"A harrowing memoir about one of the darkest periods in American historyBorn a free man in New York, Solomon Northup was abducted in Washington, D.C., in 1841 and spent the next twelve years of his life in captivity as a slave on a Louisiana cotton plantation. After his rescue, he published this exceptionally vivid and detailed account of slave life--perhaps the best written of all the slave narratives. It became an immediate bestseller and today...

"The 20th century was a time of great change, particularly in the arts, but seldom explored were the female poets of that time. Robert Hass and Paul Ebenkamp have put together a comprehensive anthology of poetry featuring the poems of Gertrude Stein, Lola Ridge, Amy Lowell, Elsa Von Freytag-Loringhoven, Adelaide Crapsey, Angelina Weld Grimke, Anne Spencer, Mina Loy, Hazel Hall, Hilda Doolittle, Marianne Moore, Djuna Barnes, and Hildegarde Flanner....

This program examines one of the most dramatic American Indian wars in U.S. history. The Modoc War began in November 1872 when the military tried to force a small band of Modoc Indians, led by Captain Jack, to a reservation. The Modocs took refuge in an ancient lava flow that became their stronghold. Today it is a part of the Lava Beds National Monument. The Modocs knew the land and used it to their advantage. Twisting lava tubes and hidden caves...

Young Pocahontas must bridge the gap between her tribe and the settlers of Jamestown.

Explores filmmaker Rithy Panh's quest to create the missing images during the period when the Khmer Rouge ruled over Cambodia between 1975 and 1979. The film uses wood figures, archival footage, and narration to recreate his firsthand experiences and those of his family and friends' suffering during the communist regime.

"Through much of the twentieth century Afghanistan seemed to be a distant concern in the U.S. "Afghanistanism" used to be journalistic shorthand for stories about distant places that editors dismissed as irrelevant. Afghanistan's territory does include some remote, barely accessible regions, but it also includes ancient metropolises such as Balkh, Herat, Kabul, and Kandahar that through much of history were crossroads for commerce and the spread of...

Eastern & Western Philosophy is a groundbreaking series that explores the roots of ancient philosophy, religious thought and spiritual enlightenment. Eastern philosophy explores the genesis of spiritual thought and investigates the central doctrines of Confucianism, Shinto, Hinduism, Judaism, and Islam. Western philosophy traces the evolution of philosophy from classical Greece, its development in Europe and through the medieval period and the enlightenment...