Ken Burns "The War"

[Whomp]

Ken Burns WW II documentary will begin tomorrow night. It's a 14 hour 7 part series about the American experience of WW II. They are telling the story from the bottom up in the US so the British, the Russians, the French (not to mention the Australians, the Greeks, and on and on) come into it only tangentially. Generals appear only in passing, politicians are out of it almost entirely and strategy is only discussed as necessary.

The focus will be on four distinctly different American cities. Segregated Mobile, Ala. in the South, upper middle class Waterbury, Conn. in the East, rural Luverne, Minn., in the Midwest and Sacramento, Calif. in the West with its large Japanese population. Most of the footage is real and comes from all different kinds of places (not the staged stuff you see on History Channel), Wynton Marsalis has handled much of the music and of course Tom Hanks will be one of the narrators.

It seems the reasons Ken Burns has given for bringing this is because a good percentage of American teenagers believe we fought the Russians not the Germans in Europe and because we're losing 1000 war veterans a day so the oral history would not be quite as extensive within the next five years.

The film has not been without controversy since the Hispanic community feels they have not been given proper recognition in the film.

Here's a preview...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEItXS35g8o

I loved his Civil War, Jazz and Baseball documentaries and this one sounds like it could top them all.

Any thoughts? His comments about today's teenagers is a bit appalling to me but I'm starting to get used to it.

 

[Gogf]

Well, if the reason this is being created is to help educate our youth, I think a "top-down" approach might have been more appropriate. I do think this will be very interesting for those of us who know something about the war though, and I'm looking forward to it.

I recently read a New Yorker article saying that the documentary wasn't very good, but I'm not sure how seriously to take that.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

I've always loved Burns' work, I'm sure he won't let me down in this one.

 

[Red Door]

Ken Burns is great, and I will definitely be watching this.

 

[Whomp]

OK my question for you three is this.

You're three intelligent guys. I assume your friends are likely equally intelligent. However, Ken Burns put out of figure of 40% of teenagers thinking we fought the Russians not the Germans. If you were to guess what percentage would you guess at your HS think this way?

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

OK my question for you three is this.

You're three intelligent guys. I assume your friends are likely equally intelligent. However, Ken Burns put out of figure of 40% of teenagers thinking we fought the Russians not the Germans. If you were to guess what percentage would you guess at your HS think this way?

I'm not sure. I've never met someone who thought we fought the Russians, but I wouldn't be surprised, given our generation's general disregard for learning. When the popular culture says to insult nerds and that the ones who don't care about skool are cool, I can't honestly expect a whole lot from people. It's one of the reasons I'm studying history right now, so I can do my part to beat back the beast of educational apathy.

 

[Red Door]

OK my question for you three is this.

You're three intelligent guys. I assume your friends are likely equally intelligent. However, Ken Burns put out of figure of 40% of teenagers thinking we fought the Russians not the Germans. If you were to guess what percentage would you guess at your HS think this way?

Out of my high school, I'd say 5-10%. In the area, 25-30%. Unless they think the Nazi's were in Russia.

 

[Gogf]

OK my question for you three is this.

You're three intelligent guys. I assume your friends are likely equally intelligent. However, Ken Burns put out of figure of 40% of teenagers thinking we fought the Russians not the Germans. If you were to guess what percentage would you guess at your HS think this way?

I'd say few to none, but I go to a very competitive private school.

 

[geminisama]

I've never met anyone who thinks we fought Russia in WW2. o.O

 

[.Shane.]

Got the DVR all set to tape the whole thing.

You're three intelligent guys. I assume your friends are likely equally intelligent. However, Ken Burns put out of figure of 40% of teenagers thinking we fought the Russians not the Germans. If you were to guess what percentage would you guess at your HS think this way?

Well, I'm not sure if he's exactly right here, but his point is true. I teach US History at the JC level, so I see a lot of students "fresh" out of HS and I'm consistently amazed at some of the things they don't know or manage to mangle.

 

[skadistic]

Well, I'm not sure if he's exactly right here, but his point is true. I teach US History at the JC level, so I see a lot of students "fresh" out of HS and I'm consistently amazed at some of the things they don't know or manage to mangle.

Is that curriculum,bad teachers or uncaring students? Maybe a mix of all 3?

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

Well, I'm not sure if he's exactly right here, but his point is true. I teach US History at the JC level, so I see a lot of students "fresh" out of HS and I'm consistently amazed at some of the things they don't know or manage to mangle.

JC=Junior College aka Community College? If so, we need to talk.

 

[Red Door]

Is that curriculum,bad teachers or uncaring students? Maybe a mix of all 3?

Honestly, I think it's a mix of curriculum that doesn't teach students to think or analyze, below average teachers, which is harder to fix than the other two IMO, and most of all, uncaring students. If the student doesn't care about the work, then you're not going to see him or her attempt to learn it.

 

[killercane]

I taught an Intro to Criminal Justice course last fall at a JC. Most students were pretty all right, but the few who had no clue were SPECTACULAR. One had Iraq attacking the "Untied States" on September 11, and most dont know geography of the US, let alone the Middle East. One did not know Mexico was connected to the US via land.

 

[El Justo]

i watched it last night. it was pretty good, i guess.

i also read about all of the critics and what burns had apparently left out.

 

[downtown]

I'm trying to find somebody who taped it, so I can watch it (no cable for me). I really enjoyed the pieces Burns did for Baseball and Jazz (haven't seen the Civil War one), so I think I'll like it.

 

[El Justo]

some ww2 enthusiasts may be disappointed b/c there's nothing really new revealed. i mean, from an archival and miltary standpoint that is. but i think its charm is the humanistic angle burns has taken.

 

[.Shane.]

JC=Junior College aka Community College?

Yep

If so, we need to talk.

Fire away

 

[Whomp]

Downtown-- you don't need cable since it's on PBS. I flicked channels since the Bears were on. I think I should have just watched "The War".

El J--one of the things they said will come out of this documentary is how much new footage will be shown. Did you notice that at all?

 

[Masquerouge]

I would be very interested to watch the Japanese in California stuff.

My impression is that it got lost in history, but pretty bad things happened...