Journey Into the American Revolution

We watched the first episode of Ken Burns’ new documentary about the American Revolution this afternoon. The series consists of six two-hour episodes so like most of Ken Burns’ documentaries it is a serious effort both to watch and of course to produce — this documentary was a decade in the making.

The first episode presents the years leading up to the war, starting in 1754 just before the Seven Years’ War and ending in 1775 after the battles of Lexington and Concord. So far the documentary is excellent. Documenting the 18th century is a challenge for filmmakers since there is no archival footage, recordings, or photographs to draw upon but so far they are bringing the era very much to life with landscape footage, period illustrations, maps, interviews with historians, and many voiceover readings of texts from the period. (They have a star-studded cast of voice actors). It is clear that the filmmakers want to highlight the role of marginalized peoples — I was pleased that in this first episode they had interviews with at least three Native American scholars.

The series is quite timely. We are in a period of great division over what our country ought to be, so it is good to take a deep dive into its origins.