Ken Burns says America’s history shows divisions are deeper than today’s

Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns appeared on NBC’s "Meet the Press" on July 5 to discuss his new series on the American Revolution. He said that historical accounts often "sanitize" the conflict, fearing that exposing its brutality would undermine the ideals expressed in 1776 and later in the Constitution. Burns argued that acknowledging the war’s bloodiness actually makes those ideas more impressive because of the odds the founders overcame.

He noted parallels between the founding era’s pandemic, debates over soldiers’ vaccinations and a failed invasion of Canada, and today’s challenges, but said present divisions are "a mile wide but an inch thick" compared with past conflicts such as the Civil War and the Vietnam era. Burns warned that the founders would be disappointed by any drift toward authoritarianism, adding that they would not be surprised by it.

"If the founders came here, they would not be surprised at all that somebody was seeking more authoritarian power," Burns said, and added that the legislative branch had ceded too much authority, contrary to the founders’ intent.

He warned that “authoritarians” benefit from keeping citizens distracted by conspiracy and superstition, and that the nation’s democratic “recipe” exists but is being undermined by such distractions. Burns highlighted the historical emergence of the concept of the "citizen" as a counter to rule by a few, citing Thomas Paine’s claim that the era offered a chance to remake the world.

"We have a system here in which we have at least the recipe to pull out the fuel rods of anger and distrust and hatred," he said, urging Americans to choose reconciliation over further division as the country approaches the 250th anniversary of its democracy.