Ken Burns

New York Times Bestseller 
A vivid and personal portrait of America’s greatest political family and its enormous impact on our nation, which expands on the hugely acclaimed seven-part PBS documentary series, bringing readers even deeper into these extraordinary leaders’ lives
 
With 796 photographs, some never before seen
 
The authors of the acclaimed and best-selling The Civil War, Jazz, The...

"A treasury of American Presidents by historian Ken Burns"--

The film tells the story of a tiny school in Putney Vermont, the Greenwood School, where each year the students are encouraged to memorize, practice and recite the Gettysburg Address. In its exploration of the Greenwood School, the film also unlocks the history, context and importance of President Lincoln's most powerful address. The Greenwood School students, boys ages 11-17, all face a range of complex learning differences that make their personal,...

In the 1960s, jazz becomes divided into “schools”—Dixieland, swing, bop, hard bop, cool, modal, free, avant-garde. The question of what is jazz and what isn’t rages, dividing audiences, dividing musicians, dividing generations.

'Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson - Part 2' is part of a series of films from PBS. Jack Johnson - the first African-American Heavyweight Champion of the World, whose dominance over his white opponents spurred furious debates and race riots in the early 20th century - enters the ring once again in January 2005 when PBS airs Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson, a provocative new PBS documentary by acclaimed...

Young rebels take jazz in startling new directions, but their innovations are largely unnoticed amidst the war effort. In Europe, jazz is banned by the Nazis and embraced by their opponents as a symbol of freedom and democracy.

As rhythm and blues and rock ’n’ roll erode jazz’ audience further, the music nonetheless enjoys a time of great creativity. Free-jazz challenges all the jazz conventions, provoking a debate about the genre’s definition that continues to this day.

'Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson - Part 1' is part of a series of films from PBS. Jack Johnson - the first African-American Heavyweight Champion of the World, whose dominance over his white opponents spurred furious debates and race riots in the early 20th century - enters the ring once again in January 2005 when PBS airs Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson, a provocative new PBS documentary by acclaimed...

By 1887, the West was changing faster than ever before. Americans were moved by the same impulses that had always moved them, to better their own lives and transform the region in the process. Now their numbers soared, and they brought with them the tools of the new industrial age.Mining still lured people to the West from every corner of the globe, but it was a full-scale industry now. And the cities it created seemed little different from the grimy...

Louis Armstrong arrives in New York from Chicago where, during a brief stay with the Fletcher Henderson band, he amazes his fellow musicians and teaches the city to swing. Follow musicians Louis Armstrong, Bessie Smith, Bix Beiderbecke, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Sidney Bechet, Ethel Waters and Duke Ellington, who begins his incomparable career as the pre-eminent composer in jazz history.