Presidency: Multimedia

He personified America at the turn of the last century, confident, exuberant, but suffered from hidden demons. He was Teddy Roosevelt, heroic figure of boundless energy and bleak emotions. Acclaimed filmmaker David Grubin uses letters, diaries, authentic film footage and interviews to create a fascinating profile of this ambitious man: fearless in combat, loving and generous with family, and unafraid to take on powerful financial interests.

Jimmy Carter's story is one of the greatest dramas in American politics. In 1980, he was overwhelmingly voted out of office in a humiliating defeat. Over the subsequent two decades, he became one of the most admired statesmen and humanitarians in America and the world. This video, part of American Experience’s award-winning Presidents series, traces his rapid ascent in politics, dramatic fall from grace and unexpected resurrection.

He was a farmer, a businessman gone bankrupt, an unknown politician from Missouri who suddenly found himself president. Of all the men who had held the highest office, Harry Truman was the least prepared. But he would prove to be a surprise. Facing some of the biggest crises of the century, Truman would end the war with Germany, use the atomic bomb against Japan, confront an expanding Soviet Union and wage war in Korea -- all while the woman he adored, his wife Bess, refused to stay in the White House and play the role of First Lady. The story of the unlikely rise of a gritty American original.