by Ken Burns
When The Civil War first appeared on PBS in the fall of 1990, no one—myself included—was at all prepared for the overwhelming national response that followed. The film was then, as it is now, a timely reminder of the frightful cost our ancestors had paid to make this nation a truly United States. It is a chronicle of making permanent that which was promised, but not delivered, in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
In making this documentary, we wanted to tell the story of the bloodiest war in American history through the voices of the men and women who actually lived through it. Each of them has a story to tell, and their lives are woven into the larger fabric of the war.
As you view portions of the series in your classroom, your students will meet men and women, many no older than they, for whom the war was a very personal experience. They will meet individuals like Elisha Hunt Rhodes and Sam Watkins, who were just ordinary young men thrust into extraordinary circumstances that changed their lives forever. They will also meet the heroes of the Civil War, those who are said to have 'made history' and who continue to capture students' attention today.
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The series can't replace the teacher or the classroom, but in conjunction with what you as the teacher do, it can make the era come alive in a way never before possible. In many ways, the series asks as many questions as it answers and should serve as a starting point for active learning and classroom discussion.
Youtube Ken Burns Civil War
By Ken Burns When The Civil War first appeared on PBS in the fall of 1990, no one—myself included—was at all prepared for the overwhelming national response that followed. Ken Burns' Civil War Gabor S. Boritt Gettysburg College For a long time at the Gettysburg National Military Park a solitary stone wall left standing from a destroyed barn evoked, better than anything else, the American Civil War. Purists, some might say small-minded, objected vehemendy, wanting it pulled down.
Ken Burns Civil War Videos
At the end of the series, I hope your students will have learned not only about the war but also something about what it was like to be alive in another time, a time when the future of the country was in doubt and its fields and roads and churchyards were battlefields. Most of all, I hope they will have learned to recognize in the America of our own time the echoes and effects of those events that cost so many lives 150 years ago.
Ken Burns Civil War
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