The Civil War with Ken Burns

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Ай бұрын

During the Gettysburg Film Festival in 2024, our very own Chief Historian, Garry Adelman, had the pleasure of sitting down with the king of documentary filmmaking Ken Burns for a quick interview about the importance of history education. bit.ly/4azHN4y
Links featured in the video: Rick Atkinson: • Rick Atkinson Speaks o...
Manassas Data Center Fight: • Save Manassas | We Are...
The American Battlefield Trust preserves America’s hallowed battlegrounds and educates the public about what happened there and why it matters. We permanently protect these battlefields for future generations as a lasting and tangible memorial to the brave soldiers who fought in the American Revolution, the War of 1812, and the Civil War.

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@Alex-in2tj 23 күн бұрын

I came across the Civil War documentary by Ken Burns in the 2000's & have been hooked on the war ever since. Im not American but it is such a fascinating conflict

@Ec_on2 23 күн бұрын

Two national treasures chatting about my favorite subject... what a treat! Thanks, ABT!

@oreally8605 Ай бұрын

Civil War Documentary 1991 is still the best American documentary in history..

@humptydumpty3345 Ай бұрын

All 12 years of my American public education and not once was I shown or recommended that documentary series. I will forever hold that against my educators.

@daviddavenport8473 Ай бұрын

Thanks, Garry, for this awesome interview! I am never disappointed by Ken Burns. His documentary on the war impacted countless lives.

@kathleendaugherty4218 Ай бұрын

I was born in 1953 and I remember Civil War bubble gum cards. I put them down and my mom through them away, she thought them too troubling.

@jerrysmooth24 Ай бұрын

kent used to make blue asbestos cigarettes and drinking and driving was our national past time so id say you made out pretty good.

@billywild5440 Ай бұрын

@@jerrysmooth24 Even today, people blanch at the thought of the civil war and the organizations it has spawned

@swhod2190 Ай бұрын

@@jerrysmooth24 That was SO deep!

@swhod2190 Ай бұрын

@@billywild5440 What "people"''''? The stooges on cnn?

@terryeustice5399 Ай бұрын

Garry you know just as much as Ken Burns. Thanks for sharing. 💯👍

@AmericanBattlefieldTrust Ай бұрын

Well, I know a good amount but I’m not as articulate. 😂

@OhArchie 29 күн бұрын

I find that history is most accessible when it is examined in the context of current events without becoming embroiled in them. Mr. Burns' storytelling is beyond legendary, but his hot takes on how history might apply today are...less so.

@BookerBaker Ай бұрын

"Place is central to being able to hear the ghost and echoes of an inexpressibly wise past. That can come from paintings, drawings, maps, but the thing that really provides it is the land itself - the space - the now quiet [area where it happened] in which you are trying to hear those ghosts - you hear those echoes. You're trying to request with a very big pretty please from the past that it will yield up its secrets to you." - Ken Burns interview with Gary Adelman - 14 April 2024. I'm a tour guide at a distillery. I take my tour groups into an old part of the distillery that was forgotten about for about 60 years. Our Pompeii. It will be cool to quote Ken in this place. I was an 18-year-old Freshman in college when Ken Burns Civil War was first shown on PBS. It holds a huge place in my development as a historian. Thank you for this interview.

@malafunkshun8086 19 күн бұрын

Ken still understands his country. He understands his People. Aloha 🇺🇸🙏🏼🤙🏼

@vickistevens423 Ай бұрын

Excellent discussion. While I disagree with Ken Burns on his politicsl views, I respect him as an incredible filmmaker and storyteller. Great job, Garry.

@bassmangotdbluz 28 күн бұрын

Disney tried to get the land several decades ago, but Manassas NBP is hallowed ground. Lots more surrounding property is available, some isn't, but time will yield those lands. It is paramount that American Battlefields must be preserved. There is plenty of land to be had, so nobody should need to to keep historical lands.

@jankovarik9714 29 күн бұрын

America's history, all of it, is still "the recent past"---when compared with the history of the world. The current generations are still living with the effects and ramifications of our unique history, and we cannot understand our current place in history without being able to see---and touch---the places of our recent history. A school-aged child today, with a smartphone, can only appreciate that technology when he/she/they see a slate and a slate pencil on a wooden desk in a preserved schoolhouse. Take away the smartphone, give them a slate and slate pencil, and ask them to divide 2,987 by 183. Walk across the battlefield at Antietam, in the heat of the day, thinking about the men who fought and died there. This puts history into context, this makes history touchable, this makes history learnable. We MUST preserve our history. We MUST teach our history.

@beerye9331 Ай бұрын

Ken Burn's docs are epic! Great stuff Garry.

@goatcheeta Ай бұрын

Ken Burns is a true gift for history and his genius for teaching it through film.

