Ken Burns’ ‘The American Revolution’ revisits the country’s founding – NPR

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Ken Burns’ ‘American Revolution’ will make you think differently about U.S. history

November 12, 202512:02 PM ET

Heard on Fresh Air

By David Bianculli, 8-Minute Listen

Documentary producer and director Ken Burns came to prominence 35 years ago with The Civil War, a massively popular multi-part nonfiction series on PBS.His latest effort is a six-part series called The American Revolution.

By focusing on the Revolutionary War, Burns is revisiting some very familiar territory. His long and impressive filmography includes a history of Congress, and biographies of Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin. He’s done deep dives into American military conflicts, including World War II and the Vietnam War.

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 words of historical participants; the zooming in and out to reveal key details in period photos; and the painstaking attention to sound effects, from birds to bullets, to help bring those images to life.

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