Ken Burns

In the second episode of Ken Burns's DUST BOWL, experience the gradual relief as the families of the plains seek new lives in California and government conservation efforts - and a break in the drought in 1939 - eventually stabilize the soil and bring the farms back to life, but with dangers of another Dust Bowl facing future generations.

Defining country music is debated as never before, and the argument sparks a vibrant era. Dolly Parton crosses over to mainstream success. Willie Nelson finds creative freedom in Texas. Emmylou Harris influences a new generation of artists.

After centuries of percolating in America's immigrant and racial mix, particularly in the American South, what was first called "hillbilly music" begins reaching more people through the new technologies of phonographs and radio.

Kennedy inspires idealistic Americans to serve their country and wrestles with how deeply to get involved in South Vietnam. As the autocratic Diem regime faces a communist insurgency and Buddhist protests, a political crisis unfolds.

North Vietnamese troops and materiel stream down the Ho Chi Minh Trail into the South. As an antiwar movement builds back home, soldiers and Marines discover that the war they are fighting in Vietnam is nothing like their fathers' war.

By the late 1880s, the buffalo that once numbered in the tens of millions have been reduced to fewer than 1,000 and teeter on the brink of extinction. But a diverse and unlikely collection of Americans have started a few private herds in different locations--and for different reasons. In the early 1900s, their efforts grow into a movement that rescues the national mammal from disappearing forever.

Country music adapts to the cultural changes of post-war society. Bill Monroe and Earl Scruggs transform string band music into Bluegrass. Out of the bars comes a new sound and songs about drinking, cheating, and heartbreak: Honky Tonk.

American casualties mount as they face deadly North Vietnamese ambushes and artillery. Hanoi lays plans for a massive surprise offensive, and the Johnson administration reassures the American public that victory is in sight.

With South Vietnam in chaos, hardliners in Hanoi seize the initiative and send combat troops to the South. President Johnson escalates America's military commitment, authorizing bombing of the North and deploying ground troops in the South.

On the Tet holiday, North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces launch attacks on cities and military bases throughout the South, suffering devastating losses but casting doubt on Johnson's promise that there is "light at the end of the tunnel."