Anthony Bernier, Project Director, YouthFacts.org| December 2025<\/strong><\/p>\n Ken Burns\u2019 new 12-hour PBS The American Revolution examines the War for Independence. As viewers with formal education, we might question some of Burns\u2019 choices and narrative style. I certainly do. <\/span><\/p>\n But adding Native Americans, Black Americans, and women as part of the grand story taught to us in grade school – about a dashing General George Washington and his brave patriot troops <\/span>\u2013 deploys, on its face, a laudable aspiration. The effort also deserves praise for including real historians instead of the media commentators pervading previous Burns films.<\/span><\/p>\n Still, there\u2019s more to consider. First, among the eminent historians included in the film, Bernard <\/span>Bailyn<\/span> and Gordon Wood – both Pulitzer Prize-winners \u2013 published their classic works on the history of the revolutionary period decades ago (<\/span>Bailyn<\/span> in 1967 and Wood in 1991). I read them in grad school in, 1992. <\/span><\/p>\n However, the groups Burns now claims to finally include, in fact, have appeared in serious historical accounts for nearly a half-century!<\/span><\/p>\n Why are there always new books about Abraham Lincoln? Because historians constantly ask new questions, revisit and reinterpret old evidence, and uncover new evidence.<\/span><\/p>\n Conversely, Burns does not challenge with new questions or pose fresh inquiry in pursuing the contradictions, virtues, and the social complexities (even hypocrisies) among the founders and patriots, and between them and those loyal to England\u2019s King. Instead, he delivers what is now a very conventional, if not old, interpretation.<\/span><\/p>\n For our YouthFacts.org purposes, and our focus on truths about young people, Burns misses a clear opportunity. <\/span><\/p>\n Young people\u2019s contributions appear sprinkled throughout The American Revolution. But only in passing. The ranks of the Continental army were constituted of this 15-year-old, that teen girl\u2019s diary reflections, that 16-year-old, another 14-year-old. Youth left their families, farms, and took up arms against the Red Coats and their cannons. <\/span><\/p>\n How much effort would it have taken to recognize youth, along with the other diverse groups, Burns highlights? And what would acknowledging their sacrifices in that bloody episode of American history mean for our current perceptions and assumptions of today\u2019s youth? <\/span><\/p>\n Nearly every day brings another claim, another frantic panic, another prohibition \u2013 another layer of how technology brainwashes young people, how their unformed capacities produce anti-social behaviors, expose them to one mental disorder after another and worries about their growing up tranquilized by computer screens. <\/span><\/p>\n Unless we argue that the unchanging neurobiology and undeveloped brains of 18th century young people recklessly led them into battle against the world\u2019s most powerful army, we must question today\u2019s pervasive assumptions about youth development theory and young people\u2019s inherent incapacities for becoming \u201cthriving adults.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n We owe those teenagers thanks for helping to establish the nation; yet today we rarely ask or expect anything from them. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What Ken Burns\u2019 The American Revolution Gets Wrong: Youth Anthony Bernier, Project Director, YouthFacts.org| December 2025 Ken Burns\u2019 new 12-hour PBS The American Revolution examines the War for Independence. As viewers with formal education, we might question some of Burns\u2019 choices and narrative style. I certainly do. But adding Native Americans, Black Americans, and women […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[11,12,13,7],"class_list":["post-161243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-history","tag-ken-burns","tag-the-american-revolution","tag-youth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=161243"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":161258,"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161243\/revisions\/161258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=161243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=161243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=161243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}