Ken Burns' "Congress" Is Pure Blather

Oregon Magazine ^ | 26 May 2003 | "LL"

[metesky]

I thought so too but on a recient History Cannel doc it said that in the 1930's the KKK was all Republican.

Republican President Warren G. Harding hosted a Klan meeting in the White House!

[justshutupandtakeit]

Does anyone believe that Southern Republicans in the South in the 30s were the crackerheaded rednecks who made up the Klan? Please, it is ridiculous.

Do you know what the program was? I would like to watch it if it comes around again.

[tsomer]

"You mean the "War to Free One Third of the South From Unpaid Labor, Forced Familiar Separation And Forcible Rape"?"


The "Ken Burns" view.

Burns relies on Macpherson, author of "Battle Cry of Freedom" for most of the content of the series, although there is a desultory acknowledgement of Foote at the beginning. Burns is a better film-maker than historian, and he's not much at that either.

"Myths and Realities of American Slavery" by John Perry contradicts much of this. http://www.vvm.com/~johperry/ Leftists have been trying to advance the slavery argument to demonstrate their theory of political evolution.

"In every day and in every way, we keep getting better, etc." That's the ideology of the left, and they distort history to promote it. They overlook the probability that all the advances that they (and we) extol could never have occurred had the integrity of the union been broken.

"Get over it?" I will when you & they stop defaming my people.

Yes, I'm glad the union was saved, that the North stepped on our head.

But we sure-as-hell bruised your heel, didn't we?

[circles]

and goes into great detail about General/President Grant and the Republican radicals struggle against the Demorats and the KKK to bestow equality to the Southern blacks.

Why didn't they just concentrate on bestowing equality to Northern blacks?

[Valin]

Like many others here let me add my endorsment.

Of course my endorsment, that and a dollar will buy you a cup of coffee.

[Valin]

The Civil War: A Narrative: Fort Sumter to Perryville, Fredericksburg to Meridian, Red River to Appomattox by Shelby Foote is far superior to the DVD.

True. IMO A book is always better than a movie. That being said these books are a little daunting for some people to start. the dvd is a good (quick) overview of the war and may encourage people to read the books.

[Grand Old Partisan]

Thank you for your interesting reply. Ballot means piece of paper placed in a voting urn; it does not necessariy mean a government-printed form listing all candiadtes "on the ballot" from which voters check their preferences before placing it in the urn. Your point about the 1860 Republicans not "being on the ballot" is based on the faulty assumption that prior to the 1880s there were ballots to "get on". Each political party would indeed distribute its ballots, "party tickets", in a distinct color, so as to better keep track of who was voting for their party.

[Valin]

"Get over it?" I will when you & they stop defaming my people.

Your people? Who would those be?

[Grand Old Partisan]

Thank you, sir. Many prominent Republican politicians have praised it to the skies, but not one has lifted a finger to spread the word about it. This lethargy on the part of the GOP is what I wrote the book to cure.

The book answers your agenda question and many, many more.

[Grand Old Partisan]

"Hillary is not a Centrist. She is a Socialist"

The Confederates were Socialists, and Democrats, and traitors too.

[Grand Old Partisan]

Thank you for the considerate message to Stainless Banner.

[Grand Old Partisan]

Thank you for the considerate message to Stainless Banner. Though it has sold over 6000 copies, the book has recently plumetted on Amazon because, as someone on FR was kind enough to inform me, the book has become not searchable by title (!!), only ISBN (0970006322).

[Grand Old Partisan]

Thanks! Senator Peter Fitzgerald bought 25 copies and invited me to breakfast to sign them. He had already inscribed them: "This is one of the best books I ever read."

[Grand Old Partisan]

Yes, the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s -- it had pretty much died away by the 1930s -- had many Republicans. It was a different organization completely from the Reonstruction-era KKK, which was the terrorist wing of the Democratic Party. The 1915-1944 KKK, though it dominated Indiana Republican politics, was still mostly Democrat -- the KKK dominated the 1924 Democratic National Convention, for example.

[Bush2000]

Republicans have taken it on the chin from the libs at PBS because we are constantly trying to eliminate their funding. Until we succeed, they will continue to lie and fabricate.

[VOA]

Ken Burns' "Congress" Is Pure Blather

Thanks for posting this. I thought about watching the show and decided not to.
After wasting a few boring hours with Burns' baseball show, I decided not to
give him a few more hours of my time.

Burns' peaked with "The Civil War", everything else ranks as average to mediocre with me
(just my opinion).

[Bush2000]

Ken Burns blew his credibility out in "Not For Ourselves Alone", his docu-drama on the early feminists, which somehow managed to overlook their strong anti-abortion views.

Burns's bias aside, you have to keep in mind who he's marketing these documentaries to: PBS bureaucrats that have kept the likes of MacNeil-Lehrer on the air. Frankly, I'm surprised that PBS hasn't morphed into the official gay network.

[Trueblackman]

Well this is a one trick pony republ(I)cans will ride all the way to the Congress.

[Bush2000]

Democrats don't like the idea that racism and violence are the hallmarks of their political heritage; so, like Clinton, they slime their opponents with their own sins...

[Grand Old Partisan]

Ken Burns' "Jazz" program was pretty good, but it dealt too much about race.