Ken Burns’ The American Revolution

Last updated on: February 9, 2026 at 1:23 am by Ben Witherington

Ken Burns’ The American Revolution 2026-01-23T22:44:20-05:00 Ben Witherington

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This six disk (2 hours each disk) epic is told by familiar voices– Paul Giamatti who played John Adams in the much praised series on his life on PBS, Tom Hanks, Morgan Freeman, and many others, as well as interviews with some of the. great historians of our time from both America, and the U.K. and elsewhere. There are many revelations about the revolution in this series— the prominent role of the American Indians on both sides of the war, the crucial role of the French, the fact that it took so long— from 1774 as a preamble to 1783 when a peace treaty finally was signed by both sides, and even longer to write up a Constitution and Bill of Rights and get it ratified by the 13 original colonies. It is an amazing story of blood, sweat, and tears. And the big losers were not the British— it was the slaves especially in the South, who had the prospect of freedom promised by the British if they would serve on their side, and the Indians everywhere who would continue to be driven from their land– further and further West.

The modus operandi for this documentary was much the same as for the award-winning Civil War documentary. Use actual letters from the participants, famous and ordinary with segments read from such documents, and commentary from many historians. Tell the story honestly when it comes to wins and loses, and what was really being fought for— and it is true, this war was different, as it was fought for some ideals—freedom, democracy, some sort of notion of equality of all persons (except of course slaves and Indians….. and women who would not get the vote for many more years, never mind African Americans getting their freedom or the vote). In other words, it was burnished and imperfect notions of the ideals enshrined in the first place in the Bible— all equally created in the image of God, and then echoed in the Declaration of Independence. Freedom of religion was key….. but so was the notion of governing by the sent of those being governed, which meant elections, and the same applied to the laws as to the officials.

I found this series, which does a good job of showing how the war progressed and what was remarkable and what was depressing about it (the brutality, the extreme violence not for the noble causes in many cases, but for revenge and for wounded pride). It presents a picture of George Washington which is very fair— unsparing in its criticism when it was called for, and also in his praise when merited. All wars brutalize human beings and turn them into brutes to some extent. I learned much from this series….and I commend it to one and all. No American should miss seeing this. In fact, it should be required of every U.S. citizen, or those on the way to being such.

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The oddest of all wars

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