Start With Essentials

For patrons who want a sweeping overview of the American story, these are some titles we suggest leading with.

 

The American Revolution

Watch The American Revolution on Kanopy

Thirteen American colonies unite in rebellion, win an eight-year war to secure their independence, and establish a new form of government that would inspire democratic movements at home and around the globe. What begins as a political clash between colonists and the British government grows into a bloody struggle that will engage more than two dozen nations.

 

America: The Story of Us

Watch America: The Story of Us on Kanopy

An epic 12-hour television event, from The History Channel, that tells the extraordinary story of how America was invented.

 

 

 

 

America: Our Defining Hours

Watch America: Our Defining Hours on Kanopy

From the Mayflower to the Civil War to the tragedy on September 11, America: Our Defining Hours draws upon 300+ years of US history to tell the emotional tale of how the US seized moments of crisis to create a better tomorrow.

 

 

Democracy and Its Architects

The 250^th anniversary is an opportunity to revisit the founders, their vision, their contradictions, and how their decisions still echo today.

Ken Burns: Benjamin Franklin

Watch Ken Burns: Benjamin Franklin on Kanopy

Ken Burns’s four-hour documentary, Benjamin Franklin, explores the revolutionary life of one of the 18th century’s most consequential and compelling personalities, whose work and words unlocked the mystery of electricity and helped create the United States. “Write things worth reading,” he said in Poor Richard’s Almanack, “or do things worth the writing.” Benjamin Franklin did both.

 

Washington

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You may think you know George Washington, but there’s more to our preeminent founding father than you’ve been told. Washington chips away the marble to reveal the man at the heart of our nation’s story.

 

 

 

Ken Burns: The Roosevelts: An Intimate History

Watch Ken Burns: The Roosevelts: An Intimate History on Kanopy

This seven-part, fourteen-hour film spans more than a century, from Theodore’s birth in 1858 to Eleanor’s death in 1962. It traces how three interconnected Roosevelts reshaped America: Theodore, the 26^th President; his niece Eleanor, who married his fifth cousin Franklin, the 32^nd President. Together, they transformed the relationship between Americans and their government and redefined the country’s place in the world.

The series weaves together national history (the National Parks, the Panama Canal, the New Deal, the defeat of Hitler, the postwar fight for civil and human rights) with an intimate story of love, betrayal, loyalty, courage, and the conquest of fear.

 

The Civil Rights Story

 

Eyes on the Prize

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A definitive story of the civil rights era from the point of view of the ordinary men and women whose extraordinary actions launched a movement that changed the fabric of American life and embodied a struggle whose reverberations continue to be felt today. Eyes on the Prize is the most critically acclaimed documentary on civil rights in America. Eyes On The Prize recounts the fight to end decades of discrimination and segregation. It is the story of the people — young and old, male and female, northern and southern who, compelled by a meeting of conscience and circumstance, worked to eradicate a world where whites and blacks could not go to the same school, ride the same bus, vote in the same election, or participate equally in society. It was a world in which peaceful demonstrators were met with resistance and brutality — in short, a reality that is now nearly incomprehensible to many young Americans.

 

John Lewis: Good Trouble

Watch John Lewis: Good Trouble on Kanopy

This intimate account of legendary U.S. Representative John Lewis’s life and legacy takes us through his more than 60 years of activism–from the bold teenager on the front lines of the Civil Rights’ movement to the legislative powerhouse he is today.

 

 

Reconstruction: America After the Civil War

Watch Reconstruction: America After the Civil War on Kanopy

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. presents the definitive history of the transformative years following the American Civil War, when the nation struggled to rebuild itself amidst profound loss, massive destruction and revolutionary social change.

 

 

Becoming Frederick Douglass 

Watch Becoming Frederick Douglass on Kanopy

Discover how a man born into slavery became one of the most influential voices for democracy U.S. history. A gifted writer and charismatic orator, it is estimated that more Americans heard Douglass speak than any other 19th-century figure — Black or white.

 

Voices That Complete the Picture

America’s 250th is also an occasion to surface the histories that don’t always make the main stage. Kanopy’s collection includes a strong range of titles that address the experiences of communities whose stories are essential to understanding the full American history.

 

We Shall Remain

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A provocative multi-media project that establishes Native history as an essential part of American history. The centerpiece of this initiative is a television series that tells five heartbreaking, yet inspiring stories. Together they highlight Native ingenuity and resilience over the course of 300 years. The series upends two-dimensional stereotypes of American Indians as simply ferocious warriors or peaceable lovers of the land.

 

Asian Americans

Watch Asian Americans on Kanopy

This series traces the story of Asian Americans, spanning 150 years of immigration, racial politics, and cultural innovation. It is a timely look at the role that Asian Americans have played in defining who we are as a nation.

 

 

VOCES American Historia: The Untold History of Latinos

Watch VOCES American Historia: The Untold History of Latinos on Kanopy

Join actor John Leguizamo on a quest to uncover Latino and Latina heroes and their contributions. In this three-part series, Leguizamo takes viewers on a captivating journey, delving into both well-known and lesser-known stories of Latino history, spanning thousands of years, from the Ancient Empires to the present, and shining a light on the rich and often overlooked history of Latinos.

 

The Jewish Journey: America

Watch The Jewish Journey: America on Kanopy

Narrated by Martha Teichner, the film follows the trajectory of Jewish American life from the earliest arrivals in the mid-17th century through the impact of the Nazi regime in World War II, the creation of Israel, and the new challenges of 21st century assimilation. Explore the personal stories many faced as they migrated to America, whether for economic opportunity or to escape persecution.

