If you read "'The American Revolution' - Ken Burns' new, woke version" (WWW 18/11/25), you'll know that I didn't think much of Ken Burns' latest opus. The production values were fine, but the overall message was skewed hard to the liberal narrative.
Most of the reviews in the mainstream media were predictably positive. There wasn't a lot of fact-checking, nor was the phrase "revisionist history" much used. That's because the huge success of The Civil War has made Ken Busns something of a national treasure, virtually untouchable. Hey, the Obamas love him, the Bidens love him, and... wait for it... his series are on PBS, the font of all that's Great and Good in America.
Walt is relieved, then, to find that not everyone drank the Kool-aid. [The followers of Jim Jones actually drank Flavor-aid. Ed.] Negative reviews from a number of conservative outlets, including National Review and Amac, argue that the series is "bad history" and "ahistorical woke nonsense".
But wait, there's more. Only today did Ed. stumble upon this video by Matt Walsh, an American political commentator for theDaily Wire and host of The Matt Walsh Show.
In this episode, Mr Walsh takes a close look at The American Revolution, which he calls "a piece of sophisticated anti-American propaganda." "There is a neverending effort to make Americans embarrassed of their history," he says, "and to give credit for its achievements to people who don't deserve it. American history has been rewritten for this purpose." Listen up!
In his Thanksgiving podcast, posted today [of course! Ed.], our old friend Victor Davis Hanson points out the underlying fallacy in Ken Burns "The American Revolution", which aired on PBS last week.
Ed. didn't have time to edit out discussions on other topics, so I suggest you fast forward to 29:44, where Mr Hanson picks up on my initial reaction to the revisionist history, as written in "'The American Revolution' - Ken Burns' new, woke version" (WWW 18/11/25).
I agree with Mr Hanson (and his interlocutor Jack Fowler) that Mr Burns' The Civil War was a work of genius. Everything since then has been filtered through the lens of progressivism and DEI, so if you watch The American Revolution (I finally did watch the whole thing), take it cum magno grano salis.
The rest of the Mr Hanson's podcast is well worth watching too. Happy Thanksgiving!
For the last couple of nights, I've been watching bits and pieces [There was hockey on the other channel. Ed.] of The American Revolution, the latest offering from revisionist historian cum film-maker Ken Burns. It's streaming (also avaible over the air) on PBS, the soi-disant Public Broadcasting System, which is like so-called National Public Radio (NPR), only with pictures.
The fact that this new series is on PBS should tell you what to expect, which is not exactly what they tell you in the introductory summary...
"Thirteen American colonies unite in rebellion, win an eight-year war to secure their independence, and establish a new form of government that would inspire democratic movements at home and around the globe. What begins as a political clash between colonists and the British government grows into a bloody struggle that will engage more than two dozen nations and forever change the world.'
...or in the official trailer.
Do you see any warning signs there? No? Let me give you one. The narrator chosen by Mr Burns is one Peter Coyote (born Peter Robert Cohon).an American actor, director, screenwriter, author... and political activist. In "The Theater of Protest", Mr Coyote explains his approach to effective, nonviolent protest, which he developed while teaching a class at Harvard. He emphasizes that protests are ceremonies, an invitation to a better world. He says protests should be led by wimmin, for "inclusivity", and that "monitors with whistles" stop violence. Get the idea?
Other commentators, who I'd never heard of but are presented as historians and writers, include a good DEI mix of Jewish women (one of whom seems to have a slight palsy), black men (including one with blonde dreadlocks), and other mild-mannered, instantly forgettable liberals academics. No Shelby Foote here!
I was not surprised, then, to learn that the American Revolution was not so much about freeing Great Britain's American colonies from the tyranny and taxation of King George III, as about partnering with IndiansNative Indigenous Americans and strong, independent wimmin to obtain justice for the oppressed Negro African-American slaves. As Johnny Carson would have said, "I did not know that!"
The series suffers, in comparison with Ken Burns' The Civil War, in not having photographs to work with, so the visuals are mostly oil paintings of the principal actors involved -- politicians, soldiers, statesmen and the like -- all "marble men".
