Ken Burns Book order

From one of our most treasured filmmakers, a pictorial history of America—a stunning and moving collection of some of Ken Burns’s favorite photographs, with an introduction by Burns, and an essay by longtime MoMA photography curator Sarah Hermanson Meister Burns has been making documentaries about American history for more than four decades, using images to vividly re-create our struggles and successes as a nation and a people. As much as anyone alive today, he understands the soul of our country. In Our America, Burns has assembled the images that, for him, best embody nearly two hundred years of the American experiment, taken by some of our most reknowned photographers and by others who worked in obscurity. We see America’s vast natural beauty as well as its dynamic cities and communities. There are striking images of war and civil conflict, and of communities drawing together across lines of race and class. Our greatest leaders appear alongside regular folks living their everyday lives. The photos talk to one another across boundaries and decades and, taken together, they capture the impossibly rich and diverse perspectives and places that comprise the American experience.

The vivid voices that speak from these pages are not those of historians or scholars. They are the voices of ordinary men and women who experienced--and helped to win--the most devastating war in history, in which between 50 and 60 million lives were lost.Focusing on the citizens of four towns-- Luverne, Minnesota; Sacramento, California; Waterbury, Connecticut; Mobile, Alabama;--The War follows more than forty people from 1941 to 1945. Woven largely from their memories, the compelling, unflinching narrative unfolds month by bloody month, with the outcome always in doubt. All the iconic events are here, from Pearl Harbor to the liberation of the concentration camps--but we also move among prisoners of war and Japanese American internees, defense workers and schoolchildren, and families who struggled simply to stay together while their men were shipped off to Europe, the Pacific, and North Africa.Enriched by maps and hundreds of photographs, including many never published before, this is an intimate, profoundly affecting chronicle of the war that shaped our world.

Presents a companion volume to the series tracing the history of the West

First printing. Loaded with black and white photos and black and white and color illustrations. INSCRIBED by Jeff Ward.

"Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns vividly bring to life the story of the quintessential American music - jazz. Born in the black community of turn-of-the-century New Orleans but played from the beginning by musicians of every color, jazz celebrates all Americans at their best.". "Here are the stories of the extraordinary men and women who made the music. Buddy Bolden, Jelly Roll Morton, Dizzy Gillespie, Art Tatum, Count Basie, Dave Brubeck, Artie Shaw, and Ella Fitzgerald are all here; so are Sidney Bechet, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, and a host of others.". "But Jazz is more than mere biography. The history of the music echoes the history of twentieth-century America. The story of jazz encompasses the story of American courtship and show business; the epic growth of great cities - New Orleans and Chicago, Kansas City and New York - and the struggle for civil rights and simple justice that continues into the new millennium."--BOOK JACKET.

4 cassettes / 4 hours Read by Ken Burns. This companion AudioBook to Ken Burns's acclaimed PBS series explores the defining American phenomenon of baseball. Played professionally for eight months each year and enjoyed by amateurs year-round, baseball transforms ordinary people into remarkable figures, such as Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson, and Joe DiMaggio. These gifted individuals embody universal fantasies that find their most profound expression on the baseball field. The narrative by Ward and Burns delves into the rich history of the game, illustrating its profound connection to American life, including politics, race, labor, big business, advertising, and social customs. Covering significant milestones, the audio recounts the evolution of the game from Alexander Cartwright's 1845 rules to the establishment of the Brotherhood of Professional Base Ball Players in 1885, the 1924 Negro World Series, Jackie Robinson's groundbreaking debut in 1947, and Nolan Ryan's final no-hitter in 1991. Monumental, affecting, informative, and entertaining, this audio resonates with all Americans, capturing the essence of baseball's impact on the nation.

"The Civil War defined us as what we are & it opened us to being what we became, good & bad things...It was the crossroads of our being, & it was a hell of a crossroads: the suffering, the enormous tragedy of the whole thing."- Shelby FooteWhen the illustrated edition of The Civil War was published, The NY Time hailed it as "a treasure for the eye & mind." Ward's history interweaves the author's narrative with the voices of those who lived thru the cataclysmic trial of nationhood: not just Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass & Robert E. Lee, but genteel Southern ladies & escaped slaves, cavalry officers & common foot soldiers who fought in Yankee blue & Rebel gray. The Civil War also includes essays by historians of the era: Don E. Fehrenbacher, on the war's origins; Barbara J. Fields, on the freeing of slaves; Shelby Foote, on the soldiers & commanders; James M. McPherson, on the political dimensions; & C. Vann Woodward, assessing the America that emerged from the war's ashes.Introduction: The crossroads of our being1861: A house divided Why the war came/ Don E. Fehrenbacher1862: Forever freeWho freeds the slaves?/ Barbara J. Fields1863: The universe of battleMen at war: an interview with Shelby Foote1864: Most hallowed groundWar & politics/ James M. McPherson1865: The better angels of our natureWhat the war made us/ C. Vann Woodward