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,...

Los Angeles steals its water supply, millions of Mexicans migrate north, and Hollywood begins to shape the West and the nation's image of it.Homesteaders and fortune-seekers still arrived, even though much of the best land had already been claimed. And the frenzy over what was left touched off human stampedes, while whole towns opened for business overnight.But for the first inhabitants of the West, it seemed that a way of life that had lasted for...

There are all kinds of people on earth that you will meet some day… They will be looking for a certain stone. They will be people who do not get tired, but who will keep pushing forward, going, going all the time… These people do not follow the way of our great-grandfather. They follow another way. They will travel everywhere, looking for this stone which our great-grandfather put on the earth in many places. Sweet MedicineOn the morning on January...

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...

Jazz, the official symbol of American democracy abroad, splinters at home into different camps: white and black, cool and hot, East and West, traditional and modern. Miles Davis becomes the most influential musician of his generation.

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.

As the Great Depression deepens, jazz thrives. The saxophone emerges as an iconic instrument of the music and women musicians emerge on the jazz scene. Benny Goodman holds the first-ever jazz concert at Carnegie Hall.

The American realizes that 'Progress is God.' The destiny of the American people is to subdue the continent -- to rush over this vast field to the Pacific Ocean… to change darkness into light and confirm the destiny of the human race… Divine task! Immortal mission! The pioneer army perpetually strikes to the front. Empire plants itself upon the trails. William GilpinBy 1821, no one knew who would control the West’s seemingly infinite spaces,...

In his time, Mark Twain was considered the funniest man on earth. Yet he was also an unflinching critic of human nature, using his humor to attack hypocrisy, greed and racism. In this series, Ken Burns has created an illuminating portrait of the man who is also one of the greatest writers in American history.

The dramatic story of America’s national mammal, which sustained the lives of Native people for untold generations, being driven to the brink of extinction, before an unlikely collection of people rescues it from disappearing forever. Ken Burns recounts the tragic collision of two opposing views of the natural world––and the unforgettable characters who pointed the nation in a different direction.