Commentary: Commemorate America's 250th with these 6 series, historical and satirical
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Set us as preferred Anniversaries are funny things, commemorating the bad as well as the good in our shared and personal histories.Even when the initial event was a happy one, the present state of affairs might be less so, and such markers can be an occasion to look back at plans gone wrong, ideals betrayed, relationships frayed, in order to recapture what was lost, or right the ship sailing forward.
It’s a time for reflection, not just celebration.We are coming down fast on the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, generally accounted as America’s birthday — the semiquincentennial, to use the word you may have recently learned and will forget by July 5.If it seems to be less of a moment than it might, perhaps it’s being obscured by the global excitement of the World Cup, or by the practical disasters in Washington that somehow serve double duty as metaphors for and examples of corruption, incompetence, self-dealing and brand-splattering.That a not insignificant segment of the population, including some elected officials, could do with lessons in civics and history is a truth I hold to be self-evident.
Yet as American democracy reels on its heels, it’s a good time for any of us to brush up on the country’s founding and foundational principals.(It’s always good to know what you’re talking about.) Fortunately, your television, and the little television you call your phone, is here to help.Ken Burns, with co-directors Sarah Botstein and David Schmidt, gives us an in-depth look at the war for independence that also happened to be a civil war.On the heels of the excellent 12-hour PBS film series “The American Revolution,” by Ken Burns, Sarah Botstein and David Schmidt, which is still streaming, comes the five-part Netflix series “The American Experiment.” (Related Burns doc...