Ken Burns

The Holocaust Documentary Disappointingly Skirts Big Questions of FDR's Responsibility

by Martin Ostrow

In another documentarian's view, the series unduly frames Roosevelt as a captive to global politics and antisemitism, not a leader with the power to change them.

A Holocaust Mystery: Ken Burns Gets Lost in a Bermuda Triangle

by Rafael Medoff and Monty N. Penkower

At the 1943 Bermuda Conference, British and American diplomats offered a symbolic show of concern for Jewish refugees, but made no substantial commitment to help. Ken Burns's recent holocaust documentary passes over this event. 

Does Ken Burns's Holocaust Doc Face Thorny Questions about U.S. Actions?

by Olivia B. Waxman

Historians involved with the PBS project wrestle with the question of whether the United States could reasonably have done more to offer asylum to Europe's Jews or to stop their mass-scale murder. 

Another Documentarian's Perspective on "The U.S. and the Holocaust"

by Martin Ostrow

Like many other Americans, I will be watching closely to see if The U.S. and the Holocaust honestly portrays the responsibility of American leaders, or fails to confront the difficult truths that need to be faced.

Ken Burns's Holocaust History Has a Palestine Problem

by Rafael Medoff and Monty Noam Penkower

Although there was no sovereign government in Palestine between 1933 and 1945, British authorities there admitted a quarter million Jewish refugees. The filmmaker's focus on "sovereign" countries' record admitting refugees burnishes the Roosevelt administration's record. 

The Unbearable Whiteness of Ken Burns

by Timothy Messer-Kruse

In the context of today's battles over teaching the history of racism in America, the new Franklin documentary unfortunately uses its subject to spin a narrative of national self-correction that ignores historians' attention to conflict and struggle. 

Ken Burns on the Revolutionary Ben Franklin

"If you find out that, very early on, there’s somebody advocating emancipation, it just makes the narrative a little bit messier."

Ken Burns "In Tears" at Posthumous Hall of Fame Induction of Negro League Star Buck O'Neil

Buck O'Neil's recollections of the Negro Leagues were a key part of Burns's 1994 documentary series "Baseball." O'Neil was a tireless champion of the history of Black baseball who pushed the sport's establishment to recognize that part of its history. 

Ken Burns's Documentary Shows We Can't Quit Ali

by Jay Caspian Kang

"The odd thing about American sainthood is that we seem to prefer those who, like Ali and Jackie Robinson, did not engage directly in the dirty world of politics, but rather stood as trailblazers or icons in sports or Hollywood."

Ken Burns's "Muhammad Ali" Well-Crafted, But Not Groundbreaking

Ken Burns has an irresistable subject for his latest project. The problem isn't the quality of his film, but that so many others have gotten there first. 

Ken Burns Argues He's not "Taking Up Too Much Space"

The documentarian joins Kara Swisher's "Sway" podcast, focusing on how digital technology is changing the practice of reconstructing the past and whether Burns's films are taking too much airtime as PBS seeks to diversify its stable of producers. 

Review: ‘Hemingway’ Is a Big Two-Hearted Reconsideration

“Can you separate the art from the artist?” is a heated and dogmatic argument these days. Ken Burns and Lynn Novick force the viewer to consider if that separation is possible or desirable. 

Ken Burns Still Has Faith in a Shared American Story

"The most important thing about me talking about race now is to say that I am in a position where I have to be quiet. You have to be quiet. There are other voices that need to speak. The dismantling of white supremacy is not just white people continually talking about the dismantling of white supremacy. You have to shut up and listen."

Ken Burns on America, Selling His First Film, PBS's Long Deadlines and More

"I have had the privilege of spending my entire life making films about the U.S., capital U, capital S. But I've also had the privilege of making films about 'us,' the two-letter, lowercase, plural pronoun, that has a kind of intimacy and warmth to it."

Re-Watching ‘The Civil War’ During the Breonna Taylor and George Floyd Protests

by Gillian Brockell

Ken Burns's Civil War documentary series sparked tremendous interest in history, but the series has a big Shelby Foote problem. 

The Problem with Ken Burns' Country Music

by Peter LaChapelle

What would a Country Music that deals with country music’s complicated and often problematic political history look like?

Boston couple donates $15 million to ‘help create the next Ken Burns’

“I’d like to see there be not another Ken Burns but maybe 10 other Ken Burnses."

Why We Need a New Civil War Documentary

by Keri Leigh Merritt

The success and brilliance of the new PBS series on Reconstruction is a reminder of the missed opportunity facing the nation.

Ken Burns Isn’t Mad

The “far, far left,” “far, far right” and “third- and fourth-rate academics” are all wrong about America’s most famous documentary filmmaker. Just ask him.

Patty Limerick says Ken Burns has done more than anybody else to teach Americans about their history

by Patty Limerick

“There is a great deal for all citizens to learn from Burns: how to speak as a whole-hearted patriot while offering a forthright critique of the nation’s failures."