All times Eastern

SUNDAY, 10:30 a.m.

History Speaks: What Makes Democracy Work

FAMILYLAND TV Author, publisher and speaker William Federer reminds us that Christianity played an undeniable role in the founding of our American republic and remains essential today. Re-airs 8:30 p.m. Mondays, 2 p.m. Wednesdays.

MONDAY, 8 p.m.

The Journey Home

EWTN Host Marcus Grodi’s guest, Jeff Cavins, a Catholic author and broadcasting personality, is a former evangelical-Protestant minister — one who had been raised a Catholic.

TUESDAY, 10 p.m.

Independent Lens: Red White Black & Blue

PBS In May 1943, the U.S. Army landed on remote Attu in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands and began a 19-day struggle in terrible weather to retake it from a Japanese garrison. This 2006 documentary, directed by Tom Putnam, tells the story by returning to the battlefield with Bill Jones and Andy Petrus, both 85, who fought there. Our GIs suffered 549 dead and 3,380 other casualties in this badly planned operation, and only 28 of some 3,000 Japanese survived. Advisory: TV-14 for images of war; parents strongly cautioned.

WEDNESDAY, 9 p.m.

Lost Worlds: The Age of Airships

HISTORY CHANNEL Airships (lighter-than-air aircraft,) flew long before the Wright brothers and seemed to have a bright future even after the advent of the airplane. The fiery Hindenburg zeppelin disaster in 1937 helped to dash those hopes. Advisory: TV-PG.

THURSDAY, 10 p.m.

New York Goes to War

PBS This new documentary uses the stories of six New Yorkers to try to portray the typical experiences of the almost 1 million “Gothamites” who served in World War II. Letters from Marine Lt. Phil Wood, killed in action in the Pacific, punctuate interviews with Puerto Rico-born Manny Medina (Silver Star) of the Fighting 69th and his wife Gloria, black tanker Bill McBurney (Bronze Star), Army Air Force navigator and POW Paul Canin, and home front P-47 Thunderbolt riveter Josephine Rachiele. Advisory: TV-PG.

FRIDAY, 9 p.m.

Bear’s Mission Everest

DISCOVERY CHANNEL English adventurer, professional survivalist, author and U.S. TV personality Edward “Bear” Grylls raised $1 million for a children’s charity in May 2007 by flying a jet-powered paraglider, designed by his friend and fellow pilot Gilo Cardozo, to an altitude above the Himalayas, including Mount Everest. Advisory: TV-PG.

SATURDAY, 2:30 p.m.

Doctors of the Church

EWTN Church historian, author and TV host Father Charles Connor, the official historian and censor librorum (reviewer of texts) of the Diocese of Scranton, Pa., discusses Pope St. Leo the Great (d. 461), St. Peter Damian (1007-1072) and St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153), each one a powerful defender of the Catholic faith.

Dan Engler writes from
Santa Barbara, California.