“The United States came out of violence,” the historian Maya Jasanoff reminds us in our series “The American Revolution” (premiering tonight on PBS). And in 1776, the awful violence of war was centered in and around New York City. Between late August and mid-November, five significant battles were fought within New York City’s present-day borders … Read more
Ken Burns’ upcoming six-part, 12-hour documentary “The American Revolution” doesn’t just tell the story of icons like George Washington or Benjamin Franklin. The series, which premieres Sunday on PBS, brings to life the ordinary people — teenagers, women, free black Americans, immigrants, and ne’er-do-wells — who history usually crops out of the frame. We all … Read more
Documentary maker Ken Burns doesn’t think today’s polarized politics are anything new, especially for a country that, as he sees it, already had two civil wars — the American Revolution of 1776 and the 1861 war between the Union and Confederacy. “Every era thinks they’re Chicken Little, the sky is falling,” Burns said in an interview … Read more
It comes with a side of spies. Long Island’s newest steakhouse is a fascinating nod to the Culper spy ring, a local group of Revolutionary War double agents whose heroic espionage efforts saved the colonial forces on multiple occasions. “As we were going through school, we learned about the spy ring and the effect it … Read more
Pluto, our planet of profound change, is changing signs — are you prepared? Pluto in Aquarius 2024 On Tuesday, November 19, 2024, death daddy Pluto will leave the patriarchal scaffolding of Capricorn and set up shop — or excavate the basement — in the professionally weird, utopian leaning space cowboy climes of Aquarius. What does this once-in-a-generation … Read more
“Most Americans know one thing about Benedict Arnold,” writes award-winning author and historian Jack Kelly in ‘God Save Benedict Arnold: The True Story of America’s Most Hated Man’ (St. Martin’s Press). “He betrayed his country.” But it’s not the entire story, argues Kelly. In July 1780, Arnold was a major general in the Continental Army and had just been … Read more
This Connecticut town never forgets a traitor. Hundreds are expected to gather in New London Saturday for the Burning of Benedict Arnold Festival, during which a paper mâché figure of the disgraced American Revolutionary is torched to mark the anniversary of when Arnold led a group of more than 1,600 British soldiers to burn most … Read more