Watch the Emmy winning history-on-location series

Join Ed Ayers — award-winning historian and co-host of the hit podcast BackStory — as he travels to places that define the most misunderstood parts of America’s past.

Visit sites Americans struggle to discuss, and learn from National Park Service interpreters, museum educators, artists, and activists how they engage a diverse public with the fullness of our nation’s history.

VPM, Virginia’s home for public media, is the state's flagship PBS member station.
American Public Television distributes The Future of America's Past to PBS member stations across the United States.