In the years before World War I, virtually no issue was too controversial to bring to the screen. The first American movies were deeply engaged with society, coming from an era when movies and entertainment were intimately interwoven with public debate. As such, they were shown in commercial movie theaters but also in clubs, churches, schools, and everywhere screens could be hung outdoors--from the sides of city tenements to country barns. This archive sends these treasures back into the world, where they found their inspiration. "The City Reformed" deals with the urban problems: poverty, criminality, health, safety, child welfare, and corruption. Gender, family, and the crusade for equal voting rights dominate in program 2, "New Women." Labor struggles and oppression are central to program 3, "Toil and Tyranny." The final program, "Americans in the Making," brings together films confronting immigration, race relations, and wartime home-front sacrifice.