The American Civil War/ Ken Burns
Having enjoyed Ken Burns’ documentary on The Roosevelts I bought two more of his on The American Civil War and Vietnam.
I decided to watch the US Civil War over the festive period and completed the 9 episode (11.5 hour) series last night.
It took Burns five years to make and it features over 16,000 archival photographs.
Though I have read much on this conflict, the documentary brought it more to life than the written page.
The narrator is David McCullough but the voices of great actors like Morgan Freeman, Jason Robards, Julie Harris and Derek Jacobi all feature too.
As with another great series The World At War, the graphics of the engagements are first rate.
Can a documentary take a detached objective view?
A southern writer Shelby Foote gets quite a lot of airtime but this is counterbalanced by a Black historian who is cynical as to whether the lot of the black in the south was improved.
Remember there were discriminating public lavatories in the South well into the 1960s and the end of the Civil War spawned the Klu Klux Klan in which one of the Confederate’s greatest generals Nathan Bedford Forrest was once Chief Klansman.
I did miss, as with the Roosevelt documentary, the input of historian Doris Kearns a notable authority on the Civil War.
One of the misconceptions of the causes of the Civil War was the abolition of slavery.
Abraham Lincoln was far more concerned by the secession which would break up the Union. Indeed he did not issue his Emancipation Decree abolishing slavery until 1864, when the war was three years old and he was running with little confidence for a second term.
For the Confederacy, the war was about maintaining its values and way of life. The economic power was firmly in the north which had industrialised speedily whilst the South was still reliant on cotton.
The North was always going to win because of its resources.
However, the South had more effective generals like Robert E. Lee whilst Lincoln’s initial Commanders- in-Chief – Generals McDowall and McLennan – dithered.
Lincoln wanted Lee as commander at first but he remained loyal to his native Virginia. Interestingly, all the generals on both sides had served in the earlier Mexico campaign.
I was recommended Ken Burns by one of our readers who said Public Television in America produced the best documentaries After watching the Roosevelts, I sought the opinion of another friend who regards documantaries as the finest form of film making . To quote him
” He ( Ken Burns) has completely changed the face/style of US historical documentaries , jettisoning dramatisation and superficiality while synthesising voice -over with brilliant use of photographs .”
I cant wait for New Year and Ken Burns’s Vietnam
