Available previously as a 5-part VHS set, New York now boasts two all-new episodes. The series offers fourteen spectacular hours of programming that chronicle the history of New York - from its beginning in 1609 as a Dutch trading post, through the turbulent years of change in the decades following World War II, to its present day status as one of the most important and influential cities in the world.

New York: A Documentary Film is an eight-part, 17½ hour, American documentary film on the history of New York City. It was directed by Ric Burns and originally aired in the U.S. on PBS. The film was a production of Steeplechase Films in association with WGBH Boston, Thirteen/WNET, and The New-York Historical Society.

The series was written by Burns and James Sanders and produced by Burns's company, Steeplechase Films. Several noted New York City historians, including Mike Wallace, Kenneth T. Jackson, David Levering Lewis and Robert Caro participated in the making of the series as consultants, and appeared on camera. It was narrated by David Ogden Stiers.

Other notable figures who appeared in the series include Rudolph Giuliani (then the mayor of New York City), former mayor Ed Koch, former New York governor Mario Cuomo, former U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, poet Allen Ginsberg, novelists Alfred Kazin and Brendan Gill, director Martin Scorsese, journalist Pete Hamill, former Congresswoman Bella Abzug, historian Niall Ferguson, philosopher Marshall Berman, writer Fran Lebowitz, engineer Leslie E. Robertson, architect Robert A.M. Stern, high wire artist Philippe Petit, real estate developer (and future President) Donald Trump, and author David McCullough.

DVD Box contains:

Episode 1: The Country and the City(1609 - 1825) chronicles the arrival of the Dutch, the impact of the English, the horrors of colonial slavery and New York's critical role in the American Revolution.

Episode 2: Order and Disorder(1825 - 1865) looks at New York's rise as a burgeoning cultural center and multi-ethnic port, concluding with the Civil War Riots - America's bloodiest civil disturbance. Episode 3: Sunshine and Shadow(1865 - 1898) turns the spotlight on a period of greed and wealth that fueled the expanding metropolis - even as politics and poverty defined it.

Episode 3: Sunshine and Shadow (1865-1898) The giddy decades following the Civil War. During this period, New York grows at a staggering rate - demographically, geographically, and financially.

Episode 4: The Power and the People(1898 - 1918) follows New York into a new century, examining the interplay of capitalism, democracy and transformation in the wake of an extraordinary wave of immigration and the birth of the skyscraper.

Episode 5: Cosmopolis(1919 - 1931) details the African-American experience, the birth of new media industries and the incredible array of human and cultural energies that converged, ending with the construction of the world's tallest building.

Episode 6: City of Tomorrow(1929 - 1941) traces the spectacular but often troubling changes that overtook New York due to the crash of 1929 and the beginning of World War II.

Episode 7: The City and the World(1945 - Present) chronicles the history of New York from the end of World War II through today, exploring the complexities of the post-modern city and the turbulent years of physical, social and cultural change in the decades following the war.