Gore Vidal's American Presidency, 1999

Terrific stuff. Vidal wrote that this was shown I think only once, and was followed by a panel of historians to point out its supposed excesses and errors. For an hour-ish essay/summary of two centuries of presidential history, it's pretty darn good; it's the framing that offends the scholar-squirrel court historians.

Here's a playlist in the same vein called "The History of the Really-Existing US Presidency" and starting with Vidal's documentary above but moving on to a mini-documentary with Vidal made a decade later expanding on the post-FDR period ("The History of the National Security State"), followed by extended comments by historian Peter Kuznick and Noam Chomsky.

My blurb: "Well, let's just say there are some little tidbits usually left out of the onanistic exercise that is textbook American history. A corrective thereunto follows." Just on historiographical grounds, for the sake of intellectual honesty, this whole playlist should be required viewing in the schools.

If I may add my own little bit to this, check out my Essay on American History, listed in reverse chronological order. I plan to beef it up and try to publish it as a pamphlet somewhere.