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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

28 men lost in Antarctica for almost two years, fighting ice and the ocean. The world gave them up for dead; but every one of them survived.

The "self-evident" truths were intensely debated. In America's first years, Washington, Franklin, Hamilton, Jefferson, Adams, Madison and Burr struggled to transform their disparate visions into an enduring government.

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 grandson of Ieyasu, Tokugawa Iemitsu, tightens control over Japan's warlords and expels all foreigners.