Logan here, with this week’s Passport Pick of the Week. As election season heats up and we reflect on our country’s past, present, and future, I like to spend time with great series like Ken Burns’ The Roosevelts: An Intimate History.
This seven-part, 14-hour documentary film chronicles the lives of Theodore, Franklin, and Eleanor Roosevelt, three members of the most prominent and influential family in American politics, from Theodore’s birth in 1858 to Eleanor’s death in 1962. It is the first time in a major documentary television series that their individual stories have been interwoven into a single narrative. It is an intimate human story about love, betrayal, family loyalty, personal courage and the conquest of fear.
The series encompasses the history the Roosevelts helped to shape, and shows how they not only redefined the relationship Americans had with their government and with each other, but also redefined the role of the United States within the wider world.
For more on this groundbreaking series, and the history and legacy of the Roosevelts, visit the official The Roosevelts: An Intimate History website and the Ken Burns’ in the Classroom Collection on PBS LearningMedia.
Passport is an added benefit of membership with Mountain Lake PBS. Available with donations starting at just $5/month ($60/year) in the US and now in Canada, Passport gives you extended access to a library of hundreds of your favorite PBS programs.