@ProvisionalPatrioticAlliance Ай бұрын

He's kinda a fool

@RRM13 Ай бұрын

Hello from São Paulo, Brazil 🇧🇷🇧🇷

@silvermine2033 Ай бұрын

Hello, Brazil! Greetings from 🇺🇸

@RRM13 Ай бұрын

@@silvermine2033👊💪

@michaelvaughn8864 Ай бұрын

Greetings to Brazil from New Jersey💗

@nickmalone1126 29 күн бұрын

Greetings from California 😎

@DocAkins 29 күн бұрын

What Union law did the South break by seceding? I've never found one in a history book yet too many people, including "the Union" in 1861 believe this. They "in fact" create their own "history".

@geoffreypereira8024 24 күн бұрын

Yes, Ken. Prior to 1989, no one knew the civil war was about slavery.

@danieljosiahcotton Ай бұрын

I love listening to Ken. He is so thoughtful which turns him into a fantastic communicator

@michaelbaker602 Ай бұрын

Would love to see Mr. Burns, as a second act, do a series on Reconstruction. I believe it would be a fitting follow up to his Civil War series. On the other hand I understand that there are so many fascinating topics of our history that he has yet to cover. I’m looking forward to his film on the Revolution, which I think is coming out this fall.

@JoshPiland Ай бұрын

Two American greats!! 🇺🇸

@daviddifonzo7938 Ай бұрын

What could have turned out to be a lecture was reserved to an impassioned discussion. Thanks.

@MrFrikkenfrakken Ай бұрын

Thanks Garry and Ken.

@johnzajac9849 Ай бұрын

After some time reading books, seeing videos, talking to park officials, we've discovered that there are 'sacred cows' of Civil War 'knowledge' that no one dares to question.

@jimf5014 Ай бұрын

Please elaborate.

@johnzajac9849 Ай бұрын

@@jimf5014 no.

@swhod2190 Ай бұрын

Sure, just ask any revisionist!

@MyAmericanHistory Ай бұрын

Thanks for the conversation!

@Resenbrink Ай бұрын

What a great body of work Ken has and hopefully more to come.

@user-ng5ve8or5q Ай бұрын

I love your channel! ❤

@tinaphillips7239 Ай бұрын

Ken Burns in the movie, Gettysburg: “ General, please get down, we cannot spare you.”

@michaelvaughn8864 Ай бұрын

I recognized his voice before I realized it was Ken Burns playing the Union lieutenant in that scene with General Hancock, Ms. Phillips😂

@tinaphillips7239 Ай бұрын

Great movie! Great piece of history! And on a side note, a cool piece of movie trivia. Lol

@michaelvaughn8864 Ай бұрын

@@tinaphillips7239 It certainly was, ma'am, on all made points🙂👍 It was saddening being it was the late Richard Jordan's final film with his Confederate General Lewis Armistead portrayal😔 R.I.P.😇

@tinaphillips7239 Ай бұрын

@@michaelvaughn8864yeah it was, he never lived to see one of his best roles. 😔Another one of his really good roles but little notice was in the 1989 movie The Hunt for Red October.

@michaelvaughn8864 Ай бұрын

@@tinaphillips7239 Definitely so, Ms. Phillips😒 It was tragic. I think almost 12 months to the day when The Pickett's Charge scene was filmed is when he passed??

@ljartz1004 Ай бұрын

Ken Burns is always worth listening to.

@boilerbonz 28 күн бұрын

Who or what are these "retrograde forces" opposed to teaching "anything disturbing about our past" or "an honest history"?

@kreedur 29 күн бұрын

Just today passed a "preserved" sign by the Bristow Station battlefield. Lots of data center encroachment on Manassas too.

@gale212 Ай бұрын

Love Ken Burns

@silvermine2033 Ай бұрын

An extra comment to help boost the KZfaq algorithm!

@jhonviel7381 Ай бұрын

ken burns is the 🐐🐐🐐 the first 2:30 of playtime is all 🔥🔥🔥

@darylwilliams7883 Ай бұрын

You wouldn't think a Canadian would care about the American Civil War or the Battle of Gettysburg, and I didn't until I discovered that Canadians were deeply involved, and that the Civil War had a major effect on the fate of my country. Canadians died on the first day and on Little Round Top during that battle. Travelling to Gettysburg Park is on my bucket list.

