Ken Burns

The Roosevelts: An Intimate History chronicles the lives of Theodore, Franklin, and Eleanor Roosevelt, three members of the most prominent and influential family in American politics. It is the first time in a major documentary television series that their individual stories have been interwoven into a single narrative. This seven-part, 14 hour film follows the Roosevelts for more than a century, from Theodore's birth in 1858 to Eleanor's death in 1962. Over the course of those years, Theodore would become the 26th President of the United States and his beloved niece, Eleanor, would marry his fifth cousin, Franklin, who became the 32nd President of the United States. Together, these three individuals not only redefined the relationship Americans had with their government and with each other, but also redefined the role of the United States within the wider world. The series encompasses the history the Roosevelts helped to shape: the creation of National Parks, the digging of the Panama Canal, the passage of innovative New Deal programs, the defeat of Hitler, and the postwar struggles for civil rights at home and human rights abroad. It is also an intimate human story about love, betrayal, family loyalty, personal courage, and the conquest of fear. - Container.

Tells the story of ordinary people in four quintessentially American towns - Waterbury, Connecticut; Mobile, Alabama; Sacramento, California; and Luverne, Minnesota - and examines the ways in which the Second World War touched the lives of every family on every street in every town in America. The Emmy® award-winning documentary THE WAR explores the history and horror of World War II from an American perspective by following so-called ordinary men and women who became caught up in one of the greatest cataclysms in history. This epic film focuses on the stories of citizens from four American towns taking the viewer through their personal and harrowing journeys, painting vivid portraits of how the war altered their lives. - Publisher.

Offers multiple perspectives on momentous events. This volume introduces and provides a brief overview of the major factors that led to the Prohibition era, which banned the manufacture, transport, and sale of alcoholic beverages in the United States in 1920.

Beginning with a dramatci indictment of slavery, this first episode dramatically evokes the causes of war, from the Cotton Kingdom of the South to the northen abolitionists who opposed it. Here are the burning questions of Union and States' Rights. John Brown at Harper's Ferry, and the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, the firing on Fort Sumter and the jubilant rush to arms on both sides.

The story of Jack Johnson, who was the first African American boxer to win the Heavyweight Champion of the World. Includes his struggles in and out of the ring and his desire to live his life as a free man in race-obsessed America.

Tells the story of the most important expedition in American history, led by Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. Includes the stories of the young army men, French-Canadian boatmen, Clark's African-American slave, and the Shoshone woman named Sacagawea who went with them.

Introduction to the 9-part series, focusing on the causes of the war, seen from the diaries of both a Union and a Southern soldier.

Horatio Nelson Jackson, an eccentric Vermont doctor, drove from San Francisco to New York City in 1903 to become the first person to drive an automobile across the continent--a feat never before accomplished. It would mark the beginning of a new era in America and the end of another. It took Lewis & Clark over two years to go from the Atlantic to the Pacific--Horatio went the opposite direction, by means of the "horseless carriage", in less than 3 months.

Recounts the story of the Lewis and Clark Expedition to explore the uncharted western wilderness, placing it in its historical context.

Chronicles the history of America's national parks system from its birth in the middle 1800s to the present day.

Companion for the PBS series Ken Burns American stories serves as a resource of background materials to the films in the series, offering links to any newly created companion sites as well as links to all existing Ken Burns film sites. Includes a Ken Burns timeline (a chronological listing of all Burns projects - past, present, and future), a section devoted to the producers with information on Florentine Films, and a section for educators about using the films in the classroom.

This book is a vivid and personal portrait of America's greatest political family and its enormous impact on our nation -- the companion volume to the seven-part PBS documentary series. This book includes 796 photographs, some never before seen. The authors of the acclaimed and best-selling The Civil War, Jazz, The War, and Baseball present an intimate history of three extraordinary individuals from the same extraordinary family -- Theodore, Eleanor, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Geoffrey C. Ward, distilling more than thirty years of thinking and writing about the Roosevelts, and the acclaimed filmmaker Ken Burns help us understand for the first time that, despite the fierce partisanship of their eras, the Roosevelts were far more united than divided. All the history the Roosevelts made is here, but this is primarily an intimate account, the story of three people who overcame obstacles that would have undone less forceful personalities. Theodore Roosevelt would push past childhood frailty, outpace depression, survive terrible grief, and transform the office of the presidency. Eleanor Roosevelt, orphaned and alone as a child, would endure her husband's betrayal, battle her own self-doubts, and remake herself into the most consequential first lady in American history -- and the most admired woman on earth. And Franklin Roosevelt, born to privilege and so pampered that most of his youthful contemporaries dismissed him as a charming lightweight, would summon the strength to lead the nation through the two greatest crises since the Civil War, though he could not take a single step unaided. The three were towering personalities, but The Roosevelts shows that they were also flawed human beings who confronted in their personal lives issues familiar to all of us: anger and the need for forgiveness, courage and cowardice, confidence and self-doubt, loyalty to family and the need to be true to oneself. This is the story of the Roosevelts. No other American family ever touched so many lives. - Publisher.

Complimentary Web site to the PBS eight-part film series The West. Assembles much of the information used in making the documentary co-produced by Ken Burns and Stephen Ives and highlights new perspectives afforded by this material. Includes lesson plans to enhance the usage of the site as an educational resource.