This next episode, “Pray the Devil Back to Hell,” tells the astonishing story of the Liberian women who took on the warlords and regime of dictator Charles Taylor in the midst of a brutal civil war and won a once-unimaginable peace for their shattered country in 2003.

Tilda Swinton narrates the “Peace Unveiled” episode about three women in Afghanistan who organized to make sure that women have a seat at the negotiating table with the Taliban.

Next up is “The War We Are Living,” the story of Cauca, a mountainous region in Colombia’s Pacific southwest, where two extraordinary Afro-Colombian women are fighting to stay on their gold-rich lands.

The series concludes with “War Redefined,” which challenges the conventional wisdom that war and peace are men’s domain through incisive interviews with leading thinkers, secretaries of state and seasoned survivors of war and peacemaking.

Watch the full episode. See more Women War and Peace.

Watch the full episode. See more American Masters.

“Man of the House” — The evolution of men from the kings of their castles in classic family sitcoms to more intricate, conflicted figures in modern shows.

“The  Crusader” — Delves into the increasingly grey area between right and wrong as television heroes confront internal demons while seeking their own forms of justice.

“Independent Woman” — A look at how women have transformed from model housewives to complex, sometimes controversial, characters.

“The Misfit” — A celebration of the unique characters who defied comic stereotypes and societal expectations to reflect America’s diverse personalities.

The series includes more than 100 in-depth interviews with the creators, writers and actors who gave life to the characters audiences have come to love, and emonstrates how the finest television today has its foundation in the best television of yesterday.

Episode 1: “A Nation of Drunkards” — In the mid-1800s, alcohol abuse is wreaking havoc on American families, and new groups like the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union and the Anti-Saloon League form to push for Prohibition.

Episode 2: “A Nation of Scofflaws” — In 1920, Prohibition goes into effect, and millions of law-abiding Americans become lawbreakers overnight. “Drys” had hoped Prohibition would make the country a safer place, but the law has many victims.

Episode 3: “A Nation of Hypocrites” — In the final episode, gangsters make huge profits and wreak havoc in cities across the country. By the late 1920s many Americans believe that Prohibition — the “Noble Experiment” — has failed. After the election of Franklin Roosevelt in 1932, the amendment is repealed.

Watch the full episode. See more Ken Burns.

The series follows the meticulous Feinstein as he rummages though cluttered basements and dusty attics, sifts through piles in cluttered storage lockers, and unearths obscure items in flea markets.  Simultaneously, he digs deep into the artistry of performers like Frank Sinatra, Rosemary Clooney, Nat King Cole, Ethel Waters, and Margaret Whiting, illuminating what makes them so iconic and timeless.  In all aspects of his life, Feinstein is a historical sleuth, obsessively seeking out and saving priceless musical rarities (alternate lyrics, long-lost arrangements, and unreleased recordings) from destruction.

“Michael has been called the Indiana Jones of popular music – he’s been collecting since he was five years old,” says producer/director Amber Edwards. “But for him it’s not about amassing and hoarding objects; it’s all part of his mission to keep this music alive for future generations.”

In addition to footage that documents Feinstein’s fabulous but exhausting life on the road, American Songbook uses prized archival audio and film footage to tell its story.  The clips, narrated and contextualized by Feinstein, reveal the social and historical forces behind the music, which helped to shape the style, attitude and self-image of America for more than a century.  Filled with generous portions of live performance past and present, the series offers both an intimate portrait of a unique entertainer and a history of 20th-century popular culture.

The first episode is “Top of the Tenth.” In this episode, baseball faces its worst crisis in 70 years with a 1994 strike that cancels the World Series; baseball rebuilds with new stadiums; Latin American players make a mark on the game; the Yankees return to glory; and bulked-up sluggers Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa captivate the nation as they chase Roger Maris’ single-season home run record.

The film concludes with “Bottom of the Tenth.” As the 21st century begins, baseball is booming. In an era of home runs and power, a handful of pitchers manage to dominate; Ichiro Suzuki becomes MLB’s first Japanese position player, opening the door for other Asian players; as America reels from the 9/11 attacks, baseball provides solace; long-suffering Red Sox fans rejoice in their first World Series victory in 86 years; and even as the game is more popular than ever, revelations about steroids cast a shadow on many of the era’s greatest stars and their historic accomplishments.