@johnfoster535 23 күн бұрын

Twenty years ago, when Burns still had his Beatle haircut, he sat next to me on a commuter flight from Hartford to Newark. He had a folded copy of the Wall Street Journal under his arm, and when he unfolded it to begin reading, I enthusiastically told him that I was a History major at UConn, and that I had a 300 volume library about the Civil War at home. He then looked straight at me with a look of horror and said : " PLEASE ! " I then laughed and told him I was just joking....I wasn't going to bend his ear...like thousands have probably done to him...about the Civil War. I'm sure it was the LAST thing on his mind that day !! Currently, Burns seems to lean more " woke" than he appeared to be in the 1990s. He did NOT mention the recent tearing down of Confederate statues and what that means compared to the respect shown by General Grant towards Lee and his army at Appomattox, which reflected Lincoln's desire to " let them up easy", in a spirit of respect and reconciliation. Burns did NOT address General Lee encouraging the South to accept its defeat and to move forward with a peaceful reunification. Many of the Southern men and officers fought to defend their home states after it became know that they would be attacked for seceding, and forced back into the Union. Confederate General Jubal Early was one such Unionist who voted FIVE TIMES as a Virginia representative for Virginia to REMAIN in the Union !! These Southern men fought and died bravely with honor. They deserve to be remembered...with honor...as our Northern men are. To paint all Confederates as cruel slave whipping sadists and as all members of the KKK who terrorized the blacks for many decades is WRONG ! That would be the same as saying all Northerners were fanatical murderers like John Brown and his sons....butchering people in Kansas with broadswords ! This current claim of " systemic racism" is plain WRONG and demands for "reparations" are an ignorant insult to the soldiers who PAID THE PRICE OF FREEDOM for the slaves with their LIVES !!!!! From the black soldiers of the 54th Massachusetts regiment at Battery Wagner, to the thousands of Yankees slaughtered at Spotsylvania and Cold Harbor, and to the assassination of Lincoln himself....they all paid the price, and all future generations beyond them have a DUTY to make the most of the freedom they have been given WITHOUT all this "woke" propaganda creating hate and resentment.

@auntiear126 Ай бұрын

As a foreigner, I have been fascinated by your Civil War. Someday I’d like to see the Mason Dixon Line and places like that. Just like Ken Burns says society needs to know where we’ve been. 🇨🇦🇨🇦

@christopherk3641 Ай бұрын

Outstanding!

@davidk7324 Ай бұрын

National Treasure. Great interview skills, Garry. Listening is a lost art.

@jankovarik9714 29 күн бұрын

Ken Burns (and Garry Adelman) never disappoints...

@AmericanBattlefieldTrust 27 күн бұрын

Thanks!

@tomcarl8021 Ай бұрын

Don't be fooled by Ken, folks. His aim and focus is to teach American history through his own political perspective.

@arktrooper8223 Ай бұрын

Thats literally what everyone who teaches history's aim is

@Spitzer3964 Ай бұрын

@@arktrooper8223Why would their aim be to teach history through the lens of their political beliefs?

@peterblum613 Ай бұрын

Gee is there something wrong with the perspective that the Civil War had a good side and a bad side?

@arktrooper8223 Ай бұрын

@@Spitzer3964 because no one teaches it through a lens they DONT agree with, and since there is no such thing as objective history it has to be through their own lens

@benson9586 Ай бұрын

@@peterblum613yeah man the side fighting for human bondage seems pretty bad

@Powerule23 29 күн бұрын

Wow - Garry and Ken, sitting side-by-side. It gets no better...

@lisad476 Ай бұрын

Wonderful

@peterthompson7759 Ай бұрын

Careful, if you push for history education the next thing you know we'll have SHTEM or SHTEAM

@cbear9263 23 күн бұрын

Must we talk of slavery every time the Civil War is brought up? You act like the newly freed slaves went to the north and lived like kings. People in the north didn't want them either. Make sure you tell it all from both perspectives. So sick of people today saying they're sorry for something they had nothing to do with.

@bigsarge2085 Ай бұрын

✌

@markmahosky532 27 күн бұрын

“ Don’t fight uphill me boys” RE Lee

@williamthawley9251 Ай бұрын

Ken Burns, why dont you do a documentary on the American Red Cross, Clara Barton, and those that helped her, susan b anthony, frederick douglass, walter polk phillips(POTUS), woodrow wilson, mabel thorpe boardman. I write blog and stories on the history.

@swhod2190 Ай бұрын

Because nobody would watch!

@williamthawley9251 Ай бұрын

@@swhod2190 yes they would, shows that you know nothing about her or what she stands for.

@johnathanashleyOCSO Ай бұрын

Ladies and Gentlemen We're sitting under Ken Burns' learning tree 🌲

@michaelvaughn8864 Ай бұрын

Truth be told, Mr. Ashley👍💯

@craigcolandro2781 Ай бұрын

You mean the one my dog pooped under?

@boilerbonz Ай бұрын

Where was Ken Burns when the statues were/are being pulled down? Shelby Foote would have been disappointed in Burns for his absence from that debate. Foote once explained the "Great Compromise" to Burns. Clearly, the confederate statues were part of that compromise. And regardless of the arguments over those statues, pro and con, Burns was the one who should/could have reminded us all of Foote's point, on the matter. But Burns was awol.

