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"The Civil War" by Ken Burns

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Civil_War_(miniseries)

Detailed. Unagitated text. No reenactment. Based on contemporary documents only (almost). Competent experts, some quite characters. Reserved but impressive music.




It’s received a fair amount of criticism the last few years and in my opinion a lot of it is valid. I would never recommend it to someone who isn’t already familiar with the politics of the several war — at least they’ll be able to have a good chuckle when Foote opens his mouth.


If you’ve not seen it, I’d also recommend The Civil War on Drugs

https://m.imdb.com/title/tt2316000/


And surprisingly emotional at times. Even the part about Lincoln's death gave me a lump in a throat feeling. It's been years since I watched it.


The historian Shelby Foote is the star of the series.


First of all, Foote isn’t a historical, or he wasn’t during filming. He’s a cloying sycophant who egregiously who thinks the civil war wasn’t in fact w war to abolish the institution of slavery. No, Mr Foote (a writer by trade) wants you know the whole thing was just the result of a “failure to compromise.”

Yikes.




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