Catalog Search Results
Author
Language
English
Description
"Spanning much of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the novel follows the fortunes of the extraordinary Whittaker family as led by the enterprising Henry Whittaker--a poor-born Englishman who makes a great fortune in the South American quinine trade, eventually becoming the richest man in Philadelphia. Born in 1800, Henry's brilliant daughter, Alma (who inherits both her father's money and his mind), ultimately becomes a botanist of considerable...
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
With over thirty thousand occupations currently in existence, workers today face a bewildering array of careers from which to choose, and upon which to center their lives. But there is more at stake than just a paycheck. For too long, work has driven a wedge between families, dividing husband from wife, father from son, mother from daughter, and family from home. Building something that will last requires a radically different approach than is common...
5) Cold magic
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
A novel set in an alternate Victorian Europe at the start of an industrial revolution where science and magic wage war against each other.
Language
English
Description
This episode examines how Britain's Industrial Revolution created the modern world with inventors such as James Watt and George Stevenson improving the steam engines and railways. Trade with China was opened up, albeit illegally with the Chinese Opium Wars at the ports of Guangzhou. Following in Britain footsteps, in Russia social change was underway when Count Leo Tolstoy attempted to free his serfs at his Yasnaya Polyana Estate. However, they were...
Author
Language
English
Description
"The Spinning Jenny was invented in 1770, and with that, a new era of manufacturing and industry changed lives everywhere within a generation. A world filled with unrest wrestles for control over this new world order: A mother's husband is killed in a work accident due to negligence; a young woman fights to fund her school for impoverished children; a well-intentioned young man unexpectedly inherits a failing business; one man ruthlessly protects...
Language
English
Description
What forces led the United States away from its agrarian roots, transforming it into a nation dependent on mechanized farming, heavy industry, and large corporations? This program helps identify answers as it examines the Industrial Revolution in the latter half of the 19th century. Viewers learn about the establishment of the transcontinental railroad and its role in industrial growth, including the rise of the steel industry led by Andrew Carnegie....
Author
Language
English
Appears on list
Description
The most urgent story in modern tech begins not in Silicon Valley but two hundred years ago in rural England, when workers known as the Luddites rose up rather than starve at the hands of factory owners who were using automated machines to erase their livelihoods. The Luddites organized guerrilla raids to smash those machines--on punishment of death--and won the support of Lord Byron, enraged the Prince Regent, and inspired the birth of science fiction....
12) Owning It All
Language
English
Description
With an investment from Morgan, the Edison Electric Company is created and begins wiring homes in New York. A rival, Nikola Tesla, soon emerges with a different technology for electric light.
Language
English
Description
In the early 1900s, President Theodore Roosevelt's progressive legislation, dubbed the Square Deal, aimed to limit the power of corporations, protect consumers, and conserve natural resources. The Square Deal drastically changed the United States – and still impacts our lives today.
Author
Language
English
Description
"From the author of 1491--the best-selling study of the pre-Columbian Americas--a deeply engaging new history that explores the most momentous biological event since the death of the dinosaurs. More than 200 million years ago, geological forces split apart the continents. Isolated from each other, the two halves of the world developed totally different suites of plants and animals. Columbus's voyages brought them back together--and marked the beginning...
Language
English
Description
In the 20th century, polio was one of the most dreaded childhood diseases, devastating its victims. Ingenuity, trial and error, even acts of scientific desperation would pave the way to one of the greatest breakthroughs in scientific history - a vaccine. Modern Marvels traces the technology that eradicated the health scourge of the century.
19) Oil Strike
Language
English
Description
Kerosene is lighting America after dark in unprecedented ways. The demand for oil is sky high and Vanderbilt knows that oil can fill his trains.
Language
English
Description
Over 4 million people visit the Statue of Liberty annually. The most photographed statue in the world, its meaning is universal and represents freedom, hope and protest to generations of people throughout the world. Liberty: Mother of Exiles casts a new light on one of America’s most familiar symbols, revealing its little-known history and surprising challenges, and celebrating it as an enduring beacon of hope for generations of immigrants. Produced...