We hear, occasionally, the words of common white people, taken from their letters, but we learn little about them. You'd almost think that the only common people of any consequence were the slaves who are quoted and talked about out of all proportion to the numbers of such people in America at the time. Even George Washington's black man-servant gets his 15 seconds of fame, plus a heroic image on his black self at Washington's side going into battle.
This is only a preliminary comment. If the rest of the series is like the first two episodes, I won't be writing about The American Revolution again. But I'm not going to say "Don't watch it." The accounts of the battles are pretty good, so you can just zap through the woke bullshit and still learn parts of the nantion's history that the too many Americans have forgotten.
Shelby Dade Foote, Jr. (17 November 1916 – 27 June 2005) was an American historian and novelist who wrote The Civil War: A Narrative, a three-volume history of the American Civil War (aka the Glorious War of the Secession). I have read this monumental work, every one of the 3000+ pages. In spite of its length, the work is a real page-turner, because of Mr Foote's style. He was a novelist first, then a historian, and The Civil War is not just a dry recitation of dates and battles, but an outstanding example of story-telling. I recommend it most highly.
Shelby Foote rose to prominence -- indeed, to celebrity -- as a result of his appearance in Ken Burns' award-winning PBS series The Civil War, which I also recommend. As he prepared to make the documentary, Mr Burns assembled a group of consultants he could interview. Although Mr Foote's trilogy was on the Burns reading list, the author was not included in the initial group. A phone call from Robert Penn Warren prompted Ken Burns to contact Mr Foote. Mr Burns and his crew travelled interviewed him on camera in Memphis in 1986 and Vicksburg in 1987.
When The Civil War aired in September 1990, Shelby Foote appeared in almost 90 segments, about one hour of the 11-hour series. His southern drawl and obvious erudition made him the star of the epic. He was described as "the toast of Public TV", "the media's newest darling", and "prime time's newest star". The result was a burst of book sales. In just one week at the end of September 1990, each volume of the paperback The Civil War: A Narrative sold 1000 copies per day. By the middle of 1991, Random House had sold 400,000 copies of the trilogy. This stunning literary and historical achievement is still available through Amazon and many other outlets.
Mr Foote's comments and stories in the Burns film deal with a wide variety of battles, characters (both military and civilian), and issues. For instance, he explains why does the same battle is sometimes called by two names, as in the case of Manassas/Bull Run and Sharpsburg/Antietam. (Sorry, you'll have to read the book or watch the film to find the answer!) One thing he does not talk about, though, because it became an issue only in recent years, is the characterization of the Confederate battle flag (aka The Southern Cross) as a symbol of slavery or racism. In this three-minute video he explains why this view of the flag is erroneous or worse.
Way back in January of 2012, Walt posted "Politically correct toothpaste makes your smile brighter", a quick history of the transformation of "Darkie Toothpaste" into "Darlie Toothpaste". Yes, there is such a product. You can still buy it in parts of Asia and in some dollar stores on this side of the Pacific, if you want to have a smile like unto that of a... errr... read the article.
Ed. has now stumbled upon this SPOOF TV commercial for "Darky Toothpaste", which some readers may find amusing. Others will surely find it offensive, but hey, snowflakes, it's not real! It's satire! I'll place it in context for you below the window.
The "Darky Toothpaste" spot was one of a series of blatantly racist commercials made for the fictional TV station "Channel Six" in the low-budget film C.S.A : The Confederate States of America.
The 2004 "mockumentary" was directed by Kevin Willmott, who drew his inspiration from Ken Burns' monumental PBS series The Civil War. It is an account of an alternate history wherein the Confederacy wins the American Civil War and establishes a Confederate States of America that incorporates the majority of the Western Hemisphere, including the former contiguous United States, the "Golden Circle", the Caribbean, and South America.
The film primarily details significant political and cultural events of Confederate history from its founding until the early 2000s. The director's intention, he said, was to satirize real-life issues and events, and to shed light on "the continuing existence of discrimination in American culture." C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America" was released on DVD in August of 2006. I'll post the trailer for you later today.
