First in a three-part series in which acclaimed documentary filmmakers present ten pivotal moments in American history and their often unforeseen repercussions. This segment of four documentary films tells of four events in early U.S. history. The Pequot War, a massacre in Mysic, Conn. on May 26, 1637, set the pattern of possessing Indian land in America. Shays' Rebellion (Jan. 25, 1787) was a protest against debt collection and taxation practices...

Blood Meridian (1985), Cormac McCarthy's epic tale of an otherwise nameless "kid" who in his teens joins a gang of licensed scalp hunters whose marauding adventures take place across Texas, Chihuahua, Sonora, Arizona, and California during 1849 and 1850, is widely considered to be one of the finest novels of the Old West, as well as McCarthy's greatest work. The New York Times Book Review ranked it third in a 2006 survey of the "best work of American...