Part 2- History of The War: my conversation with Ken Burns

THE WAR: part 2

Ken Burns explained to the audience at the Air Force Academy last week why he had spent the last 6 years researching and producing The War, his 7 part, 14.5 hour documentary on World War II which will debut on PBS in September 2007:

Every day, over 1,000 WWII veterans are dying.

WWII was the greatest cataclysm in the history of the human race

We wanted to dispel the myth of the "gallant bloodless war"

There are young people today who think that in WWII the Allies fought against the Russians, and on the side of the Germans

We don't think of memory as a concrete thing, but we must preserve it before it's gone. This is the story of WWII told from the bottom up, not by experts. We wanted to tell the whole story, not small parts of it like "Saving Private Ryan." It is a difficult story to tell.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, who was wounded 6 times in the Civil War and later became a Supreme Court Justice talked about the "incommunicable experiences of war."

CBS news journalist Eric Sevareid in 1985 said that "War happens inside a man...and that is why, in a certain sense, you and your sons from the war will be forever strangers. If, by the miracles of art and genius, in later years two or three among them can open their hearts and the right words come, then perhaps we shall all know a little of what it was like--and we shall know then that all the present speakers and writers hardly touched the story."

Ken Burns continued:

In extraordinary times, there are no ordinary people. We selected first person accounts from 40-50 veterans across four geographical locations across America:

• Mobile, Alabama - which was an important shipyard
• Sacramento, California - a larger, varied town
• Westbury, Connecticut - populated with Southern European immigrants: Italians and Jews
• Luverne, Minnesota - in Rock County

As we watched the 7 or 8 clips during the preview, we heard a newspaper column being narrated from the editor of the Rock County Herald. He described getting a phone call early in the morning on D-Day from a woman acting like a modern day Paul Revere. As the editor described what was different about this day in America, the Air Force Academy cadet next to me did not realize it was being narrated by Tom Hanks. It was riveting.

To be continued...

Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian
www.billpetro.com

History of The War: my conversation with Ken Burns

THE WAR, part 1

Tonight I talked with Ken Burns, who you know for his award winning documentaries including The Civil War, Baseball, and JAZZ. I had the privilege of sharing with him two questions, after he presented a preview of his new documentary coming out in Fall of 2007, about World War II called simply The War. This presentation took place at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. We got to see 7 or 8 clips, or about an hour and a quarter of his 7-part, 14.5 hour series that he has been working on for some 6 years. He's previewing this documentary at military academies around the country.

I'll tell you more about it in my next article, but now I'll share the two questions.

1) I asked:

Mr. Burns, in terms of the power of pictures, the "Ken Burn Effect" is so renowned, that Apple computer includes it in their iPhoto desktop application. Can you share with us where this came from?

Ken Burns' answer:

I am the son of a photographer, and I started in photography long before I ever hoped to do film making. But photos should not be static, they should move and suggest action. So I used common techniques like inserts, pans, zooms, fades, and dissolves... in my first work on the Brooklyn Bridge in 1981, and then in The Civil War, which of course, only had still pictures.

Several years ago, Steve Jobs said "Come see what we're working on." He showed me a rudimentary application of these techniques in a program he was working on that he wanted to label the "Ken Burns Effect." He and three other geeks were talking in technological terms way above my head. I said "Steve, I don't do commercial endorsements." Eventually we worked out a deal where he donated some gear to a charity that my wife is involved in, and he got to use the term.

2) I continued:

My second question relating to the power of pictures is about a question that was asked of me when I was visiting the Dachau Concentration Camp memorial years ago, and I mentioned to those who worked there that my father had liberated Dachau some 48 years before. They asked me a question, and what is remarkable is that they all asked the same question. The question was "Do you have any pictures?" I shared with them the website I created as a tribute to my father that had the pictures my father had brought back and his story. Since then there have been over 30,000 visitors to the site. And I still get phone calls and email from men who tell me, "I went on leave in Paris with your father," or "I was with him when we liberated Dachau," or "I was with him after the war in Austria." Such is the power of pictures.

Ken Burns replied:

We deal with the holocaust at the end of the series, a particularly difficult section of the documentary.

Ms. Lynn Novick, his co-producer on many of his documentaries, added that when they started the research on the documentary they began at the National Archives with photos of the Holocaust. After having made so many films, it was easy to believe that they were somewhat inured to grueling scenes, but she noted that one of her interns -- whose responsibility it was to collect and record the images that would later be used for this documentary -- had to stop, as he could no longer take in all these images.

Such is the power of pictures.

To be continued...

Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian
www.billpetro.com

History of Martin Luther King

HISTORY OF MARTIN LUTHER KING, Jr

Born on January 15, 1929, we celebrate a holiday in honor of a man who was not a president, nor an explorer, nor a saint, rather he was a Baptist minister and an American leader of the 1960s civil rights movement who was named after the Protestant Reformer Martin Luther. Though he was awarded by President Carter the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously in 1977, it was not until 1986 that a day was established on his birthday as a federal holiday.

The only other American federal holidays that honored individuals have been for Jesus, Presidents Washington and Lincoln, and Christopher Columbus.

