A House Divided

Sorry, no topical post-election post here. As mentioned in an earlier entry, Cas and I moved from a review of the Nation's birth to its make-or-break hour: the Civil War. Via Amazon's On-Demand video service, we watched all 9 episodes [10+ hours] of Ken Burns' legendary documentary The Civil War. I highly suggest you 'play' the youtube video at the bottom of this post while reading... again, great theme music [Jay Unger's Ashoken Farewell] helps make a great film.

Timothy O'Sullivan. A Harvest of Death,
Gettysburg, PA. July 1863.

We [at least my generation] all take for granted the standard history-channel type documentary: panning over photos, maps with troop movements, narration and actors reading historic quotations. This was the film that made it a standard. The Civil War was also an ideal event for this, as photography was still relatively new and photo-journalism as a profession was born during the conflict [all photos had to wait until after battle: exposure time was still too long to capture any 'action']. Using 1776 author David McCullough as main narrator, Ken Burns also hired Morgan Freeman, Sam Waterston, Garrison Keillor and others to bring contemporary letters and quotes to life. 

Alexander Gardner.
President Lincoln. 1863.

History is fascinating; the way great men [and women] seem to rise when crossroads of conflict erupt. Abraham Lincoln still has a demigod aura about him, 7 score and 5 years later. But even in The Civil War's humanizing analysis of the President, the way he conducted his tenure in office [surrounding himself not with yes-men, but with a cabinet full of differing opinions on almost everything] is something little seen today. To give arguably the greatest, concise [10 sentence] speech in American history with the Union fighting anti-war sentiment in the north- not knowing that the Battle of Gettysburg would eventually be hailed as the turning point of the war: Amazing. The Gettysburg Address sums up everything that the Union was fighting for: to prove that a nation founded as a free democratic republic can survive its greatest threat- internal revolt and secession against the Constitution.


Please, watch Ken Burns' The Civil War if you get the chance. It is more-than relevant in today's political climate. Not that we're headed towards any sort of physical civil war: it helps put a lot of things into proper perspective. 

Join or Die

Paul Giamatti as J.A.

We've been on a history kick recently. After uncovering the still-plastic-wrapped John Adams HBO miniseries at my parents' house, Cas and I decided to give it a go. It definitely lived up to the hype I had heard; although anything based on a David McCullough book can't go too wrong. I found the earlier episodes dealing with the Boston Massacre, Declaration of Independence, and early ambassadorships the most interesting. It's easy to forget that it was just a group of educated, principled colonists that got the ball rolling. At the time, it was treason and meant fighting the most powerful empire in the world.

David Morse as G.W.

Rather than just presenting history as it unfolded, the miniseries also illustrates John and Abigail's relationship, as well as down-to-earth representations of Jefferson, Franklin, and Washington [although it appears even back then G.W. was kind of a god-among-men due to his quiet humility and simple dedication to the principles of the new land]. Seeing Franklin as an Enlightened-Scientist/Ladies-Man gives hope for today's Nobel Prize winners.


Unlike most of today's blind 'Merica patriotism, John Adams presents a founding-fathers story that makes you appreciate and proud of the country we live in. It wasn't all perfect- people were vain, power-hungry, and jealous. John Adams clearly wasn't a perfect father figure. The Continental Congress danced around the issue of slavery, leaving it as something their descendants would have to figure out on their own time. Which is why it is not surprising we were soon watching Ken Burns' epic film series The Civil War. But I'll save that dispute for another day.