Ken Burns | The Professor's Convatorium

I have been a big fan of Ken Burns and his many exceptional, award-winning historical documentaries on PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) over the last few decades. The biggest reason? He does not skimp or cheat his audiences from historical accuracy, historical facts, historical context, or how history always, always applies today. This is never more true than with modern history—everything after the end of the Middle Ages, c.1500 CE, to the present—and how much we Americans are still living it, in fact, it can never be ignored nor should it be. Ever!

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“To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child. For what is the worth of human life, unless it is woven into the life of our ancestors by the records of history?”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero, circa 69 BCE

Cicero’s famous oratory as a Roman constitutionalist made him a statesman with no loyalties to either nobility, patrician, or plebian. He was a well-educated citizen for all the people of the empire. His work should echo in Washington, D.C. every single day and as far south as Palm Beach, Florida, and Mar-a-Lago.

Do Americans Know Enough About Their Own National History?

The short answer is no, and the age gaps are very telling: around 40% of older Americans (65+ years old) are able to show proficiency. Sadly, only 19–27% of those under the age of 45 showed proficiency in modern American history [Institute for Citizens & Scholars]. This translates to just 4-in-10 Americans passing basic history and civics tests (2019). And today it is worse, much worse. This has been an American downward trend the last several decades. To say that the United States has been raising and educating ignorant citizens of American history, not teaching their civic origins and/or their present livelihoods, is a gross understatement. “Houston, we have a problem,” a critical event-horizon problem.

Along with Heather Cox Richardson, David McCullough, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Eric Foner, the late Barbara Tuchman and many other American scholars, they and Ken Burns are deeply concerned and embarrassed about these disturbing facts of historical incompetency by our non-patriots, if you will. In fact, in his words Burns explains:

“I’m embarrassed that, as a country, we don’t grasp our history. Everyone approaches it from the arrogance of the position of how it turns out. We are all in the grip of the present, but if you point out the parallels, they are dated immediately. People are always trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.”

— Ken Burns, The Financial Times Dec. 28, 2025.

What Burns, Richardson, Goodwin, Foner, McCullough, and so many other top American expert historians are alarmed about is the same thing, the same alarm I’ve been sounding since at least 2010 not just here on WordPress, but in my school classrooms when I was a Social Studies/History teacher for several years here in Texas. Drawing from the past and present Ken Burns could not be more unambiguous in his current dismay of Americans. The parallels of his newest docuseries, The American Revolution on PBS, and speaks to current incompetence of our civic knowledge, duties, and privileges and how it applies right now, whether he intended it or not when making the series. He states:

“…President Donald Trump’s romanticising executive order signed earlier this year to remove “revisionist” interpretations in museums and on monuments that question the “unparalleled legacy of advancing liberty, individual rights and human happiness”.

Trump’s Department of Education has forged a partnership with more than 40 rightwing organisations, including the America First Policy Institute, Turning Point USA and the Heritage Foundation — “dedicated to renewing patriotism, strengthening civic knowledge, and advancing a shared understanding of America’s founding principles in schools across the nation” — as part of celebrations of America’s 250th anniversary in July. On the White House’s official America 250 website, Larry Arnn, president of the conservative Hillsdale College, compares Trump to Abraham Lincoln in his desire to make America great again.”

— Ken Burns, ibid.

Burns and most all American history scholars, myself humbly included, label our current buffoon in the White House as “an insult to our [American] history” and its authentic contextual history and verifiable facts. And I feel these words are too polite and obtuse for the fake President.

Should any of you like to revisit or read some of my WordPress blogs on this troubling subject, I recommend the following from older to newest:

The Mistaken Identity of the U.S.
It’s Corporate America, Not…
Conclusion: A New U.S. Constitution — 7-part series
Trump’s Cabinet Selections
Public Safety?
A Very Simple Question for Trump-Americans Today
Whining Too Much Too Late
A History of Propaganda, Psychology & Tyranny
Slavery, Not States’ Rights
Of Me, By Me, and For Me

There are several more to be listed, but this is just introductory and relative to your interest, time constraints, and possibly much more in-depth education on American history, civic privileges/duties, and an American sociopolitical landscape past and present.

Live Well – Love Much – Laugh Often – Learn Always Your Nation’s History!