Though Martin Luther King had an earned doctorate degree, he was also an ordained minister, the son and grandson of ministers. From his biblical roots came many of the metaphors of his talks, the text of his presentations, and the cadence of his speech. He served as a minister starting in 1954 in Alabama, where after he led the boycott against segregation on buses that lasted 382 days. During this time he was arrested, his house was bombed, and he suffered personal abuse.

It was his involvement in the American Civil Rights Movement that gave him his greatest visibility, as he began in 1957 non-violent civil disobedience, not unlike Ghandi's in India. Marches and protests were an effective means of accomplishing many of his goals, culminating in 1963 with the the "March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom" and his most famous speech, entitled "I Have A Dream" which he delivered from the Lincoln Memorial in the Mall of Washington, DC.

The following year, in 1964 he received the Nobel Peace Prize, the youngest recipient. Though initially successful in the South, King also brought his movement to the North, specifically Chicago in 1966, out of which grew equal opportunity programs.

1967 saw King deliver a comprehensive statement against the Vietnam War in his speech in New York City's Riverside Church entitled "Beyond Vietnam." This was met with criticism from many activists and newspapers, though he argued that he was not merging the civil rights and peace movements.

Nevertheless, he continued in speaking out against the Vietnam War and in 1967 he spoke in Sproul Plaza at the school I would later attend, the University of California at Berkeley where he told students,

"You, in a real sense, have been the conscience of the academic community and our nation."

In 1968, King gave a prescient speech called "I've Been to the Mountaintop" in which he said about God that:

"He's allowed me to go up to the mountain! And I've looked over, and I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land. And so I'm happy tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the Glory of the coming of the Lord!"

The next day, on April 4, 1968, King was assassinated while standing on the balcony of his motel room in Memphis, Tennessee. National riots followed until five days later President Johnson declared a national day of mourning for King. 300,000 people attended his funeral. Since his death he has become a symbol of protest in the pursuit of racial justice, and as he said in his seminal speech "I Have A Dream" the majestic spiritual "soul force" rather than physical force.

As I write this on a snowy day from Colorado Springs, I am reminded of his charge at the end of that same speech,

"...from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado... let freedom ring."

Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian
www.billpetro.com


Audio version

History of Epiphany

HISTORY OF EPIPHANY

January 6 is known in the Christian calendar as Epiphany. It is sometimes called the "Twelfth Night" being the 12th Day of Christmas. It signifies the event of the Magi, or Wise Men visiting the baby Jesus, and is known in certain Latin cultures as Three Kings Day. In the Eastern (Orthodox and Oriental) churches it is known as the Theophany (God Manifest), commemorating Jesus' baptism -- recounted in all four Gospels -- with the attendant appearance of the Holy Spirit as a dove and the voice of God the Father.

So, the 12 Days of Christmas don't end at Christmas, Advent does. Instead, the 12 days start with Christmas, and end with Epiphany, sometimes called Christmastide. The "season" of Epiphany lasts from January 6 through the day before Lent.

Epiphany is a Greek word that means manifestation, appearance, or showing forth. Historically, Epiphany began in the eastern Church as the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus Christ. As the celebration of Christmas spread eastward, Epiphany changed to its present meaning. It is ironic, this year, as Chanukah overlaps Christmastide -- that Epiphany is so close to Chanukah -- as we recall that the villain in the Chanukah history was Antiochus Epiphanes IV, or "Antiochus, God made manifest."

In the Western churches (Protestants, Catholics, and Anglicans) Epiphany commemorates the "adoration" of the Christ Child by the Magi as they presented their gifts, thereby "revealing" Jesus to the world as Lord and King. In some traditions, the "Twelfth Night" party on January 5 is followed by the exchange of gifts on January 6th. The Russian church's "Feast of the Nativity," Christmas, is celebrated at this time.

Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian
www.billpetro.com

Audio version

History of the Holidays

HISTORY OF THE HOLIDAYS

Hello and welcome to the 2007 version of History of the Holidays. I'm Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian. Be sure to try out the podcast link by clicking the audio link at the bottom.

This is a series that recounts the history behind the major American holidays, and some of the minor ones as well.

Many of the sacred holidays in our American "Judeo-Christian" heritage have secular associations, as many of the seemingly secular holidays actually have religious roots.

One example of the mixture of sacred and secular was that -- historically, in ancient Rome the death and resurrection of Attis, the god of vegetation, was celebrated on March 24 and 25, corresponding to the vernal equinox.

Sir James Frazer in his book The Golden Bough points out an interesting coincidence. Among certain Christians in places where the worship of Attis was known, the death of Jesus Christ was also celebrated on March 25, though there was little historical evidence supporting that date. A controversy is said to have raged between the pagan and Christian advocates, each attesting that they had prior claim.

Many Americans, even religious ones, are unaware of the history behind the holidays. If you are interested in Halloween, and how trick or treat became involved in it, you'll like this series on the history of the holidays.

If you have ever wondered what the historical events are behind Chanukah, stay tuned.

Was there a Christmas star, were there really three wise men, was there actually an historical Santa Claus? Yes Virginia, this is for you.

Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian
www.billpetro.com

Audio version