That egregious cinematic state propagandist of war Ken Burns has completed a 14-part documentary series to air next year on the Roosevelts. His upcoming film explores the political and family ties between Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin Roosevelt and his wife, Eleanor. Burns is best known for his epic series, The Civil War, which introduced to a generation the distorted neo-abolitionist view of Abraham Lincoln and the War of Northern Aggression. His later series, The War, was vastly over-rated and tedious to watch. It was sugarcoated, superficial ‘feel good’ propaganda about the American home front which added nothing new to our deeper explorations of the “why” behind the Second World War. However if you want unabashed state propaganda without the syrup, check out Frank Capra’s masterful Why We Fight series.”

The Best of Charles Burris