Ken Burns's America: Packaging the Past for Television

by G. Edgerton

Overview

This is the first book-length study to critically examine the work of Ken Burns, the innovative producer-director as a television auteur, a pivotal programming influence within the industry, and a popular historian who portrays a uniquely personal and compelling version of the country's past for tens of millions of viewers nationwide. Ken Burns's America has a three-fold agenda: First it looks at the ideas and individuals that have influenced Burns in the creation of his easily-recognized style, as well as in the development and maturation of his ideological outlook. Second, the book gives readers a window on the Ken Burns production machine. Gary Edgerton shows us the inner working of Florentine Films. Finally, he looks at Burns as a popular historian who reevaluates the nation's historical legacy from a new generational perspective and, in the process, becomes one of the major cultural commentators of our era. The volume finally takes the full measure of the man and the industry he has helped to create.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781349631100
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan US
Publication date:	02/18/2002
Edition description:	1st ed. 2001
Pages:	268
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

GARY R. EDGERTON is Professor and Chair of the Communications and Theatre Arts Department at Old Dominion University. He is the co-editor of the Journal of Popular Film and Television and has published four books and more than fifty essays on a wide assortment of film, television, and culture topics in a variety of books and scholarly journals.

Table of Contents

Rebirth of a Nation: Reframing The Civil War (1990) on Prime Time Television Life Lessons: Learning the Basics on Brooklyn Bridge (1982) Variations on a Theme: American Originals, Symbols, and Institutions Inside the Production Process on Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio (1992): The Creative Team as Historian A Whole New Ballgame: Baseball (1994) and The West (1996) as Event TV American Lives: Thomas Jefferson (1997) and the Television Biography as Popular History Mainstreaming Jazz (2001) for a National Audience: Ken Burns's America Reconsidered Notes Videography

What People are Saying About This

Douglas Gomery

Gary Edgerton has created an outstanding study of the man who re-invented public television -- Ken Burns. If Sesame Street defined PBS for the 1980s, then The Civil War, Baseball and Jazz did the same during the final decade of the 20th century. While one might disagree with Burns' interpretations of what has made the United States special, no one can argue that he has put his stamp on popular history as no one has in the age of television. Gary Edgerton places PBS's non-fiction ace under the microscope, and in a highly readable style, astonished me as I rediscovered one documentarian I surely thought I knew. While Edgerton carefully takes apart the recognizable and distinctive Burns' TV style, he more importantly explains why and how Ken Burns became the most honored popular historian working today.
— Douglas Gomery, Professor of Media History at the University of Maryland

Christopher H. Sterling

If the 1950s marked the first golden age of television documentary, Ken Burns surely made the end of the century the second. Gary Edgerton's well-written study tells us how and why. Edgerton probes behind the famous films to show us the man and his process for assembling the popular historical narratives that have almost single handedly resurrected the once-dying video documentary genre. From his early films through the break-through Civil War series and on to the recent history of Jazz, Ken Burns's documentaries have informed a generation of Americans. Now Gary Edgerton provides an informed and readable guide to the development of Burns's methods and explores the reasons for his spectacular success. Edgerton combines critical viewing, a host of well-chosen interviews, and careful analysis to provide the best picture we have of one of the most important American documentary filmmakers. Thanks to Gary Edgerton's effort, we have a balanced view of the modern documentary maker in action. This is an important and insightful study of today's most important American television documentary maker.
— Christopher H. Sterling, George Washington University, editor of Communication Booknotes Quarterly

Michael T. Marsden

Gary Edgerton offers us an engaging account of a master storyteller who reminds us through his life's work that the ultimate master is narrative. In this anatomy of a popular storyteller we find 'an able if self-taught historian' . . . whose twin obsessions of filmmaking and history have transformed him into 'the people's historian.' Our new history texts can be found on television because, as Gary Edgerton informs us, Ken Burns has found an honored place on television for historical documentaries.
— Michael T. Marsden, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs and Research, Eastern Kentucky University

Carolyn Anderson

Like the films it analyzes,Ken Burns's America is creatively structured, carefully and thoroughly researched, and presented in accessible, lively prose full of the voices of its central subjects. Gary Edgerton operates as a contemporary cultural historian in offering a compelling and extremely useful analysis of the unprecedented popularity and influence of the Burns documentaries and their role in shaping national understandings of the American past.
— Carolyn Anderson, Associate Professor, Department of Communication at the University of Massachusetts

