Henry Ford

On July 4th, 2026, the United States will celebrate Independence Day, just as it does every year. But 250 years on from the country’s Declaration of Independence, the image of the United States has become tarnished. Yet today, the United States seems increasingly alien and ever more threatening to many Europeans. Is Donald Trump’s current policy the product of a national identity shaped by history? To understand the American mindset, one must look back to the roots and myths that have shaped it — a history marked by rifts and conflicts that continue to resonate today. By drawing parallels between cowboys and populism, Thanksgiving and Charlie Kirk, this 2-part documentary demonstrates that Trump’s politics differ from those of his predecessors and are not in line with the values upon which the history of the American nation was founded.

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Americans consider themselves a 'nation of immigrants', but as the catastrophe of the Holocaust unfolds in Europe, the U.S. prove unwilling to open its doors to more than a fraction of the hundreds of thousands of desperate refuge seekers. Through riveting firsthand testimony of witnesses and survivors who as children endured persecution, violence and flight as their families tried to escape Hitler, this three-part documentary series delves deeply into the tragic human consequences of public indifference, bureaucratic red tape and restrictive quota laws in America. Did the nation fail to live up to its ideals? This is a history to be reckoned with.

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Infographics and archival footage deliver bite-size history lessons on scientific breakthroughs, social movements and world-changing discoveries.

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By the time he died in 1931, Thomas Alva Edison was one of the most famous men in the world. The holder of more patents than any other inventor in history, Edison had achieved glory as the genius behind such revolutionary inventions as sound recording, motion pictures, and electric light. Born on the threshold of America's burgeoning industrial empire, Edison's curiosity led him to its cutting edge. With just three months of formal schooling, he took on one seemingly impossible technical challenge after another, and through intuition, persistence, and a unique team approach to innovation, invariably solved it. Driven and intensely competitive, Edison was often neglectful in his private life and could be ruthless in business. Challenged by competition in the industry he'd founded, Edison launched an ugly propaganda campaign against his rivals, and used his credibility as an electrical expert to help ensure that high-voltage electrocution became a form of capital punishment.

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