Our library’s DVD collection is popular among locals. Settling in for movie night is a great alternative to streaming for many. Now, on the eve of our nation’s 250th birthday, Ken Burns has offered up a six-part documentary about the American Revolution. A DVD set of the series sits on our shelves, ready for checkout.
There’s a lot more to know than what we learned in school about the American Revolution. Through intensive research, especially the uncovering of letters and other documents that show the human side of the war, the documentary teaches us that the revolution was more a civil war than a fully united uprising against the British monarchy. Families and villages were divided; it was messy and tragic.
“The other thing is that it was a world war for – as one of our scholars says – the prize of North America,” according to Smithsonian magazine. “That dovetails into how much the American Revolution was also about Westward expansion, land and empire itself.”
The story is gritty and fascinating. The commentary and reenactments are powerful, and the music, as always, brings to mind the era and is beautifully integrated into the films. Highly recommended.
Burns’ “The American Revolution” DVD set joins the library’s collection of many other series that Burns and his collaborators have produced over decades of work. Some of these are “The Vietnam War,” “The Civil War,” “The Roosevelts” and the “Ken Burns America Collection,” a boxed set that includes films about the Brooklyn Bridge, the Statue of Liberty and painter Thomas Hart Benton.
Sarah Klingenstein is chairperon of the Patagonia Public Library Advisory Board.