 

The Stonewall Uprising

Watch The Stonewall Uprising on Kanopy

In the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, police raided the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in the Greenwich Village section of New York City. Such raids were not unusual in the late 1960s, an era when homosexual sex was illegal in every state but Illinois. That night, however, the street erupted into violent protests and demonstrations that lasted for the next six days. The Stonewall riots, as they came to be known, marked a major turning point in the modern gay civil rights movement in the United States and around the world.

RBG

Watch RBG on Kanopy

This rousing documentary charts the extraordinary life and legacy of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, tracing her rise from quiet law student to groundbreaking Supreme Court icon. Through archival footage, interviews, and behind-the-scenes access, RBG explores her tireless fight for gender equality, her unexpected pop culture fame, and the deep personal partnerships that sustained her. Academy Award nominee and an official Selection at the Sundance Film Festival.

 

Dolores

Watch Dolores on Kanopy

Who is Dolores Huerta? One of the most important, yet least known activists of our time, Dolores Huerta was an equal partner in founding the first farm workers union with Cesar Chavez. Tirelessly leading the fight for racial and labor justice, Huerta evolved into one of the most defiant feminists of the 20th century — and she continues the fight to this day, in her late 80s. With unprecedented access to this intensely private mother of 11, Peter Bratt’s film Dolores chronicles Huerta’s life from her childhood in Stockton, California to her early years with the United Farm Workers, from her work with the headline-making grape boycott launched in 1965 to her role in the feminist movement of the ’70s, to her continued work as a fearless activist. Featuring interviews with Gloria Steinem, Luis Valdez, Angela Davis, her children and more, Dolores is an intimate and inspiring portrait of a passionate champion of the oppressed and an indomitable woman willing to accept the personal sacrifices involved in committing one’s life to social change.

 

Ida B. Wells: A Passion for Justice

Watch Ida B. Wells: A Passion for Justice on Kanopy

Documents the dramatic life and turbulent times of the pioneering African American journalist, activist, suffragist and anti-lynching crusader of the post-Reconstruction period. Though virtually forgotten today, Ida B. Wells-Barnett was a household name in Black America during much of her lifetime (1863-1931) and was considered the equal of her well-known African American contemporaries such as Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois. 

Culture, Innovation, and the American Character

American history isn’t only political. These titles explore the arts, innovation, and cultural life that define the national character.

 

Jazz: A Film by Ken Burns

Watch Jazz: A Film by Ken Burns on Kanopy

A celebration of America’s greatest original art form. Ken Burns’ 10-part documentary series opens at the dawn of the 20^th century, incorporating American culture and historical events that interact directly with the music. From the 1890s through the ferment of the Harlem Renaissance and the Jazz Age, to the Great Depression, New Deal, Second World War, and beyond, Jazz paints an astounding portrait of a nation and its improvisational core of music.

 

Ken Burns: Country Music

Watch Ken Burns: Country Music on Kanopy

Explore the history of a uniquely American art form: country music. From its deep and tangled roots in ballads, blues and hymns performed in small settings, to its worldwide popularity, learn how country music evolved over the course of the 20th century, as it eventually emerged to become America’s music.

 

America’s Musical Journey

Watch America’s Musical Journey on Kanopy

In America’s musical cities, musical stories come together to create a soundtrack that showcases the nation’s diversity and its collision of cultures, culminating in a unique blend of sound, music and innovation unlike anywhere else in the world.

 

 

The Food That Built America

Watch The Food That Built America on Kanopy

For generations of Americans, food titans like Henry Heinz, Milton Hershey, John and Will Kellogg, C.W. Post and the McDonald brothers have literally been household names, but you don’t know their stories.

 

 

American Tongues

Watch American Tongues on Kanopy

Southerners talk too slowly. New Yorkers are rude. New Englanders don’t say much at all. Anybody who lives in the U.S. knows the cliches about how people in the various parts of the country handle the English language. American Tongues is the first documentary to explore the impact of these linguistic attitudes in a fresh and exciting manner. For over ten years American Tongues has entertained and educated audiences from the high school level on up. It is in use in thousands of colleges, universities, corporate training offices, military installations, TESL classes, and other institutions. American Tongues has been an enormously useful teaching tool for helping students and workers hear examples of regional speech and attitudes and relate them to their own lives.

 

Ready to Promote Kanopy’s Collection?

Explore the full collection and details here and download the toolkit in the US Resource Center. The America’s 250th Marketing Toolkit includes social media graphics sized for every platform, general announcement flyers and posters, a programming guide, and a printable Bingo card to hand out to patrons.

Programming Ideas

• Host a history through film series. Once a month, screen a film or documentary (with Public Performance Rights) that focuses on a different era of our nation’s history. Provide refreshments that tie into each era, like johnny cakes, animal crackers, and cracker jacks.
• Host a trivia night using clips from movies and TV shows as trivia prompts. • Throughout the year teach genealogy basics using library databases and create a historical timeline of the photos found through your patron’s research. Along the timeline, recommend books and movies that encapsulate everyday life for Americans living during each time period.
• Curate books alongside recommended films from Kanopy’s American History collection, giving patrons an easy way to explore the stories that have made America what it is today
• Create a “Today in History” display and highlight a rotating historical event, paired with a book from your catalog or film recommendation from the American History collection. Focus broadly on American history or focus into themes like the American Revolution, Civil Rights, or the World Wars. You can extend the reach of this programming by sharing daily or weekly facts and picks across your social media and newsletters.
• Download and print the Bingo card included in the America’s 250^th Marketing Toolkit and challenge patrons to complete it by watching titles from Kanopy’s American History collection. Display a leaderboard, offer small prizes, or simply use it as a fun way to promote the collection.

Kanopy Spring Sale

There’s still time to take advantage of our Spring Sale! The more you add, the more you save and your patrons get a genuinely free, high-quality streaming option right through their library card. Save up to 30% on new titles for your Kanopy collection! Learn More.