--- title: Ken Burns 'The American Revolution' Documentary description: TIME talked to Ken Burns about his new PBS documentary on the American Revolution. canonical: https://time.com/7333989/ken-burns-american-revolution-interview/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2025-11-17T18:24:54.000Z article:modified_time: 2025-11-18T16:31:49.000Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Ken Burns 'The American Revolution' Documentary og:description: TIME talked to Ken Burns about his new PBS documentary on the American Revolution. og:url: https://time.com/7333989/ken-burns-american-revolution-interview/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt928b2563b50ac792/6998cba1f1b08253bd6f1de1/trumbull-declaration-of-independence.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: John Trumbull's painting, Declaration of Independence og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ken Burns 'The American Revolution' Documentary twitter:description: TIME talked to Ken Burns about his new PBS documentary on the American Revolution. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt928b2563b50ac792/6998cba1f1b08253bd6f1de1/trumbull-declaration-of-independence.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Ken Burns Breaks Down the Powerful Stories Behind _The American Revolution_ > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account.  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Updated: Nov 18, 2025 4:31 PM UTCPublished: Nov 17, 2025 6:24 PM UTC  John Trumbull's 1818 painting, Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776, depicting the five-man drafting committee of the Declaration of Independence presenting their work to the Congress. John Trumbull's 1818 painting, Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776, depicting the five-man drafting committee of the Declaration of Independence presenting their work to the Congress.Universal History Archive—Getty Images  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Updated: Nov 18, 2025 4:31 PM UTCPublished: Nov 17, 2025 6:24 PM UTC Ken Burns' latest project is an expansive [documentary](https://time.com/6213028/ken-burns-u-s-and-the-holocaust/) about the history of the American Revolution. Premiering Nov. 16 on PBS and airing over six consecutive nights, _The American Revolution_ starts with context about the Native American populations who were already living on the North American continent before the colonists arrived and ends with George Washington's presidency. The series features interviews with historians, illustrations of key events, re-enactors depicting warfare and life in the 18th century, and music recorded by Yo-Yo Ma. The celebrities voicing historical figures include Claire Danes, Morgan Freeman, Tom Hanks, and Meryl Streep. Burns decided to make the documentary in 2015, and over the last decade, his team noticed many parallels between the Revolutionary War era and current events. For example, the filmmakers were [researching](https://time.com/6312122/ken-burns-teaching-history-video/) how smallpox threatened the Continental Army when the Covid pandemic started. While the series does not explore modern day parallels, co-director Sarah Botstein points out that the discussions about state powers versus federal powers will resonate with a 2025 audience. "One of the things that the founders really debated through the whole the whole history was the dynamic between states and a federal government," says Botstein. "What is the power locally and what is the power more nationally? How do you form a national government and keep states' rights? So that's always been at the heart of our public policy and our politics." TIME spoke to Burns about highlights from the documentary and what people get wrong about the American Revolution. **TIME: Why a documentary about the American Revolution now?** **Ken Burns:** I said we were going to do this nine years and 11 months ago. I’m really happy that it came out far in advance of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence \[July 4, 2026\], to make sure that we’re not drowning in fife and drum and saccharine things that often attend anniversaries **Are there new ways of thinking about the American Revolution here?** We are not applying a philosophy about the American Revolution to this. As we were finishing our Vietnam series, I said, “We’re going to the Revolution next.” The fact that there are no photographs and no newsreels can’t inhibit us. We’ll find new ways to tell the story. We followed re-enactors to collect a critical mass of footage so that we could give a sense of warfare, life in the 18th century, how newspapers were published, and how people spun cotton or wool. All of that is super important if you’re going to wake up the past and ask it to tell us its secrets. **What were you most surprised to learn?** There are powerful stories at both ends of the spectrum. John Peters, the loyalist that we follow, kills his best friend growing up, who was attacking him. In the Battle of Saratoga, two brothers—one on the British side and one on the American side—suddenly realize that they’re fighting against one another and run down to the river that separates the two armies, jump in, and embrace midstream. The American Revolution is the most important, consequential revolution in history. We then spend the next 12 hours trying to prove it, not in a didactic way, but in a narrative way, with intimate moments.  NEW YORK, NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER Ken Burns speaks onstage during the New York premiere of PBS’s The American Revolution, featuring Ken Burns and Tom Hanks, during the 2025 Atlantic Festival on Sept. 18, 2025, in New York City. Michael Loccisano—Getty Images **You look at how different populations experienced this period. Tell us about some. How did Native Americans influence the American Revolution?** We begin with a prologue about how they -organized themselves into a union of six tribes, the Haudenosaunee. Their success inspired Benjamin Franklin to see if he could make that happen in the U.S. **What role did women play?** Women, who are a majority of the population, are central to the success of the Revolution. They followed the armies on the battlefields, and at home, they were running businesses and farms. Mercy Otis Warren wrote the first history of the Revolution. **How did Black experiences vary?** There are many enslaved Africans who make a decision to side with the British because they’re offering freedom to slaves of rebels. (Slaves of loyalists don’t get freedom.) Then there’s James Forten, a free Black young man when he hears the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia. While fighting for the revolutionary cause, he’s captured and sent to a notorious prison ship. He survives and writes about the promise of liberty. **Are there myths you want to debunk?** Paul Revere did not yell, “The redcoats are coming.” He yelled, “The regulars are coming out.” Betsy Ross is never mentioned in our film. We don’t know who made the first flag. But the documentary is not debunking as much as it is trying to tell a compelling narrative that has to leave out some of the tropes. We don’t like a Shakespeare play unless it’s got undertow and dimension. We don’t like Succession or Yellowstone unless it has a variety of complicated, sometimes contradictory characters. That’s even more true of the thing that we call history. **What’s your next project?** One is _LBJ & the Great Society_. Another is _Emancipation to Exodus_, on Reconstruction. I want to do something on the CIA, something on Obama; I’ve already conducted eight two-hour interviews with him. 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