Historians Offer Hope for America’s 250th Birthday as NBC Revisits Crises From 600,000 Civil War Deaths
Updated
Updated · POLITICO · Jul 6
Historians Offer Hope for America’s 250th Birthday as NBC Revisits Crises From 600,000 Civil War Deaths
3 articles · Updated · POLITICO · Jul 6
Summary
Doris Kearns Goodwin, Ken Burns and Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch used an NBC July 4 special to frame the nation’s 250th birthday through past crises and a message of resilience.
Goodwin pointed to the Civil War’s more than 600,000 deaths, the Great Depression’s 1-in-4 unemployment and the uncertainty of early World War II to argue Americans have endured darker periods without knowing the outcome.
Burns said history remains the best guide to the present, arguing today’s political divisions are serious but thinner than splits during the Revolutionary War, Civil War and Vietnam era.
The special also looked back to the 1976 bicentennial with archival footage of then-Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis, linking the coming 250th anniversary to earlier national milestones.