Ken Burns The American Revolution

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Streaming on PBS

Basically, everything I was taught about the American Revolution was made up. Deep dive into the politics and economics of the era.

My father the Atheist to my 10 year old..” all wars are about religion”
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Abby. “All wars are about economics”

She has gone far.

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I think both of those are true.

It had too many battle maps with arrows and dashed lines and flanks and blood. I’d be fine with the general idea of “who won?”

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As he always does, Burns digs deep into history and brings stuff up to light that they don’t teach in white bread history books

The narrative that the nation was born from adventuresome people wanting to be free of the King is a good story , but the reality is it was economics and land deals that drove the rift.

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The need for an origin story is strong with humans (and a FLAG!)

It’s an impressive document….if you were a white Protestant male landowner.

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We have recently run into some live history, which makes it all more real. My son is moving into a house built in 1773, owned by a Revolutionary War military guy. The British who controlled most of Rhode Island were brutal and deeply resented.

He commanded a small force of literally neighbors, in whale boats, rowing across Narragansett Bay to Newport in the middle of the night. They were tipped off that the Brits had intercepted a ship full of liquor. They overcame guards at a big estate without firing a shot, and captured the British General, rowing him back across to the west shore.

A year later, he was exchanged for George Washington’s #2 man, who had been captured by the British.

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I live adjacent to Setauket NY, home of the Culper Spy ring. This was a Revolutionary war era group who reported troop movements from Ny to Washington’s forces in New England. The leader of the group is buried in a church lot a few miles from home. Cool history

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culper_Ring