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Posted on 11/25/2025 10:27:40 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Ken Burns and PBS want to teach us the history of the American Revolution. That’s objectively laudable, but from the opening seconds of his new six-part, 12-hour-long series on the Revolution, Burns is off to a truly ludicrous start. Why do I say that? Because instead of beginning with the events that led to the break with Britain in 1775, Burns (after an anodyne quote from Thomas Paine) opens with an Indian diatribe about land.
That is not surprising. Lest there be any question as to what Burns intends for us to learn about the American Revolution, Burns stated in an NPR interview on Oct. 20, 2025, that he believes the driving force of the American Revolution was not to secure for all Americans the ancient rights of Englishmen, but to steal land from the Indians. Really:
The central [motivating force], we’re not taught this in school. It’s taxes and representation, which is super important, but it’s Indian land.
This is obscene historical revisionism. While it’s true that many people wanted to negotiate with Indian tribes to purchase land in the west, that is where the evidence ends. Yet Burns flogs this canard repeatedly throughout the first half-hour of Episode 1.
To go beyond that and claim that desire to steal Indian land motivated the colonists generally—or the Founders particularly—to rebel against Britain lacks a single iota of fact in a massive historic record. Burns’s claim is based on nothing more than—to quote Professor Sean Wilentz’s masterful condemnation of the 1619 Project for similar unsubstantiated calumnies—“imputation and inventive mindreading.”
Moreover, Burns ignores entire political history of Britain—and that history shows that, for Englishmen, the single most abused power of government was taxation. More English blood had been spilled over that one issue than any other in the history of England.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
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Neither were Italians considered “white” for a long time here.
Ken Burns starts his series with the alleged inspiration by the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) of Franklin’s Albany Plan.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albany_Plan
That may be true, although some scholars dispute it. In any event, it is NOT “hard left”!
Besides that, some hard leftists despise Burns’ America Revolution series, alleging that It focuses too much on the war:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gOtiLAKtRw
Whatever your opinion, a series on the America Revolution is very appropriate for Thanksgiving time!
Bingo. I too have observed that the Civil War series was a cheap Powerpoint presentation. The Civil War placed too much emphasis slavery and not enough on states rights vs supremacy of the federal government. Not to mention the root cause of the Civil War was nullification was the Ordinance of Nullification passed by South Carolina in 1832 and championed by our revered ancestor John C. Calhoun.
Burns is a Howard Zinn Marxist and a fake historian. It’s disgusting that one tax dollar supports this propaganda.
Northern Italians don’t consider Southern Italians as white.
The extended Baseball series—with Curt Schilling—was better!
But there was not enough Curt Schilling in it. And Curt Schilling belongs in the Baseball Hall of Fame! The real “baseball” problem with leftists is that they blocked him!
The extended Baseball series—with Curt Schilling—was better!
Did they have John Rocker?
I prefer the Biblical view of how the world worked:
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”
Romans 3:23
Universal applies to any point or any time in history no need for economic or political propaganda to get mixed in.
During World War II “The Greatest Generation” as it was called went off to war and in their not so glorious moments they became:
Three Minute Men
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_minute_men
Well the leftist feelings are that it’s very important to tag all of their special interests groups as much as possible.
Peach
I have completed Ep 3.
It was the best of the 3 so far. It focuses, important word, on what is important (when one defines important to be what decides the outcome of the Revolution).
Now, some could interpret “important” to mean immersing oneself in morality. But that didn’t decide the Revolution.
The interesting part of the southern colonists doing massacres on the indians to the west of them and taking that land was that it would not have happened had the British not gotten smashed at Charleston harbor. Had that not happened, the local militias would have been fighting repeat landings of the British rather than heading west to take land.
I also did not know that the attack on Trenton was 3 pronged, and only Washington’s prong actually reached Trenton. The rest held up by weather, and it was only 9 miles.
The show has history academe given their snippets of minutes and not a one of them has failed to say that Washington’s numerous skills, likely impossible to find in anyone else, is why there is a United States. He had jealous rivals. Other generals who wanted the fame. But while they may have been superior tacticians, they did not inspire, they did not persuade, and frankly, they did not put themselves into battles in personal danger.
All generals want to be in history books, immortal for winning battles (or wars). Washington’s challengers could not have done what he did. And that’s why he dominates that era. History academe would love to bury itself in his ownership of slaves, but the show so far mentions it and spends nowhere near the time necessary to “bury”. The show makes very clear he was . . . everything.
The Avi Loeb of history.
That’s just stupid.
“all men are created equal” while owning slaves is a historical fact”
The is an example of “historical presentism” where the past is judged by the present day values. Slaves were not considered equal, anywhere, ever in history. Britain ended the slave trade, not slavery.
hang that judge that reinstated PBS federal funding ..
He mentioned the founders who had slaves every other scene practically
He’s been on my no fly list for a long time.
He mentioned the founders who had slaves every other scene practically
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Get out a stopwatch and time the seconds of this within the 2 hour episodes.
It gets mention, it does not dominate. If you think it dominated you were too angry to hear the mile by mile presentation of marching and battle layouts, that consumed what looked to me about 10X the slavery film time.
Smallpox has gotten some attention. FAR less than it should.
It should star in 1492, the introduction of the non-indigenous people and small pox into a culture of savages.
“Slaves were not considered equal, anywhere, ever in history.”
Is it possible that those held in slavery thought otherwise?
Wasn’t the greedy white men stealing native non country land they were teachers of things like the wheel houses medicien crops...........................
Some things never change.
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