“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
They’re sending out an SOS. Celebs such as Chris Rock, Cindy Crawford, Heidi Klum, Justin Theroux and Wyclef Jean, along with legendary filmmaker Ken Burns and author Jay McInerney, are rallying to save Lure Fishbar. Soho’s subterranean seafood and sushi institution has anchored Mercer Street for 20 years, but it’s in danger of getting swallowed … Read more