Anyone watching/watch the Ken Burns documentary on the Roosevelts?

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I love all of the stuff I've seen by Ken Burns. Even if you aren't a hardcore fan of the subject matter he is presenting, he does such a great job of making it interesting and having it come alive.

His documentary Baseball really turned my wife into a bigger fan of baseball history. I absolutelu love the history of baseball, and the work he did breaking down the history of the game was phenomenal. The Civil War was another great one.


Most recently PBS has been airing a 7-part documentary on the Roosevelt family, keying in mostly on Teddy then FDR/Eleanor. I haven't watched them all yet, but I DVR'd them and we have been watching them off and on the last couple of weeks. If you are at all interested in American History, the Roosevelts, or just have a brain in your head and like learning about various things, I recommend checking it out. Burns does a pretty good job of being objective. I've read Edmund Morris' Theodore Roosevelt trilogy, so most of the stuff on him wasn't new to me (and that seemed to be a major source of info for Burns), but I haven't read quite as much on FDR and Eleanor. Honestly their personalities kind of remind me of Bill and Hillary, it is interesting to see and I'd be interested if anyone else thought/thinks the same.

No matter what your politics or thoughts are on either President, IMO it is worth checking out.

 

I watched all except the first of the series. Enjoyable and I learned a few things, although I've read several FDR related books. FDR's Presidency may have "saved" the great American experiment. I knew that one of TR's sons died in WW2, but didn't know that he took his own life. I learned quite a bit about Eleanor. Most of the books on FDR only address Eleanor peripherally. It's worth commenting about how much more "gentlemanly" the press was in those days.
Sig even enjoyed it, and he's from Sweden, but fairly knowledgeable about World War 2 history, even though Sweden was neutral.

I can't figure out who Hillary really is, but poor, flat-broke Hillary is no Eleanor Roosevelt.

 

I need to watch these. I enjoy Ken Burns. One of the classes I student taught in watches The Civil War as part of that larger unit. It's probably the most entertaining several days of class. I think it's a testament to his skill as a documentarian and as a storyteller that even 13-year-olds find the story fascinating. The National Parks and Prohibition are also very good. We watched Prohibition as it was shown on public broadcasting due to our interest in the subject. My husband is usually not a huge fan of history documentaries, but he did enjoy both The National Parks and Prohibition since they touch on other subjects and put them in context via the lens of history.

 

Yep, good stuff