For the People, Despite the People: The Atatürk Revolution

At the end of World War I, the Ottoman Empire paid the ultimate price for choosing the wrong side. The winners, Britain and France, marched in and began to carve it up. Then an army arose out of nowhere, expelled the invaders from its homeland, and proclaimed the Republic of Turkey. All because of one man, Mustafa Kemal, or, as he came to be known, Atatürk -- father of the Turks. Enormously ambitious for himself and his people, Atatürk saw independence as just the beginning. He would not only transform the government, but also how people dressed, worshipped, wrote, and named themselves -- individually and as a nation. Produced and Written by Sharon Wood.

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The Greedy Heart of Halide Edib

In novels, memoirs, and essays, the Turkish writer Halide Edib chronicled the most cataclysmic change in the history of her country: its creation after World War I from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire. She not only wrote about it, she was one of the creators. And in that process, she helped secure a prominent place in public life for Turkish women. But in 1919, her country was about to become a colony. British and Greek invaders patrolled key cities, and wanted more. In occupied Istanbul, Halide Edib put down her pen, sent her two young sons away to safety abroad, and headed to the hills to join a small rebel band fighting for freedom. For Halide Edib, the choice was clear: she had to go. But she also kept a record of events -- memoirs -- for the youth on both sides fighting and dying around her, and for her own sons, far away. Produced and Written by Sharon Wood.

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The Ottoman Empire: A World of Difference

The Ottoman Empire lasted some 600 years, and spanned three continents. It was not only their military campaigns that made the Ottomans a force to be reckoned with for centuries. In an era when neighboring states persecuted, exiled, or massacred their minorities, the Islamic Ottoman state was willing to tolerate difference. Its subjects included not only Muslims, but large numbers of Christians and Jews. As Ottoman power eventually ebbed, the diversity that been a strength in one era became a weakness in another. Changing political forces within and without the Empire created a toxic stew of ethnic and religious hatred. That hatred would finally boil over amid the carnage of World War I, and contribute to the Ottoman Empire's own death rattle. Produced and Written by Sharon Wood.

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Dracula: Fact and Fiction

Few figures are so well known and strike as much terror as that of the vampire known as "Dracula." This creature -- not yet dead, but no longer alive -- has at one time or another tempted, fascinated and repelled us all. When writer Bram Stoker published Dracula in 1897, he couldn't have predicted that he was creating a figure who was larger than death. Today, he might be timeless, but in the 15th century, he was all too real. His name was Prince Vlad Dracula whom history has come to know as Vlad the Impaler. In many ways, the reality of Dracula's life was more terrifying than the fiction he helped inspire, his story more shocking than anything Hollywood could manufacture. Produced and Written by Adam Sternberg.

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