The American Revolution, a new six-part, 12-hour documentary directed by Ken Burns, Sarah Botstein and David Schmidt examines how America’s founding turned the world upside-down. Thirteen British colonies on the Atlantic Coast rose in rebellion, won their independence, and established a new form of government that radically reshaped the continent and inspired centuries of democratic movements around the globe. An expansive look at the virtues and contradictions of the war and the birth of the United States of America, the film follows dozens of figures from a wide variety of backgrounds. Viewers will experience the war through the memories of the men and women who experienced it: the rank-and-file Continental soldiers and American militiamen (some of them teenagers), Patriot political and military leaders, British Army officers, American Loyalists, Native soldiers and civilians, enslaved and free African Americans, German soldiers in the British service, French and Spanish allies, and various civilians living in North America, Loyalist as well as Patriot, including many made refugees by the war.
Sunday-Friday, November 16-21, at 7 pm on Nine PBS and livestream.
Stream on the PBS app.
Local support provided by George Washington's Mount Vernon, Show Me America 250 and Bellefontaine Cemetery and Arboretum.