@ThePecadillosam Ай бұрын

Wherever Burns was when the statues of CIvil War traitors were being pulled down, I'm sure he was quite pleased with the work. You don't see any statues of famous political and military leaders of the Third Reich in Germany today, as you shouldn't. Sure, many were very good at their commands, but the horrors they inflicted on tens of millions of people cannot be celebrated or even honored. And just because Foote explained his "Great Compromise" theory to Burns doesn't mean Burns agreed with it, quite the opposite as you hear in Burns' comments in this video. In explaining the Great Compromise, Foote goes out of his way to diminish slavery as the primary cause of the Civil War, saying the average soldier on either side didn't give a whit about slaves or slavery. That's beside the point, a soldier doesn't get to decide what he's fighting for or whether he agrees with it, he's following orders, period. It's the politicians who decide why a fight is necessary, and in the case of the Confederate States of America, one only has to take the time to read each seceeding state's Articles of Secession and Declarations of Causes to clearly understand that yes, slavery was the reason.

@peterblum613 Ай бұрын

@@ThePecadillosamThere has been some excellent scholarship in recent years showing that the average Union soldier knew exactly that he was fighting for human freedom. To the extent that there was confusion, it came from conservative McClellanite officers.

@craigcolandro2781 Ай бұрын

@boilerbonz Burns was AWOL because he fully supported the lawlessness, destruction, defacing and rioting of the statues coming down. Given his political views, you shouldn't be surprised, or asking where he was.

@craigcolandro2781 Ай бұрын

@@peterblum613 Nonsense, nice revisionism there. Lincoln could care less about slavery, he admitted as much in several speeches. The Emancipation stuff was a political move, pure and simple. Lincoln was a politician after all, just like any other politician he he made decisions he felt would best serve him politically and get him reelected. If you stop and remove the halo from around his head, you'll see he was a politician, just like any other politician.

@nebuloushammer8773 29 күн бұрын

You're right. They shouldn't be pulling down statues because that's our history. If anything, they should make more statues. I propose a 100 foot bronze statue placed directly in front of all existing confederate statues featuring General Grant and Frederick Douglass giving each other a high five with a stone tablet saying "The Union won and freed the slaves. Don't ever forget." The new statues will also have John Brown's body playing continuously.

@TSimo113 24 күн бұрын

An excellent film maker and historian who should just keep his mouth shut when it comes to modern American politics because he proves his utter ignorance whenever he opens his mouth on the subject.

@terryscott7121 Ай бұрын

We live in satans earth, but thankfully it is sprinkled with some men and women who bring truth and joy for some of us.

@jonathanbaggs4275 Ай бұрын

Ken burns talking history education - ironic.

@ewc58 Ай бұрын

Ahh but is it real, or is it memorex?

@wm5994 18 күн бұрын

Biased.

@billywild5440 Ай бұрын

So Ken Burns is about 70 or so? He looks 40. If this was shot in '91, then he is about 30. I'm confused.

@karen-leelamb1097 Ай бұрын

This was not shot in 91, the Gettysburg movie he did was in 91. This was filmed recently.

@AmericanBattlefieldTrust Ай бұрын

Ken is 70 and yes he looks great.

@ChuckG92 Ай бұрын

Sorry Ken, but you lost a lot of my respect when you joined the revisionists in calling for the removal of statues.

@michaelvaughn8864 Ай бұрын

No kidding??🙁 That sucks👎

@michaelvaughn8864 Ай бұрын

I'm surprised to learn that

@jgouba1 Ай бұрын

You mean confederate statues?

@arktrooper8223 Ай бұрын

Which statues was he calling for? Because some statues definitely do need to be removed and replaced with ones that preach a good message and not a bad one.

@peterblum613 Ай бұрын

Confederate statues? The revisionists are the ones who placed the statues.

@couthon Ай бұрын

The American Battlefield Trust can do better than to sit down with Ken Burns.

@craigcolandro2781 28 күн бұрын

@couthon Perhaps, but just because I'm not a fan of Burns doesn't mean I don't think the ABT should talk to him. He did make a Civil War documentary, and despite my not being a fan of his, I don't have a problem with Garry or the ABT sitting down to talk to him. I don't believe in Censorship, whichever side of the aisle a person's politics are.

@couthon 28 күн бұрын

@@craigcolandro2781Who said anything about censorship? ABT could lose the support of some folks.

@craigcolandro2781 28 күн бұрын

@couthon Possibly, but probably not. If they do, it would be a tiny number I think. The ABT does great work, I support preserving battlefields and fighting off developers. So even if they sit down to talk to someone I'm not a fan of, it doesn't matter to me because what they do is more important.

@chrislynch8128 Ай бұрын

Amazing filmmaker and historian, but way too far out there in left field for my liking politically. The far far right and the far far left are what divides this country today. The real, right answers generally land somewhere in the middle give or take . . .