Documentary maker Ken Burns doesn’t think today’s polarized politics are anything new, especially for a country that, as he sees it, already had two civil wars — the American Revolution of 1776 and ...

Back in 2015, documentarian Ken Burns was still working on his Vietnam War series when he decided the next project would be on the American Revolution. Soon, ten years after Burns first felt that ...

Siege of Yorktown. General Rochambeau and general Washington give last orders before an attack, October 1781. Auguste Couder (1789–1873). Artist Auguste Couder, 1836 (Photo by Pierce Archive ...

Documentaries possess a rare power to bridge time and space, weaving together fragments of reality into narratives that resonate deeply within the human psyche. They illuminate hidden truths, reveal ...

On September 3, AEI’s Yuval Levin, Christine Rosen, and Adam J. White hosted a symposium at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello examining the American Revolution’s legacy in American history. The first ...

Today, July 4, marks the 249 th birthday of the United States of America. That puts America 365 days from the big 250, a pretty good run for something as temporary-sounding as the “American Experiment ...

Throughout his career, Burns has developed and perfected the tricks of his particular trade: the evocative use of music and quotations from speeches and correspondence; the use of actors to read the ...

"The American Revolution," the latest work from filmmaker Ken Burns, begins this Sunday on PBS. The six-part, 12-hour history of the war of independence from Britain and the beginnings of the American ...

This year marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, when 13 American colonies dared to reject British rule over their affairs. Filmmaker Ken Burns spent a decade making a ...

Directors Sarah Botstein and Ken Burns look at a bust of George Washington made by Jean-Antoine Houdon at George Washington's Mount Vernon on Oct. 29, 2025, in Mount Vernon, Va. Directors Sarah ...