This Sunday April 25th at 9/8c, the History Channel will broadcast the first in a six-part series about the history of America. From the looks of the trailer, this isn’t your dad’s history documentary. It truly appears to be an ambitious retelling of the 400 year history of America. It’ll be a story of conflict and conquest, hope and change, and a retelling of the events that gave rise to this great nation. It promises to be an ambitious project, with History giving away the 12 hour series to every school and accredited college in America.

On top of that, History is also running a promotion on foursquare, the popular location-based social media platform for mobile phones. Upon checking-in to select locations, users will receive a “Fun Fact Pop Up” with interesting information about the location by HISTORY. For example: users in New York who check in to St. Paul’s Chapel will discover George Washington worshipped there on his Inauguration in 1789 and users in Los Angeles who check in at the Cinerama Dome will find out it opened in 1963 with the premiere of ‘It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World’ and that it’s the world’s only concrete geodesic dome. Users are also encouraged to leave their own comments about the sites for others to discover. For more info, check out http://foursquare.com/historychannel

You can read the full text of the press release, and watch the trailer below the break.

Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

AMERICA THE STORY OF US, an epic 6-night television event series and national educational initiative covering 400 years of American history, will premiere on HISTORY™ on Sunday, April 25, 9pm ET/PT. In conjunction with the broadcast, HISTORY will launch its largest ever educational outreach initiative and will for the first time offer a DVD of the entire 12-hour series to every single school and accredited college in America – free of charge.

Narrated by Liev Schreiber (X-Men Origins: Wolverine, A View from the Bridge), AMERICA THE STORY OF US is the most in-depth television series ever produced by HISTORY, as well as the broadest educational outreach initiative the network has ever undertaken. It is the first television event in nearly forty years to present the history of America, and the most elaborate and ambitious in the scale of its cinematic vision. This is history with roots in the physical world: wilderness, animals, weather, and the sea.

“America’s history is a journey we all share and participate in, and we are thrilled to present this adventure as it has never been experienced before,” said Nancy Dubuc, President & General Manager, HISTORY. “Viewers will see key historical turning points unfold as if they are happening right in front of their eyes. America’s story is also about the innovative ideas of people who built this country from the ground up through their own determination and ingenuity. AMERICA THE STORY OF US weaves the stories of these everyday trailblazers together to help us gain a deeper understanding of who we are as a people, and how we all contribute to the history being created today.”

Ms. Dubuc continued, “We are extremely proud of the educational backbone of this series, the biggest commitment we’ve ever made, including making the full 12-hour series available to every single school in the country on DVD. In my mind, what Eyes on the Prize was to civil rights education, AMERICA THE STORY OF US will be to U.S. history. With its innovative and fresh approach to learning about the history of our nation, we think the series will quickly become an integral part of school curriculums throughout the country.”

AMERICA THE STORY OF US tells the extraordinary story of how America was invented, looking at the moments where Americans harnessed technology to advance human progress – from the rigors of linking the continent by transcontinental railroad, the Internet of its day, to triumphing over vertical space through the construction of steel-structured buildings. The series is also a story of conflict – with Native American peoples, slavery, the Revolutionary War that birthed the nation, the Civil War that divided it and the great world war that shaped its future. This is a look at the forces that have shaped our nation – the people, places and things that created this most astounding country. It’s a tough and thrilling adventure.

Jane Root, Executive Producer of AMERICA THE STORY OF US and Founder and Chief Executive of Nutopia, said of the series, “Our goal was to create a series that will ignite viewer interest, and make history exuberant and exciting. Among the breathtaking historical events that have been portrayed are a meteor that crashes through the Appalachian Mountains 300 million years ago to create the Cumberland Gap, the British Navy’s spectacular bombardment of the New York Harbor at the dawn of the Revolutionary War, New England whalers risking their lives to kill their valuable prey, the wide open western plains teeming with massive herds of buffalo, the construction of the Statue of Liberty, and the Erie Canal and transcontinental railroad that opened up central commercial routes and connected the continent together.”

Historical events covered in AMERICA THE STORY OF US include: the arrival of the first English settlers, the Revolutionary War, westward expansion, economic growth of the North and South, the Civil War, the settling of the Great Plains, the development of modern, industrialized cities, the California Gold Rush and the western frontier, the Great Depression and the Second World War.

Special consultants on AMERICA THE STORY OF US include Professors Daniel Walker Howe and David M. Kennedy. In addition, a chorus of notable Americans will speak from the heart, reflecting on our country and what it means to be an American. They include: Brian Williams, Professor Henry Louis Gates, Buzz Aldrin, Colin Powell, Sheryl Crow, Soledad O’Brien, David Baldacci, Meryl Streep, Donald Trump, Michael Douglas, and many more.

AMERICA THE STORY OF US is produced for HISTORY by Nutopia, a new production company started by Jane Root, former President of Discovery Channel. Prior to that Jane ran BBC2, and was a founder of the production company Wall to Wall Television. Jane Root is Executive Producer, Michael Jackson is co-Executive Producer and Ben Goold is Series Showrunner. For HISTORY, Nancy Dubuc, David McKillop and Julian P. Hobbs are Executive Producers.