America: Promised Land

Aired 2017-05-29

Reveals the epic history behind the creation of America, exploring how and why our ancestors came to this country. From the Dutch living in New Amsterdam seeking the wealth offered by the fur trade, through the English Quakers who fled persecution and helped shape the American Constitution, to the German soldiers who helped the North defeat the South, this episode uses expert historians, DNA evidence and census records to explore our cultural origins through the different groups who travelled to America seeking freedom from early Colonial times through the end of the Civil War.

Aired 2017-05-30

Sparked by the Industrial Revolution, a wave of migrants flood the United States. One-third of the entire population of Norway and Sweden migrate to America, transforming the Pacific Northwest; opened by the transcontinental railroad, Mennonite farmers from Ukraine turn Kansas into the breadbasket of the country; in 1908, more Italians were living in New York City than Rome. Spanning the 1900s through the 1970s, this episode reveals how our ancestors, coming from America’s own Southern states, Eastern Europe, Latin America and Asia, change America’s cityscapes forever, and directly influence the map of modern America.