Ken Burns: American Revolution

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2025 10;10 PM.  I watched the entire 12 hours of Ken Burns American Revolution on PBS.  This consisted of six 2-hour programs,  If you missed this phenomenal series, or any part, here are details from PBS and/or check with your local public broadcasting outlet for other arrangements for future viewing.  Every American should take the time to view, discuss, and reflect on the meaning of this extraordinary program on the creation story of the United States of America.

George Washington, born 1732; 43 in 1775

If you were born and went to school in the United States, you learned a shorthand version of our native land.  Of course, it was not the whole story.  The shorthand version was much like the old farm postcard from before 1910.  Of course, we young scholars remembered fragments of that already much condensed version.

As I watched the twelve hour summary of our history over 6 evenings, Nov. 16-21, I mined my memory for the scraps I recall about my country.  Here is my condensed version.

George Washington cut down the cherry tree and could not tell a lie; and threw a coin across a river.

The Boston Tea Party; Paul Revere’s ride; Benedict Arnold betraying his country; the First Thanksgiving; Valley Forge; the King of England; people that looked a lot like me did all the work to establish the United States of America.  Ours was “the land of the free and the home of the brave” – “America, the Beautiful”….

Of course, life goes on, and as time went on there were more snippets.  Several trips to our nation’s capitol, visits to the White House and the U.S. Capitol, the sites of Boston, Lexington and Concord, Colonial Williamsburg, Philadelphia, on and on.  Each visit expanded my knowledge a bit.

Slaves, Native Americans, Quebec (supposed to be one of the original states.  My Dad is 100% French-Canadian, which makes me half French-Canadian), the role of France….

These and many, many other fragments of information were like fashioning a puzzle out of many pieces.

The pieces are not all glorious, for certain: the Civil War; the refusal of the new United States to recognize the slave revolt which led to an independent Haiti in 1803, right after our Constitution was ratified.

Endless pieces.

What Ken Burns and crew endeavored to do, and did it masterfully in the series, was to make a portrait of America more consistent with the actual history as it really happened, with the glorious and the shameful; the personal virtues and the failing of human beings in what was a very long and difficult struggle.   (The Tea Party was not immediately followed by a festive Thanksgiving Dinner thrown by grateful natives.)

Old North Church Boston, June 1972 (Dick Bernard). (“one if by land, two if by sea”)

Tom Bernard at Liberty Bell, Philadelphia June 1972

Give yourself and your family gift:  Make it a point to not only watch the entire 12 hours, but to talk about what the revolution means in context with today.