The first hour of God in America explores the origins of America’s unique religious landscape — how the New World challenged and changed the faiths the first European settlers brought with them. In New Mexico, the spiritual rituals of the Pueblo Indians collided with the Catholic faith of the Spanish Franciscan friars who came to convert them, finally exploding in violent rebellion. In New England, Puritan leader John Winthrop faced off against religious dissenters from within his own ranks. And a new message of spiritual rebirth from evangelical preachers like George Whitfield swept through the American colonies, upending traditional religious authority and kindling a rebellious spirit that fused with the political upheaval of the American Revolution.

Hour two considers the beginnings of America’s experiment in religious liberty, examining how the political alliance between evangelical Baptists and enlightenment figures such as Thomas Jefferson forged a new concept of religious freedom—first in Virginia and ultimately in the Bill of Rights. The film looks at the impact of these new freedoms on the country as it pushed westward, creating a vibrant religious marketplace where new religions started taking root and new Protestant denominations began overtaking the old. But the definition of freedom was contested, its meaning igniting political conflicts between Irish Catholic immigrants and the Protestant establishment in New York over the reading of the Bible in public schools.

Hour three looks at how religious belief shaped the origins of the Civil War and President Abraham Lincoln’s actions during the conflict. As Northern abolitionists and Southern slaveholders clashed over the question of slavery, each side turned to the Bible to argue its cause. Frederick Douglass, a former slave and abolitionist newspaper editor, despaired that people who called themselves Christians could defend the evils of slavery. Protestant denominations fractured, with each side declaring God was on its side. Meanwhile, Lincoln, who had put his faith in reason over revelation, confronted the mounting casualties of the war and the death of his young son. In his anguish, he began a spiritual journey that transformed his inner life and changed his ideas about God and the ultimate meaning of the war.

Hour four explores the intellectual and cultural conflicts between traditional religious beliefs and the forces of modernity. In the late 19th century, the country’s leading Protestant denominations were challenged by new ideas about the history and authority of the Bible, leading to the heresy trial of Presbyterian biblical scholar Charles Briggs. As waves of new European immigrants changed the face of American religion, Rabbi Isaac Meyer Wise advocated a new reform Judaism that adopted ancient traditions to modern American culture, but alienated Orthodox Jews. The battle over modernity reached a crescendo in the 1925 trial of John Scopes, a Dayton, Tennessee teacher arrested for teaching evolution. The trial became a clash between religious and scientific truths fought by two American titans: the populist Christian fundamentalist William Jennings Bryan and the secular freethinker Clarence Darrow.

Hour five considers a contradiction at the heart of the post-war era: at the same time the Supreme Court embarked on a series of controversial decisions that required government actions have a secular purpose, fresh religious energy surged through the nation, fueling the Cold War fight against “Godless Communism” and driving the Civil Rights movement. As America affirmed its standing as “one nation under God,” American presidents sought the approval of the popular and charismatic evangelist Billy Graham.  And civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. echoed the message of the ancient prophets as he called upon the nation to honor the commitment of the founding fathers to the principles of freedom and social justice.  Meanwhile the US Supreme Court ruled against religious expression in public schools in a series of controversial decisions that persuaded many Americans that the Court was hostile to religious faith.

Hour six brings the series into the present day, exploring the political aspirations of the religious right, the dynamics of the contemporary religious marketplace, and the re-emergence of a religious voice in the Democratic Party. In the 1970s, led by the ideas of maverick evangelical intellectual Francis Schaeffer, conservative evangelicals set aside their longstanding aversion to political engagement and stepped back into the political arena. But their embrace of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush ended in disappointment and raised doubts for many about the high price they had paid.  At the same time America was fast becoming the most religiously diverse nation as Hispanic Catholics, Pentecostals, Muslims, Buddhists and those who consider themselves “spiritual but not religious” entered the ever-expanding religious marketplace.  In the wake of political defeat, Democrats recalculated their aversion to religion and the contestants in the 2008 presidential race, including Barack Obama, sought to define a new standard.  God in America closes with reflections on the dynamics of faith in the public life of the country—from the unending quest for religious liberty to the enduring idea of America as the “city on a hill” envisioned by the Puritans nearly 400 years ago.

What to Expect: Two new projects, both in the Boston area, mark the show’s 30th anniversary season. The first, in the suburb of Newton Centre, updates a 1915 Dutch Colonial, making it more suitable for a family of four on a limited budget. In the second, the crew takes to the rough urban neighborhood of Roxbury to renovate a vacant, foreclosed 1870s-era Second Empire house, dividing it into two units for two low-income families to take ownership of.