Ken Burns Goes to War, Unravels Untold Stories
As long as I live, I will never forget the sound of my friend's voice on the phone, or the two words he managed, through tears, to blurt out: "He's back."
Before I explain what he meant, some background: It had only been a few days since I'd reluctantly sent him an unfinished version of my documentary series on the American experience during World War II, titled simply The War. In it, we had tried to gain a fresh perspective by focusing on the experiences of so-called ordinary people, most of whom came from four geographically diverse towns: Waterbury, Connecticut; Mobile, Alabama; Sacramento, California; and Luverne, Minnesota. Our labor of love, a seven-part, 15-hour series, puts you smack-dab in the middle of World War II.
After we had finished The Civil War, we vowed we would never take on the subject of war again. It was just to
