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Long a voice against the tide, Mark Twain defined the late 19th century as an age of greed and inequality. In 2004, Bill Moyers talked with actor Hal Holbrook about his stage portrayal of American writer Mark Twain. Also, check out The Legacy of Mark Twain and the Twain Trivia Quiz Steve Fraser, historian and author of WALL STREET: AMERICA'S DREAM PALACE, discusses the modern parallels and differences to the first Gilded Age, the big disparity between the rich and poor, and the increasing strain on working Americans.

pop·u·list: 1: a member of a political party claiming to represent the common people 2: a believer in the rights, wisdom, or virtues of the common people Historian Nell Irvin Painter, an expert on Populism in the 19th century, examines what history reveals about the current state of inequality in America.

Labor and political leader Eugene V. Debs' personal turning point came during the famous Pullman Strike. The strike began May 11, 1894, with a walkout by Pullman Palace Car Company factory workers after negotiations over declining wages failed. These workers appealed for support to the American Railway Union (ARU) which called a strike after negotiations failed. The strike crippled train travel across the nation and the federal government intervened, issuing an injunction essentially forbidding all boycott activity, and then dispatched soldiers to strike hubs. The strike brought Eugene V. Debs to public notice and landed him in prison. In later life Debs wrote about the unequal fight:

"Had the carpenter of Nazareth been in Chicago at the time He would have been on the side of the poor, the heavy-laden and sore at heart, and He would have denounced their oppressors and been sent to prison for contempt of court under President Cleveland's administration." DEBS: HIS LIFE, WRITINGS AND SPEECHES (Chicago: Charles H. Kerr & Co., 1908"

Perpetual Socialist Party candidate Eugene V. Debs polled 6 percent of the vote in the 1912 election — far better than Ralph Nader's 2.74 percent in 2000.

Rachel Carson's impact goes far beyond government bureaucracy. Carson and her most famous book, SILENT SPRING, are credited with no less than inspiring the modern global environmental movement. In its collection of the 100 most important people of the 20th Century, TIME magazine said: "Before there was an environmental movement, there was one brave woman and her very brave book."

Bill Moyers Journal looks at the life and legacy of Rachel Carson through an extraordinary portrayal of her in a one-woman play performed by veteran stage actress Kaiulani Lee, whose play A Sense of Wonder has been the centerpiece of regional and national conferences on conservation, education, journalism, and the environment for more than ten years. The broadcast combines excerpts from the play, an interview with Lee and documentary reporting on Carson's life and work in a powerful look at this scientist, writer, and seeker of the truth.

"Sometimes we find we have nothing to give but love which is a poem which I give For the Black Revolution" - Nikki Giovanni, BLACK JUDGEMENT, 1968 In 2009, Bill Moyers talked with renowned poet Nikki Giovanni, whose 27 books have spanned the themes of race, politics, sex and violence. In 1968; after graduating from Fisk, she attended the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University. She published her first book of poetry, BLACK FEELING BLACK TALK, in 1968, and within the next year published a second book, thus launching her career as a writer. Early in her career she was dubbed the "Princess of Black Poetry," and over the course of more than three decades of publishing and lecturing she has come to be called both a "National Treasure" and, most recently, one of Oprah Winfrey's twenty-five "Living Legends."

Historian Howard Zinn takes a dissenting view of the traditionally taught American past in his classic A PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. In 2002, Bill Moyers talked with Howard Zinn on NOW WITH BILL MOYERS.

Published March 20, 2009. Guest photos by Robin Holland