Iconic America

About The Series

In the series ICONIC AMERICA: OUR SYMBOLS AND STORIES, David Rubenstein explores America’s 400-year history through a close examination of iconic national symbols: indelible artifacts, places, and archetypes. Each episode tells the story of an American symbol to reveal its origins, significance and the arc of its resonance.

Episode subjects have included the Hollywood Sign, Fenway Park, American cowboys, Gadsden Flag (“Don’t Tread On Me”), with additional subjects yet to come: American Bald Eagle, Stone Mountain, Statue of Liberty, and the Golden Gate Bridge. Rubenstein invites historical experts and community members to examine myriad ways the American public engages with these subjects.

All episodes of Iconic America are now streaming at https://www.pbs.org/show/iconic-america/ and with the PBS app.

Iconic America: Our Symbols and Stories with David Rubenstein is a production of Show of Force, DMR Productions, and WETA Washington, D.C. David M. Rubenstein is the host and executive producer. Maro Chermayeff, Jeff Dupre, Joshua Bennett and Sam Pollard are executive producers for Show of Force. John F. Wilson is executive producer for WETA. Bill Gardner is the executive in charge for PBS. Chris Ullman is producer for DMR Productions. Jonathan Scheinberg, Prisca Pointdujour, Sam Lacroix, Alexandra Nikolchev, Sally Rosenthal, Matthew Horovitz, Lizzie Mulvey and Ken Levis are producers for Show of Force. Kate Kelly is producer for WETA. Rick Van Meter is supervising producer. Allison Hanna is archival producer. Gary Lionelli is composer for the original score.

National Funding is provided by The Zohar and Lisa Ben-Dov Family through the Luminescence Foundation.