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American History's Biggest Fibs

Season 1
Alternative facts aren't new to American political history: they're the making of it. The American Revolution; The Civil War; The American Dream: how many half-truths lie behind these moments and mottos that define America? British historian Lucy Worsley (chief curator of the Royal Palaces) digs deep into US past, to find the cynical motives, divisions and darkness that lies behind the legends.
20193 episodes
16+
Free trial of BBC Select

Episodes

  1. S1 E1 - The American Revolution
    January 16, 2019
    49min
    TV-PG
    Our stories define us. Revealing more about who we are now than who we were then. Take the American Revolution. This moment made America: the David-and-Goliath battle of men with high ideals versus the might of the British Empire. Or so we're told. Historian Lucy Worsley uncovers the real story that underpins the birth of a nation in a dizzying hour of alternatives to the alternative facts.
    Free trial of BBC Select
  2. S1 E2 - The American Civil War
    January 23, 2019
    48min
    TV-14
    Abraham Lincoln has gone down in history as the visionary who ended slavery in one of America's bloodiest conflicts. But as historian Lucy Worsley reveals: Lincoln's personal views, and the behavior of his troops towards black Americans, weren't as noble as they appeared. From the rise of the Ku Klux Klan to the current racial protests, you might wonder if the Civil War has ever really ended.
    Free trial of BBC Select
  3. S1 E3 - Supremacy
    January 30, 2019
    52min
    TV-G
    We think of the 1950s in America as a golden era of abundance, harmony and the American dream made real. But, as this final instalment of historian Lucy Worsley's fascinating debunking of American mythology makes clear, this was a carefully constructed illusion. In truth, the era of America's global supremacy was a time of government deception, racial conflict and fears of nuclear annihilation.
    Free trial of BBC Select

Details

More info

Audio languages
English
Subtitles
English [CC]
Directors
Tom Cholmondeley
Producers
Chris GranlundTom Cholmondeley
Starring
Lucy Worsley
Studio
BBC
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