The 12-hour, 6-part, series telling the background, history and story of the American Revolution was surely one of Ken Burns' best efforts. It first aired in November, 2025. This was an university-level presentation and one that really needs to be watched a second, or third, time to fully grasp the whole story. And every American should know this story.
There was so much more to this story than men-painted-like-Indians-dumping-tea-in-Boston-Harbor. Perhaps that's the highlight taught in grade school. To quote Burns' words, given in a September 2025 interview with David Leonhardt:
"I'm just offering a good story. I'm not offering it as anything other than an attempt to tell a complicated story, to make it come alive and to suggest that maybe it's possible to coalesce around the complexity of our origin story..... to revel in it, rather than reduce it to something binary and simple."
"Within that complexity, it may be possible to draw people to the ironies, the tragedies, the exultant ideas. Because this....the American Revolution.... is the most important event in world history since the birth of Christ. Period. Full stop. And I'll defend that. Because for the first time, there was possibility, even for those who did not yet have ownership of themselves. And to me, that is the essence of the liberating story of the American Revolution."
Yes, those are big words and deep thoughts. But that IS the story of America's Revolution. I encourage you to watch it, perhaps twice.
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