaces disappearing into the landscape--to be rediscovered in the late 19th century.