Person

Ken Burns

Bylines

How the Iron Horse Spelled Doom for the American Buffalo

From homesteaders to tourists to the U.S. Army, railroads flooded the Great Plains with people who saw bison as pests, amusements, or opportunities for profit.

by Ken Burns, Dayton Duncan via Literary Hub on October 16, 2023
The Presidency Never Recovered After Vietnam

The war opened the credibility gap. What we’ve learned since has only widened it.

by Ken Burns, Lynn Novick via The Atlantic on September 12, 2017
Ken Burns' New Documentary Exposes the Emotion Behind the Vietnam War

An interview with the filmmakers.

by Ken Burns, Lynn Novick, Ryan Bort via Newsweek on September 2, 2017

Blood Memory: The Tragic Decline and Improbable Resurrection of the American Buffalo

Ken Burns, Dayton Duncan

The Civil War (miniseries)

The Vietnam War

Ken Burns, Lynn Novick

Viewing 1–20 of 41

Illustration of Ken Burns

The Unbearable Whiteness of Ken Burns

The filmmaker’s new documentary on Benjamin Franklin tells an old and misleading story.

by Timothy Messer-Kruse via The Chronicle of Higher Education on April 20, 2022

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

The landmark Ken Burns documentary hasn’t aged well. But it continues to shape American perceptions about the Confederacy and slavery.

by Gillian Brockell via Retropolis on September 26, 2020

What’s So Bad About Ken Burns?

The modern historical profession's purpose has changed drastically in the past century.

by Jonathan Zimmerman via The Chronicle of Higher Education on October 3, 2017

Ken Burns presenting about his Vietnam documentary.

The Insidious Ideology of Ken Burns’s The Vietnam War

Burns and co-director Lynn Novick take a "many sides" approach to history at a time when "many sides" is a tool of obfuscation.

by Alex Shepard via The New Republic on September 19, 2017

The filmmakers discuss the Vietnam miniseries.

Burns and Novick, Masters of False Balancing

In promoting healing instead of a search for truth, “The Vietnam War” offers misleading comforts.

by Jerry Lembcke via Public Books on September 15, 2017

An American flag at the Vietnam Memorial on the National Mall.

Ken Burns’s American War

The filmmaker wants ‘The Vietnam War’ to unite America. Can anyone do that under Trump?

by Alyssa Rosenberg via Washington Post on September 14, 2017

Ken Burns's American Canon

Even in a fractious era, the filmmaker still believes that his documentaries can bring every viewer in.

by Ian Parker via The New Yorker on September 4, 2017

The Split Personality of Ken Burns’s “The Civil War”

The documentary's accommodation of the Lost Cause narrative may have left viewers with a skewed understanding of the conflict.

by Kevin M. Levin via Civil War Memory on August 31, 2015

Thanks a Lot, Ken Burns

Because of you, my Civil War lecture is always packed with students raised on your romantic, deeply misleading portrait of the conflict.

by James M. Lundberg via Slate on June 7, 2011

American Pastoral

Reflections on the ahistorical, aristocratic, and romanticist approach to "nature" elevated by John Muir, and by his admirer, Ken Burns.

by Charles Petersen via n+1 on February 26, 2010

Gelringer family, who were later deported to Auschwitz.

The Millions We Failed to Save

The recent documentary "The US and the Holocaust" is a scathing, even bombastic indictment of US immigration policy over the past 160 years.

by Ruth Franklin via New York Review of Books on June 1, 2023

Jalyn Hall (left) as Emmett Till and Danielle Deadwyler (right) as Mamie Till Bradley in the movie Till.

Two Recent Movies Help Us Connect the Dots Between Jim Crow and Fascism

With Kanye and Kyrie Irving dominating the news, the connections between victims of white supremacy are more relevant than ever.

by Soraya Nadia McDonald via Andscape on November 22, 2022

Crowds of people filling Ellis Island Immigration Station

Ken Burns Turns His Lens on the American Response to the Holocaust

Commemorating the Holocaust has become a central part of American culture, but the nation’s reaction in real time was another story.

by James McAuley via The New Yorker on September 18, 2022

New York, 1929, men pointing to a sign reading "No Booze Sold Here"

Freedom From Liquor

Ken Burns’ account of prohibition tells a popular story of booze in America. The historical record is far more sobering.

by Mark Lawrence Schrad via Aeon on September 6, 2022

1862 newspaper photo, "The Rebel Lady’s Boudoir,” shows a woman and child using human bones as decor.

Sullivan Ballou’s Body: Battlefield Relic Hunting and the Fate of Soldiers’ Remains

Confederates’ quest for bones connects to a bizarre history of the use, and misuse, of human remains.

by James J. Broomall via Commonplace on November 30, 2021

Why We Need a New Civil War Documentary

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

by Keri Leigh Merritt via Smithsonian on April 23, 2019

A crowd of Vietnamese civilians stare at fires burning in the distance.

I Guess I’m About to Do a Highly Immoral Thing

On "The Vietnam War."

by Richard Beck via n+1 on December 1, 2017

Title card for Burns and Novick's Vietnam War documentary.

Making History Safe Again: What Ken Burns Gets Wrong About Vietnam

Vietnam was not a "tragic misunderstanding" but a campaign of "imperial aggression."

by Christian G. Appy, Patrick Lawrence via Salon on October 15, 2017

The Ken Burns Vietnam War Documentary Glosses Over Devastating Civilian Toll

The PBS series by Burns focuses on soldiers' stories, with scant attention to the immense number of Vietnamese civilians who suffered and died.

by Nick Turse via The Intercept on September 28, 2017

Title card for Burns and Novick's Vietnam War documentary.

‘The Vietnam War’: Past All Reason

The new series by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick is mesmerizing. But it doesn’t answer key questions about the Vietnam War.

by Andrew J. Bacevich via The Nation on September 19, 2017

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