Why I’m Enjoying “The Roosevelts: An Intimate History” by Ken Burns

My wife and I have been glued to the new Ken Burns series “The Roosevelts: An Intimate History” all week.

Tonight is the series conclusion, and I highly recommend you watch it.

Babette and I both really enjoy learning about history and biographies of famous people.

And I’ve been a Ken Burns fan ever since The Civil War and The Brooklyn Bridge (plus the fact that he and I both attended the same college)

Here are 3 reasons why I think The Roosevelts: An Intimate History is Ken Burns’s finest work since The Civil War and why you should catch it if you can…

1. The archival footage and photographs are simply stunning.

How Ken Burns and his team were able to locate such amazing footage of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Theodore Roosevelt is truly remarkable.

Especially when you consider that much of what he’s showing took place over 100 years ago.

Babette and I were particularly moved by seeing the actual footage of the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

2. The lessons of history still reverberate today.

Seeing how nothing has really changed in American politics – how it’s always been about horse trading and back-room deals – makes me remember that we’ve gotten through tough times before, and we’ll get through them again.

3. This series shows that even our heroes are human and fallible.

Teddy Roosevelt was one of the most courageous leaders in history, as well as one of the most intelligent and action-oriented.

He also wrote 150,000 letters while in office – by far the most of any U.S. President (by comparison, Thomas Jefferson wrote 22,000 letters).

But T.R. also had a thirst for war that had dire consequences for not only the country, but also for his immediate family.

Eleanor Roosevelt was the first First Lady to ever hold a press conference, write a daily newspaper column, and became one of the most most inspiring women of the 20th century.

But she could be diffident, difficult, and was never able to give her husband the unconditional love he so desperately wanted.

And Franklin Roosevelt was one of the greatest leaders in human history – leading the country (and the world) out of the two biggest crises of the 20th century: The Great Depression and World War II.

But he was often duplicitous, unfaithful, and as Burns shows in “The Roosevelts”, sometimes outright lied to the American people.

We are so often quick to judge our leaders and even celebrities who don’t hold up to some imagined standard of perfection.

But we all have flaws and shortcomings, even the world’s greatest leaders.

Of course, we should hold our leaders – and ourselves – to high standards.

But let’s see if we can be a bit more understanding and realize that we’re all doing the best we can with the hand we’ve been dealt.

Oh, and one more thing…

Ken Burns said in an interview that the theme of The Roosevelts: An Intimate History is “overcoming fear”.

Theodore Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Franklin Roosevelt all had one method for overcoming fear…

TAKE INSPIRED ACTION

I couldn’t agree more.

“Be kind, for every person you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about.”

I believe in you!

Noah St. John Coaching

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