Ken Burns is arguably the most prolific and greatest documentarian of all time. He has enthralled us with productions like “The Civil War,” “Baseball,” “The National Parks,” “Ben Franklin,” “Vietnam” and many others. His latest epic, “The American Revolution” premieres Sunday on PBS. It runs 12 hours over six nights. It comes just prior to the celebration of the 250th anniversary of our nation’s founding, and at a time when we desperately need a reminder as to the aspirations that led to that founding. Right now, it appears that we may be coming apart at the seams.
There are some who argue we are moving toward socialism. Others argue that we are rapidly becoming authoritarian. I would argue that there is a degree of truth to both of those arguments. The election of Zohran Mamdani, a self-described democratic socialist, as mayor of New York City is one sign. Whereas, another sign is, on a daily basis, Donald Trump is doing all he can to usurp power from Congress, and when possible, attempts to enlist the support of the Supreme Court in those efforts to become more authoritarian.
Neither of these options is what the Founding Fathers had in mind; and either of them will most likely lead to the destruction of this country as we know it.
At the time of our inception, we were 13 separate and individual colonies, each subject to the rule of King George and Great Britain. Through the wisdom, foresight and determination of our Founding Fathers we became one country: 13 individual states, operating collectively under one government and one Constitution. Had these courageous men not been successful we could have proceeded as anywhere from two to 13 independent, but much weaker and more vulnerable countries. As the population expanded across the continent, the number of independent countries would have likely increased significantly. And there undoubtedly would have been ongoing conflicts, disagreements and eventually the likelihood of war between them.
Some ninety years later there was such an event, the Civil War, which cost hundreds of thousands of American lives and nearly destroyed the country. We should be eternally thankful that Union forces succeeded in defeating the Confederacy, thus preserving us as one nation. Had that not happened, we would definitely have been divided into two countries, with more likely to follow as expansion continued across the continent.
If either of these two scenarios had occurred, it is impossible to conceive that the United States of America could have evolved into the global powerhouse that was able to lead the world through two destructive world wars and continues, though diminishingly, to be the leader of the free world, and — again diminishingly — the most influential of all nations.
If “The American Revolution” lives up to expectations, we will better understand what our Founding Fathers fought to escape in the tyranny and authoritarianism of King George and British rule; what they sought to create in terms of self-government “of, by and for the people”; and what we now must fight to maintain and reinvigorate as we move into our next 250 years.
Jack Crawford
Saugus
