The American Revolution (Ken Burns Series)

We finished watching the final of six two-hour-long episodes about the American Revolution today. I must say it’s been eye-opening (I didn’t learn much about it in school in England), and I’ve particularly been interested to hear the Native American and African American scholars’ contributions to the project. (The slaughter of Native Americans during what became a colonizing, imperial effort by the leaders of the Revolution was highlighted and sickening; I’m told American teenagers don’t get told this story much in history classes either.)

What has particularly impressed me about this series is the storytelling, much of it done through original paintings but a great deal of which was filled in with watercolors by Greg Harlin, whose depiction of the encamped Continental Army during a harsh winter — I can’t remember if it was at Valley Forge or Morristown) is shown above. These paintings have been a great complement to drone footage, maps, and still photos or footage of colonial interiors. The letters and accounts by soldiers from both sides, from politicians, from enslaved men and women, and from colonial women whether loyalist or rebel, have been brilliantly woven together. What an editing job this must have been…

The American Revolution was driven by ideas. It was a product of the Enlightenment. As the democracy that was born of this great and costly experiment lies under ever-greater threat, it’s good to look back into what it was all about. I’m glad we’ve taken the time to do this.