SHAPING AMERICA

PRODUCER: DALLAS TeleLearning

PRODUCTION COMPLETED: 2001

FIRST PBS RELEASE: Fall 2001

DISCIPLINE: History

LESSONS/PROGRAMS: 26 half-hour programs

CAPTIONING: closed captioned

GENERAL DESCRIPTION:

Shaping America reveals a time in American history, when native cultures and newly arriving cultures, both with distinct ideas and habits, formed a new nation that would, one day, become the most recognized in the world. The course explores these primitive beginnings and the accomplishments of early settlers despite incredible hardships, then examines political leadership and economic growth and finally raises the hope for "shaping" a new America after the sorrow of a bitter Civil War.

This telecourse brings our history to life through the human experience of choice and consequence. Video content features over sixty nationally known historians, chosen for their individual expertise, as well as for the diverse backgrounds and viewpoints they bring to the study of early American history.

Among those who provide commentary and analysis in this course are: Joyce Appleby, Ira Berlin, Jon Butler, Ernesto Chavez, Colin Calloway, Edward Countryman, Gerald Danzer, David Edmunds, Joseph Ellis, Eric Foner, Gary Gallagher, James O. Horton, Linda Kerber, Karen Kupperman, Dan Littlefield, James McPherson, Theda Perdue, Kathryn Sklar, Harry Watson and Gordon Wood. These on-camera interviews are supplemented with scripted voice-over narrations and readings from authentic letters, diaries, speeches, newspapers, and so forth.

Visuals include footage of scenes and historical sites throughout the continental United States, along with historical photographs, paintings and drawings, documents, artifacts, maps and charts. Sites visited include the ancient Cahokia Native American civilization in the Mississippi River Valley, the Somerset Plantation in North Carolina, the Civil War battlefields at Gettysburg and Shiloh, presidential homes at Monticello and Mt. Vernon and Seneca Falls National Historical Park in New York. Historical re-enactments and recreations are used. Throughout the series the storytelling is enhanced with original music and multi-layered soundscapes.

LESSON (PROGRAM) TITLES:

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