Kathy Fuller Seeley

Who is the most influential historian in America today? Gary Edgerton deftly makes the case that Ken Burns has leapt over the academics to claim that spot. An enthusiastic, idealistic young filmmaker with an eye for old photographs and a nose for compelling historical narratives, Burns burst on the public broadcasting scene in 1990 with his blockbuster television series The Civil War. Popular history - on TV, cable and in the bookstores - has never been the same. Edgerton explores Burns's relationship with the historical profession, and shows how academic historians have reacted to The Civil War, Baseball, Jazz and other Burns documentaries with a mixture of elation, envy and anxiety. Gary Edgerton's engaging, straight-forward and balanced study examines the appeal of Burns's documentaries, and explains the historical methodology and production values that make Burns's films exceptional (and often copied!)
— Kathy Fuller-Seeley, Associate Professor of History at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Editorial Reviews

'In the end, Edgerton ably proves that although Burns is not an academic scholar, he is a historian nevertheless.' - Library Journal

'absorbing...informative and probing book.' - Booklist

'...Edgerton does an admirable job of taking the measure of the man...' - Time Out New York

'This is a fine book about a masterful TV documentary film maker...' - Indianapolis Star

From the Publisher

...Edgerton does an admirable job of taking the measure of the man...

Time Out New York

...Edgerton does an admirable job of taking the measure of the man...

Ken Burns's America by Gary R. Edgerton is the first book-length treatment of the man who is clearly one of the most important American documentary filmmakers...Edgerton has talked to the principal and many of his colleagues, has carefully screened the growing number of Florentine Films products, and has brought to bear considerable analytic talent to assess the place of Burns in both film and television....Burns's work has almost single-handedly revived interest in video documentaries, an almost forgotten art after their initial golden age in the 1950s. This is an important study of a seminal figure.

Communication Booknotes Quarterly

Absorbing...informative and probing book.

Booklist

Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns receives the royal treatment in this lavish study of his life and work. Edgerton (Television Histories), a communications professor at Old Dominion University, examines each of Burns's productions, from his first major effort in 1982, Brooklyn Bridge, up to last year's Jazz. No detail is too small for Edgerton, whether it's how many votes Burns's Huey Long was short for an Academy Award nomination (two) or how much time was devoted to Jackie Robinson's death in Baseball (seven minutes, 50 seconds). Burns is worth all this effort, Edgerton believes, because he is "arguably the most recognizable and influential historian of his generation." In terms of sheer popular appeal, it's difficult to disagree: over 150 million Americans have seen Burns's films (nearly 40 million watched The Civil War alone). Moreover, as Edgerton points out, Burns's signature style (camera panning over still photographs, the recurring use of two or three speakers) has become the defining paradigm for TV documentaries. But as popular and influential as Burns's films have been, they've also been highly controversial. Academic historians, Edgerton recalls, accused The Civil War of being simplistic and downplaying the failures of Reconstruction; musicians were similarly dismayed that Jazz glossed over the years since 1960. Other critics have been put off by Burns himself, who is variously portrayed as sentimental, liberal and self-important (Burns called The Civil War America's Iliad, casting himself in the role of Homer). These criticisms don't bother Edgerton, who rightly points out that controversy is "unavoidable" with such large and complex subjects. (Nov. 5) Forecast: Popular asBurns's films are, this study will likely appeal to a smaller audience of media students and those interested in how history is presented in film or television. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Edgerton (communication and theater arts, Old Dominion Univ.; coeditor, Television Histories) builds a compelling case that "Burns is arguably the most recognizable and influential historian of his generation," even though he does not have the traditional historian's scholarly background and education. This is the first full-length study of the executive producer whose 1990 Civil War series reached the largest audience ever on public television, spurred a popular interest in history on TV, and created a best-selling tie-in book and videotape series. Burns formed an independent production company in 1975, produced his first historical documentary, Brooklyn Bridge, in 1982, and in the 1990s produced the popular series Baseball and Jazz. The author explores Burns's style and storytelling power, showing how the popular historian presents history in a new perspective packaged for contemporary audiences. He also examines the backlash from historians over Burns's use of emotions and poetic license. In the end, Edgerton ably proves that although Burns is not an academic scholar, he is a historian nevertheless part of a new breed that is important to recognize. Recommended for public and academic libraries. Bruce Henson, Georgia Tech, Atlanta Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Popularly lauded for his public television documentaries (including , , and , Ken Burns has become an influential cultural producer in American society. Edgerton (communication and theater arts, Old Dominion U.) analyzes Burns's influence in three different contexts. The personal and ideological influences on Burns and his style are explored, with an emphasis on what helped him become as popular as he is. His operations as an owner and executive producer of an independent production company are analyzed in the institutional framework of public television. Finally, the ideological interpretation of American history promoted by his films is critically examined. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews