Documentary Films About American History and Presidents

Americans are no different than any other national group in having infinite fascination for themselves and their roots. Documentaries about America's history and the country's leadership foster a healthily reflective attitude, while delivering solid information about formative issues, events and persons.

Here, in alphabetical order, are some titles to peruse. Once you've selected a title of interest, go to IMDb to get further details about it.

Documentary Films About American History and Heroes

A:

• Alert 3: The Crash of UA 232
• Alert 3: Lessons Learned from the Crash of UA 232
• American Cinema: one hundred years of film making
• Apollo 13/Journey to the Moon/Mars and Back
• Around the World in 72 Days: The Audacious Adventures of Nellie Bly
• At The River I Stand

B:

• The Big One
• Bix: Ain't None of Them Play Like Him
• The Rise and Fall of the Borscht Belt

C:

• The Civil War
• The Congress

D:

• Do Not Enter: Visa War Against Ideas
• Dreamfield
• Dvorak in America

E:

• Ellis Island
• Explorers of the New World

F:

• The First Measured Century
• The Forgetting: A Portrait of Alzheimer's
• Freestyle: The Victories of Dan Gable
• David Halberstam's The Fifties
• Founding Fathers: the Men Who Shaped Our Nation and Changed the World

G:

• The Great Depression
• Great Minds of American History

H:

• Headline Stories of the Century
• The History of the United States
• The History of the United States, 2nd Edition
• Hybrid
• Hoover Dam
• The Trials of Henry Kissinger

I:

• Incident at Oglala
• It's Yesterday Once More!
• Iowa: An American Portrait

L:

• La operación
• The Last American Hobo
• Legacy of the Hollywood Blacklist
• Lewis & Clark: Great Journey West (National Geographic Society)
• Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery
• Linciati: Lynchings of Italians in America
• Lt. Colonel Oliver North: HIS STORY

M:

• Making Sense of the Sixties
• Edward R. Murrow

N:

• New York: A Documentary Film
• No Direction Home

P:

• The Perils of Whistleblowing

R:

• Railfans: The Passion for the Iron Horse

S:

• Sacco & Vanzetti
• Small Town, USA
• Street Fight
• Streetcars of Omaha and Council Bluff
• The Surf Ballroom

T:

• 20th Century, Volumes 1-5
• Thirty Year Cold Turkey Reunion in Greenfield
• A Time to Fear
• Troublesome Creek: A Midwestern
• True Story of the Fighting Sullivans
• True Story of Sacco and Vanzetti
• Turning Points in American Foreign Policy
• Turning Points in Us History: 18th Century, 19th Century, 20th Century

W:

• The War
• Watergate
• Watergate Plus 30: Shadow of History
• The Wilderness Idea
• The Wobblies

Y:

• Yidl in the Middle: Growing Up Jewish in Iowa

Documentary Films about American Presidents

• The American President
• President John Adams
• President George H. W. Bush
• President George W. Bush
• President Jimmy Carter
• President Bill Clinton
• President Dwight Eisenhower
• President Gerald Ford
• President Ulysses S. Grant
• President Thomas Jefferson
• President Lyndon Johnson
• President John F. Kennedy
• President Abraham Lincoln
• President Richard Nixon
• President Ronald Reagan
• President Franklin D. Roosevelt
• President Theodore Roosevelt
• President Harry Truman
• President Woodrow Wilson
• Portraits of American Presidents