AMERICA’S BEST IDEA

THE EMPIRE OF GRANDEUR (1915-1919)

THURSDAY, JUNE 25 @ 7:00PM & 11:00PM

In the early 20th century, America has a dozen national parks, but they are a haphazard patchwork of special places under the supervision of different federal agencies. The conservation movement, after failing to stop the Hetch Hetchy dam, pushes the government to establish one unified agency to oversee all the parks, leading to the establishment of the National Park Service in 1916. Its first director, Stephen Mather, a wealthy businessman and passionate park advocate who fought vigorously to establish the NPS, launches an energetic campaign to expand the national park system and bring more visitors to the parks. Among his efforts is to protect the Grand Canyon from encroaching commercial interests and establish it as a national park, rather than a national monument.

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AMERICA’S BEST IDEA

THE LAST REFUGE (1890-1915)

THURSDAY, JUNE 18 @ 7:00PM & 11:30PM

By the end of the 19th century, widespread industrialization has left many Americans worried about whether the country – once a vast wilderness – will have any pristine land left. At the same time, poachers in the parks are rampant, and visitors think nothing of littering or carving their names near iconic sites like Old Faithful. Congress has yet to establish clear judicial authority or appropriations for the protection of the parks. This sparks a conservation movement by organizations such as the Sierra Club, led by John Muir; the Audubon Society, led by George Bird Grinnell; and the Boone and Crockett Club, led by Theodore Roosevelt. The movement fails, however, to stop San Francisco from building the Hetch Hetchy dam at Yosemite, flooding Muir’s “mountain temple” and leaving him broken-hearted before he dies.

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AMERICA’S BEST IDEA

THE SCRIPTURE OF NATURE (1851-1890)

THURSDAY, JUNE 11 @ 7:00PM & 11:00PM

America’s national parks are a treasure house of nature’s superlatives – 84 million acres of the most stunning landscapes anyone has ever seen. They became the last refuge for magnificent species of animals that otherwise would have vanished forever; today, they remain a refuge for human beings seeking to replenish their spirit.

The national parks embody a radical idea, as uniquely American as the Declaration of Independence, born in the United States nearly a century after its creation. It is a truly democratic idea, that the magnificent natural wonders of the land should be available not to a privileged few, but to everyone.

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AUDRA MCDONALD IN CONCERT: GO BACK HOME

FRIDAY, AUGUST 30 @ 8:00PM

Live From Lincoln Centerbrings broadcasts of live performances of music, drama, and dance direct from the stages of Lincoln Center in New York City into homes across America and around the world. Presenting work by the world’s premier performers, the Emmy Award–winning program invites the television audience to experience live performance with all the intimacy and immediacy of being right on stage.

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with GWEN IFILL

FRIDAY, AUGUST 30 @ 10:00PM

This Week: U.S. Makes Case for Miltary Strike on Syria; 50th Anniversary of March on Washington

President Barack Obama made the case for U.S. military strike against Syria on Wednesday during an interview with Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff. The president talked about the need for intervention in Syria’s civil war on the basis of U.S. national security interests as well as humanitarian concerns.

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AT THE WHITE HOUSE

A CELEBRATION OF MUSIC

FROM THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

TUESDAY, AUGUST 27 @ 9:00PM

President and Mrs. Obama will host the concert event in honor of Black History Month.  Artists include Natalie Cole, Bob Dylan, Jennifer Hudson, John Legend, John Mellencamp, Smokey Robinson, Seal, the Blind Boys of Alabama and the Howard University Choir.  Morgan Freeman and Queen Latifah will serve as emcees.

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THURSDAY, JANUARY 11 @ 7:00PM & 12:00AM

‘The March’is the story of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, told by the people who organized and participated in it. It includes interviews with some of the key actors; members of the inner circles of the core organizational groups; Hollywood supporters and civil rights campaigners; John F. Kennedy administration officials; and the ordinary people who became part of the crowd of thousands, who thronged to Washington D.C. by all and every means: plane, bus and car.

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SILK

SUNDAY, AUGUST 25 @ 7:00PM & 11:00PM

“Innocent until proven guilty. Four words to live by” is just about all Martha Costello has to go on when she’s handed two big cases with only one night to mount her defenses of an accused drug mule and aggravated burglar. All this, before she must defend an accused rapist, whose alleged victim is being defended by her ruthless rival, Clive Reader.

Maxine Peake and Rupert Penry-Jones (Persuasion, The Thirty-Nine Steps) star as two barristers facing off in the competition of their professional lives, the prestigious appointment as Queen’s Counsel, while working high-stakes cases amidst the rivalry, tension, and intrigue on the front lines of criminal law.

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with GWEN IFILL

FRIDAY, AUGUST 23 @ 9:00PM

President Obama returned from his New England vacation to a myriad of overseas and national security issues. In Egypt, the interim government continues its crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood amidst the release of former President Hosni Mubarak from prison. He still faces a retrial in connection with the deaths of protestors during the Egyptian uprisings of 2011 that led to his ouster from office. How might these latest developments play as the Obama administration wrestles with whether to cut aid to the country due to the recent violence?

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THE LAW IN THESE PARTS

MONDAY, AUGUST 19 @ 11:00PM

In The Law in These Parts, acclaimed Israeli filmmaker Ra’anan Alexandrowicz has pulled off a tour-de-force examination of the system of military administration used by Israel since the Six Day War of 1967 — featuring the system’s leading creators. In a series of thoughtful and candid interviews, Israeli judges, prosecutors and legal advisers, who helped devise the occupation’s legal framework, paint a complex picture of the Middle East conflict and the balance among political interests, security and human rights that has come with it. Winner, World Cinema Jury Prize: Documentary, 2012 Sundance Film Festival.

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