Page 30 - ARUBA TODAY

A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Tuesday 7 November 2017
Debate over Ken Burns Civil

War doc continues over decades

By HILLEL ITALIE still going on. It's still to be "Ken Burns always looks
AP National Writer fought and regrettably it for varied voices and he
NEW YORK (AP) — From the can still be lost." always looks for charac-
time it aired nearly 30 years As much as any book or film ters, and Shelby Foote was
ago, Ken Burns' Civil War in recent years, Burns' series certainly a character," Hol-
documentary has been a has shaped how Ameri- zer says. "The most amaz-
popular sensation and sub- cans perceive the war. ing thing he said was that
ject of debate. Holzer says "The Civil War" the two great geniuses of
The 11-hour, nine-part series has a couple of important the war were Lincoln and
premiered in September and productive legacies (Confederate Gen.) Na-
In this July 28, 2017 file photo, Ken Burns poses for a portrait 1990 and became one of — it brought slavery to the than Bedford Forrest. Foote
during the 2017 Television Critics Association Summer Press PBS' most widely seen ed- center of the Civil War de- somehow compared the
Tour in Beverly Hills, Calif. ucational programs, with bate, erasing some of the great emancipator with a
some 40 million taking in damage caused by "Gone man who owned slaves,
at least part of the original With the Wind" and other murdered blacks and
broadcast. "The Civil War" narratives of the past, and joined the Ku Klux Klan. "
was the rare documentary helped create an enduring The documentary inspired
to inspire a skit on "Satur- popular following for Civil enough discussion to be-
day Night Live" and helped War stories. But he says "The come a book, "Ken Burns'
make Burns, in his mid-30s Civil War" was "somewhat The Civil War: Historians Re-
at the time, the rare docu- romanticized," notably in its spond," a 1995 publication
mentary maker recogniz- treatment of Gen. Robert featuring contributions by
able to the general public. E. Lee and other Confed- such leading scholars as C.
During its initial run, then- erate leaders. "Since the Vann Woodward and Eric
President George H.W. film and book appeared Foner and responses from
Bush and Gen. Norman there's been a lot very Burns and Ward.
Schwarzkopf, who would good work done on Rob- The commentary ranges
soon command the U.S.- ert E. Lee," says historian from praise by Woodward,
led Gulf War, were among Geoffrey Ward, who has a Pulitzer Prize winner and
those who watched it. Ear- collaborated with Burns on consultant for the film, for
lier this week, White House "The Civil War" and numer- Burns thoroughness and
Press Secretary Sarah Huck- ous other projects. "Had I dedication, to negative
abee Sanders cited the film the benefit of it all I'm sure critiques by Foner and oth-
in defense of Chief of Staff we would have painted a ers. Catherine Clinton, who
John F. Kelly, who had said harsher but more accurate has worked on numerous
the Civil War could have portrait of Lee." books about the South,
been avoided with more Sanders' comments do re- faulted the "wholesale ne-
compromise. flect what Foote said in the glect of women." Slavery
"I don't know that I'm go- film: Scholars argue about historian Leon Litwack al-
ing to get into debating the documentary in part leged that the film "revives
the Civil War, but I do know because Burns included the pernicious notion" that
that many historians, in- commentators with very the "war need not hap-
cluding Shelby Foote in different interpretations. pened at all." Foner, an au-
Ken Burns' famous Civil War Fields' perspective — that thority on Reconstruction,
documentary, agree that a slavery was the cause, that criticized Burns for making
failure to compromise was the conflict was neces- "no attempt to convey the
a cause of the Civil War," sary and unavoidable and state of the nation at war's
Sanders said. "There are a that initial hopes for black end in 1865." "The word
lot of historians that think equality were fiercely re- 'Reconstruction' is never
that." sisted in the South and re- mentioned, and what little
And a lot of historians who main unmet — is common information there is about
don't. among historians now. But the era is random and mis-
"There's no one who thinks far more time in "The Civil leading," Foner wrote. In
intransigence was shared War" is given to Foote, who the book, Ward acknowl-
equally," says historian Har- died in 2005. Foote was edged mistakes, including
old Holzer. "Kelly accepted a popular Southern histo- the wrong date for Lincoln's
the old line idea that peo- rian and raconteur who assassination (he had con-
ple were just arguing about scorned slave holders and fused the date in April with
tariffs and states' rights." abolitionists, and in Burns' the day of Franklin Roos-
Burns himself challenged film contended that the evelt died in 1945). But he
Sanders' interpretation on war happened "because disputed the comments of
Twitter. He wrote that "Many we failed to do the thing Foner and others and not-
factors contributed to the we really have a genius for, ed that he and Burns had
Civil War. One caused it: which is compromise." done their best within the
slavery." He noted that the Ward praised Foote as boundaries of the medi-
documentary ends with a "master storyteller" but um, writing that "Television
commentary from Barbara added that "his views on is better at narrative than
Fields, a revered scholar of its causes were his own." analysis, better at evoking
slavery and the Civil War, The cause of the war, Ward emotions than at expound-
who says "the Civil War is added, was slavery. ing complex ideas."q