Customer Reviews

Ken Burns - American Lives (Thomas Jefferson / Lewis & Clark / Frank Lloyd Wright / Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Susan B Anthony / Mark Twain / Horatio's Drive / Unforgivable Blackness)

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I bought all of these individually. As he did with The Civil War and Baseball (as well as his earlier works which are now also in a box set, not to mention The West, New York and Jazz). Ken Burns continues to present his "American Stories" with pictures and narration that bring the past alive. 1 tiny nitpick note however. This is an 8 not a 7 disc set (for some reason the Jack Johnson story was released on 2 discs rather than a double sided disc like Mark Twain and Lewis and Clark which are of equal length to it). Other than that, you're getting a good deal on this and it will fit nicely along side the "America" box set (or your copies of those individually) and Ken's award winning "mini series" (plural). Get em all, and all other documentaries will just fade away. Ken Burns is the KING of the modern documentary film. Keep em coming, Ken, we'll keep buying em (on DVD) :-) Update 10/10/10: I have just noticed that newer copies of Lewis and Clark on 2 single sided discs rather than a flipper. So for some of you, this box set may be a 9 bagger (as Mark Twain is still a flipper). Update 1/30/11: I have now learned that Mark Twain has been reissued on 2 single sided discs as Lewis and Clark. Therefore, this is now a 7 title, 10 disc set. Thomas Jefferson, Frank Lloyd Wright, Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Susan B. Anthony and Horatio Nelson Jackson 1 disc each = 4. Lewis and Clark, Mark Twain and Jack Johnson 2 discs = 6, total 10 as in current description.

I received a set with 2 Lewis & Clark disks, not 1 doubled sided disk. The Mark Twain however is double sided with no indication that it is double sided. The series is excellent and informative. I highly recommend it.

Ken Burns does a fabulous job on all his titles. Some have been better than others but all are worth the time. In this package we've enjoyed all the titles. Lewis and Clark, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth C. Stanton, Frank Lloyd Wright and the others have just come alive for me. I am an audio learner so reading a book is not a good way for me to learn. Watching these DVDs and hearing the stories narrated, retold and opined engraved it all in my memory. We let our kids watch these and they love it. According to my experience Ken Burns documentaries hold your attention well with lots of facts. Subjects I never found interesting have become thoroughly intriguing thru this series. My only experience with a Ken Burns documentary I had a hard time getting through is the Jazz one, but it's not in this package. I love Jazz and figured I would love the DVD but it was a bit long and some things were repeated too much. I'm glad I stuck it out though because I learned a lot I didn't know about a subject I thought I knew a lot about. Another series not included in this package that we really liked was the one on civil rights. I think it was a full 6 hours long but we really enjoyed it, appreciated the approach and learned a good bit too.
All in all: this is a great purchase, well worth the price. We watch and re-watch these titles.

A request from a teacher. The visual aspects of this series will really help students understand and remember history.

..... PBS .....really ...knows .....what the T.V. buisness is for : entertainmentet & useful ...... ¡ wow ! ...... and of couse ....I purchased it at my best & prefered store : AMAZON.COM .......