The 13 best history documentaries on Netflix right now

13th (2016)

You don’t have to be a professional historian to realize this documentary's title refers to the 13th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, i.e., the one that abolished slavery. However, Ava DuVernay still schooled a whole lot of people with her exploration of a specific line within that amendment: “...except as a punishment for crime.”

The Anthrax Attacks: In the Shadow of 9/11 (2022)

The year 2001 was a rough one for America by just about anyone’s standards, but to endure 9/11 and anthrax attacks… well, that’s just adding insult to injury. Oscar-nominated director Dan Krauss takes a look at how a nation already on edge dealt with the subsequent biological terrorism, blending archival footage and new interviews with reenactments compiled from emails and FBI field notes.

The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson (2017)

Once called “the Rosa Parks of the LGBT movement,” Marsha P. Johnson was and remains a transgender legend, but the accomplishments of her life have often been overshadowed by her 1992 death. It was classified as a suicide, despite her friends and family’s steadfast insistence that she was in no way suicidal.

Crip Camp (2020)

Summer camp has long been a rite of passage, but there was a time when growing up handicapped meant you had to sit this one out. That's not the case at Camp Jened, a spot in upstate New York that welcomed children with disabilities.

Blood Brothers: Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali (2021)

Their friendship was brief — only three years — but Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X forged a bond that may have lasted longer if things had gone differently within the Nation of Islam.

Challenger: The Final Flight (2020)

When the Challenger space shuttle exploded just 73 seconds after launch in 1986, thousands of children in schools across the nation watched it unfold in real time. Millions more saw it afterward on a taped replay. Of all the times for such a tragedy to occur, this was arguably the worst: In addition to the Challenger having one of the most diverse crews in NASA history, it also featured high school teacher Christa McAuliffe, the first private citizen in space.

The Last Days (1998)

Some events, perhaps especially those that are morally incomprehensible, need to be wrestled with on a human level. Case in point, James Moll’s The Last Days, which zeroes in on a handful of Hungarian Jews who survived the Holocaust in the last year of World War II, when Nazi Germany occupied Hungary and began mass deportations to concentration camps.

Meltdown: Three Mile Island (2022)

Given Americans’ general awareness of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster, it’s high time the younger generation learned just how close the U.S. came to a nuclear disaster of its own.

Power (2024)

We live in a time in which the police, who ostensibly exist to protect and serve the people, are often feared rather than trusted. This history documentary, by Oscar-nominated, Emmy-winning director Yance Ford, illustrates that contrast, often directly juxtaposing moments of real-life police brutality with cheerfully whitewashed pop-culture images of American law enforcement.

Stamped From the Beginning (2023)

In adapting Ibram X. Kendi’s bestseller, director Roger Ross Williams explores the concept of anti-Blackness and the systemic, establishment forces that allowed it to take root, spread, and survive. With a combination of animation, archival material, and pop culture imagery, Stamped successfully provides historical context while also interrogating the status quo on race, class, culture, and power.

Struggle: The Life and Lost Art of Szukalski (2018)

The best documentaries not only educate but fascinate, which is why this one has earned such acclaim. The story starts with Glenn Bray, a pop culture collector who found a book about the art of surrealist Stanislav Szukalski. He showed it off to his friends, then stumbled upon a Szukalski poster in a bookstore a few years later. He soon discovered that not only was the artist still alive, but also lived nearby. It’s a remarkable story that also shines a light on one of the most underrated creatives of the 20th century.

Ancient Apocalypse (2022–2024)

This documentary is a bit of an outlier on our list, veering closer to an episode of In Search Of… than a proper scientific exploration. Still, author Graham Hancock provides a full-throated defense of one theory: There was an extremely advanced ancient civilization, here on Earth, that was largely destroyed thousands of years ago but still paved the way for modern civilization. There are glimpses, Hancock argues, that remain to this day.