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And Then They Came for Ken Burns?
Sounds a bit ridiculous, right? Noted filmmaker and creator of the highly-praised documentary The Civil War. Liberal Ken Burns. Darling of PBS.
I hesitated to start this conversation because 1) I hardly ever start conversations, and 2) I’m not an expert on the documentary, although I’ve certainly seen all of it, some more than once. I remember that it was extremely well-done, and that one of the reasons that it struck a chord was that it projected humanity. We learned about the bloody, needless struggle, and we learned about slavery, but we also learned about the people on both sides of the conflict. And, while I have no recollection that Burns was “soft” on the South, I also don’t recall vitriol and outright, severe condemnation. There was even, I think, a degree of sympathy for some portrayed.
It’s been awhile, so perhaps I’m just wrong. For the record, the “25th Anniversary Edition” came out a couple of years ago. Do others share my recollection? Is there a remote chance that one day a “reassessment” may be self-imposed or demanded? And, yes, I chose the original VHS box as an image because of its portrayal of the flags, not to be inflammatory, but to show our changes.
Published in General
I suspect the next target will be Colonel Sanders. If ever there was a Southern officer responsible for millions dying of death (diabetes and heart disease) it would be that vile Man and His (delicious) fried foods.
The present day Red Guards are rampant right now. We can only hope the guardians of history are as wise as the Yale librarian who covered the Puritan carving to protect it until the red tide passes.
I was in Istanbul ten years ago and they were removing the big Quran calligraphy panels that covered the mosaics and the workmen found that the “Muslim” workmen in 1453 who covered the mosaics carefully protected them from damage in hopes, no doubt, that the Christian world would recapture the city and Hagia Sophia. We can only hope that, if and when sanity returns, those statues will have been preserved.
Isn’t his Vietnam documentary either just out or will be soon?
Very soon. Who will be the traitors?
I saw a preview of it, maybe in January. It seemed as if they were going for a real, even-handed documentary.
Most of the criticism I saw aimed at Burns and his Civil War documentary was due to his heavy reliance on Shelby Foote. I don’t know that much about Foote’s scholarship, but I think his heavy drawl left some people feeling Burns may have been influenced to be too even-handed in telling the story. That’s not my opinion, but I’ve seen it written.
It might be a good idea to get hold of a copy of the documentary in case it suddenly disappears from the market due to insufficient adherence to orthodoxy.
Back when Amazon was going bug-spit crazy about the Confederate flag I had one book removed from my page because there was what looked like a Confederate flag on the cover. It’s back now. Fortunately my book on the Chattanooga campaign had not yet come out. (And the Confederates are losing the battle depicted on the cover.)
Seawriter
That looks like the Stars and Bars to me.
Not that I care. Several of my ancestors fought under it.
He relied on Ed Bearss too. I didn’t detect Foote being any more sympathetic than any other historian who knows his topic.
Next they’ll be accusing Victor Davis Hanson of being a closet Spartan.
And this just in – you will never believe me, but it isn’t satire: MSESPN has pulled a sports announcer because his name is Robert Lee. And he’s a Chinese guy! Where will the madness end?!??
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/aug/22/espn-pulls-announcer-robert-lee-university-virgini/
Not quite – there are five red stars inside the ring of white stars. Hard to see on the cover. It was not the flag of the CSA. Can you tell me what it was?
Seawriter
Someone has a great racial discrimination suit against MSESPN, sounds like.
Seawriter
Sounds like one of the Cherokee flags. Missed those red stars.
I also didn’t blow it up enough to see the line of text:
The five red stars represent the five Indian nations which joined the Confederacy. The bribe they got to join was one seat in the Confederate senate for each Indian nation.
Seawriter
I sure hope so, those idiots. At least they’re being ridiculed on Twitter, where I just checked. Here’s the guy:
I used Goolag and DuckDuckGo to look for news that may have inspired this post, but no luck so far.
I rarely laugh out loud at internet posts, but I did at yours! Kudos!
That was my opinion about Foote, as well. I think the comments I saw were driven by downright bigotry due to his accent. In one case someone commented that they could just picture Foote with a line of tobacco juice dribbling down the corner of his mouth.
Burns was criticized by progressive historians for over reliance on Foote who they considered pro Southern. He was also criticized for not having more on the role of slaves, women and for leaving out the failure of reconstruction. Burns has worked since then to adhere to the progressive line in his documentaries.
Nope. He’s a farmer. Closet Athenian hoplite.
He makes the best fried chicken bar none. Even better than me.
It’s interesting, too — Foote was a big draw for the show. I loved him and I thought he and Burns did a good job of putting things forward in a fair and balanced way.
I was confirmed in this when Foote said that the war discovered two geniuses: Lincoln and Nathan Bedford Forrest. I know that Forrest’s claim to being a genius is debatable but Lincoln’s is not in doubt anymore. Even though it took 50 years or more to recognize it.
Perhaps, @seawriter can flesh out what Foote was thinking regarding Forrest. I’m too lazy and the stuff I have read is not very convincing. Foote wouldn’t have said that I’m sure if it wasn’t true — and I’m always interested in the nuance and details that @seawriter provides from his fertile big brain and memory.
Forrest was probably the best cavalry officer of the Civil War. He did so many brilliant things with cavalry it is hard to list them all. He appears prominently in my upcoming book on the Nashville campaign where he launched a raid that blockaded the Tennessee River, captured several Union riverboats, played naval officer for a few days and then burned down the depot town of Johnsonville – from across the river.
What made this more remarkable was Forrest was entirely self-taught as a cavalryman. He had no experience with the military before the war, and very little formal education. Yes. He was a genius in that sense.
He was also a disgusting human being. A slave trader who saw nothing wrong with buying and selling human beings. Responsible for the Fort Pillow Massacre. Founded the Klan after the Civil War. After I wrote my book about Grierson’s Raid, I considered doing a book about Streight’s Raid as a kind of bookend. Abel Streight did about everything wrong that Grierson did right. I decided against it because Forrest ends up the “hero” of the story. Maybe someday. Or maybe I do a new book about both raids doing a compare and contrast.
Seawriter
That documentary was so un-woke. It was typical 1990’s unwokery. Burn him! Burn his work!
Here’s more 1990’s unwokery from Martin Sheen. How dare he portray that monster Robert E Lee as a human being, much less a heroic human being? Burn Martin Sheen! Burn his movies!
From what I read, Burns did not originally plan for Foote to appear so much in the show, but once they started interviewing and filming him they realized how well his storytelling and voice played and expanded his role. It was in the service of providing good and interesting entertainment, rather than any ideological preference by Burns.
The Civil War was done 27 years ago, Blanche. That’s “old” to our little Maoists, and therefore of no use. So yes, it will be tossed on the burn pile. Remember, the goal of our cultural revolution is to start over from Year Zero.
In the meantime I hope local historical associations will put up commemorative markers to the tearing-down events and other Red Guard activities. “On this spot in August 2017…” Maybe even commission a statue or two to commemorate the people pulling down the statues. One historically embarrassing statue deserves another.