PBS - American Experience: New York (8-DVD)

This compelling series presents a thorough portrait of New York. From Dutch settlement, through the British Empire and slavery, to the "Gilded Age" after the Civil War, the series explores how New York began. Chronicling the New York of enormous wealth and crushing poverty in the late 19th century to the growth of New York as a center of capitalism and media, the series also includes the construction of the greatest icon of New York's skyline, the Empire State Building.