Ken Burns and The War, #2

Saw this rather interesting review of Ken Burns’ The War due in September 2007. The lead graf (in bold) caught my eye. Imagine that.

Ken Burns continues his long march through key passages in U.S. history with “The War,” a characteristically serious, patriotic yet flawed account of Americans and their memories of World War II. Utterly of a piece with the work of PBS’ favorite documaker, this 14-hour epic contains a fresh wrinkle only in that there’s no parade of history experts to offer a distanced perspective. Rather, Burns has made a deliberately populist American version of the so-called “good war,” with all the assets and deficits that entails.

This article hits Burns a little for his narrow nationalism, in the choice to construct the series through the lens of 4 American towns. The criticism here has to do with perspective, according to the article by Robert Koehler. There is much more to this conflict, and “[a]s such, WWII as a whole is short-shrifted in ‘The War,’ with such enormous conflicts as the Japanese conquest of East Asia and the painfully protracted but finally victorious Soviet defense against Hitler’s invading army either ignored altogether or reduced to a footnote, merely because the U.S. wasn’t involved.”

This is a fair statement, and it’s good to know going in, especially the part concerning “no history experts.” What’s up with that, Ken? Populist, indeed. Flawed/fading memories, probably. But I’ll still watch. But I’m not giving any $$ to PBS, no matter how many times they cut from the show.

Shark Week #3

In light of the Shark Week and the documentary Ocean of Fear (premiering today, July 29), I found myself over at the USS Indianapolis Survivors web site reading about Woody James. His day by day chronology of events is most engaging.
From Day 3 of his ordeal:

The day wore on and the sharks were around, hundreds of them. You’d hear guys scream, especially late in the afternoon. Seemed like the sharks were the worst late in the afternoon than they were during the day. Then they fed at night too. Everything would be quiet and then you’d hear somebody scream and you knew a shark had got him.

It didn’t ever get any cooler in the daytime. In fact, Newhall asked me, he said, “James, do you think it’s’ any hotter in hell than it is here?” I said, “I don’t know, Jim, but if it is, I ain’t goin.”

Read the whole thing, if you have the time. James’ keen sense of irony is present throughout.

Forensic History by Dave Berry

David Berry of Pathfinder Historical Consultants posted this set of articles at the Triggertime forum about a circumstance that became quite famous, detailed in books by Ambrose in D-Day and Michel De Trez in Voices.

* Finding Private Hersh (1)
* Finding Private Hersh (2)

In the articles, Berry challenges a set of assumptions about time and place, and comes up with answers of his own. Both pieces are long, but worth the read.