American Experience: TV’s most watched history series and handy instructional tool

Television’s most-watched history series, American Experience has been hailed as “peerless” by the Wall Street Journal, “the most consistently enriching program on television” by the Chicago Tribune, and “a beacon of intelligence and purpose” by the Houston Chronicle.

And for what it’s worth, I like it too.

Seriously. Good. Stuff.

On television, the series brings to life a variety of incredible characters and epic stories that have shaped America’s past and present. And American Experience Online premiered in November 1995 and has been awesome ever since. To date, American Experience Online has produced over 175 feature sites, enabling teachers and students to watch films online and encouraging in-depth exploration of each film beyond the television screen.

It truly is an amazing resource that I think many of us either don’t know about or don’t use enough. Thanks to Nathan McAlister, awesome middle school teacher and all around great guy, I was reminded last week about the power of American Experience.

And being a history nerd, I got sucked into watching an hour long program on the The Mine Wars, an amazing story of the bloody struggle to unionize coal mines in West Virginia.

You and your kids can hooked just as easily. There are a ton of full-length videos as well as shorter clips. You’ve got a Teacher’s Page with video links, interactives, lesson plans, primary sources, and photos. The have a great American Experience Podcast page. There’s a very cool blog with a variety of interesting topics. (The most recent being a look at TV presidents such as Jed Bartlett and Frank Underwood and comparing to the actual thing.)

So if you’ve forgotten how cool AE is or have never been for a visit, it’s time head over to get the goodies.