The American Revolution

AS AMERICA PREPARES to celebrate its 250th birthday next year, TV's most eloquent historian, Ken Burns, reminds us in his latest sweeping epic just how grueling the nation's birth pangs were.

- By Matt Roush

Over six nights and 12 hours, he and codirectors Sarah Botstein and David Schmidt, with writer Geoffrey Ward, reveal in fascinating and exhaustive detail how a rebellion against British tyranny became a bloody, world-altering battle for independence. The conflict would divide communities and families, ensnaring multiple countries in what became