Although folks adore Ken Burns' series on the Civil War and it will no doubt be his most famous series, to me this one on the Roosevelts is as good. It ostensibly covers from the birth of Teddy until the death of Eleanor, it in fact emphasizes Franklin Roosevelt foremost. So, although Teddy was born decades before them, starting in the first episode, the show kept bouncing back and forth between the lives of Teddy and Eleanor and Franklin on the other. This did short-change Teddy's portion of the film just a tad but even still, it really delves into them all in depth unlike any other biography on any of the Roosevelts.Like other Burns series, this one consists of the roving camera over photos, lots of interviews as well as important celebrity impersonations of the particulars. Especially good among these was Meryl Streep's voicing for Eleanor, as it really sounded like her. In addition to all this, the show features quite a bit in the way of film footage and overall, they all create a gorgeous and loving look at these famous folks. Well worth seeing and exhaustive--clocking in at about 12 hours!

Again, another of Ken Burn's masterpieces well worth watching and learning. In the following, I will be exposing the reader to historical events. If one does not want to learn of them at this time, please do not go any farther.Of all that Theodore managed to accomplish in his seven years as President by: Taking on the monopolies of big business and threatening to use the Army to run them for the sake of maintaining fairness and a continual flow of necessities at a reasonable costSetting aside national parks and preserves at the combined size of Texas, including the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone, among othersReaching out to the average man and giving him hopeBuying and building the Panama Canal after taking that region from the Columbians by arming the Panamanians and sending in troopsHis willingness to display courage and aggression against who he perceived as the enemy, i.e. during the taking of Juan hill in Cuba ...and there is so much more for which he deserves praise.But, I cannot get my thoughts around the fact that within the space of eleven months, while hunting big game in Africa -- a pastime I hate so very much -- he sent and carried back home with him over 11,000 pelts of lions, tigers, elephants, rhinos, birds, and every conceivable animal from that continent. I hate him for displaying such evil and wickedness, and wish he had been the one born disabled so as to make him unable to initiate such a horrible holocaust.

The master of this type of documentary, Ken Burns has picked a very good subject again for this history series. There can be no doubt the Roosevelts are as close to Lincoln as there was for leadership in the 20th century. Sad how modern Democrats like Clinton and the current administration have not taken leadership lessons from FDR or even LBJ. They have turned away from this type of Leadership at this countries peril. While that is still playing out- I am hearing things about all the 2000 communications between FDR and Churchill yet not hearing many quotes from those communications. Maybe they are still classified? Comparing this with the epic The Civil War, this one does not seem to go quite as deep as the prior one did. It does still follow the same format, though the picture of FDR's real private life are hard to come by due to hiding of his illness and frail condition because of the war.It is interesting that FDR despite his health was keeping company with someone other than Eleanor. This does seem to fit the playboy reputation of Democrat leaders. What comes over for me though is because of FDR's health, I doubt if these private affairs were much more than keeping company. As is told, a lot of people around FDR took a lot of very special care of him, and I think any mistresses were a part of that care.I am glad to see some of the photos that were gotten out for this documentary. While a lot of the themes have been covered before, this fresh series does point out things I did not realize. I never knew Churchill spent a whole 3 weeks with FDR. The series is not over as I write this but I am hoping for more focus on the letters and communications between FDR, Stalin, Japan, and any world leaders at the time. Teddy Roosevelt was in many ways larger than life itself and some of that definitely shows in the series.Glad to see some of the focus on the race issues including the correct points about Conservative Southern Democrats problems with race and how they conflicted with FDR Roosevelt. Modern Democrats are trying to paint themselves as a party which is not racist and have been since the Kennedy/LBJ era. That is historic revisionism and from the latest installment Ken Burns is getting this right.Just because a party has the first Black President, does not mean they do not have a race problem. It shows up constantly with Democrats in the main stream media who are keeping it alive and well to divide people.The section on policy of FDR bringing the country out of depression is very well done. It correctly points out what FDR did to save the banking system. Unfortunately for the country, the wall (glass-Spiegel) that FDR built to protect our financial system was torn down by Clinton era progressives and this directly led to the big melt downs 1998-2010 era. Losing this wall, the financial system is still at risk now.Great leaders lead, as the Roosevelts did. They were not perfect leaders as that is impossible, but they do not blame others for their problems. Just imagine if at the beginning of World War 2, if FDR had made a speech blaming Henry Ford and Thomas Watson Sr. for providing financial aid and arms to Adolf Hitler (which they did) for all the worlds troubles. At that critical junction of History, that would not have united people when they needed to stand tall.I was a bit surprised that when covering discrimination against Blacks in war related hiring, that the issue of hiring women for war related industries was not mentioned. Women being hired was historic at the time and FDR's progressive policies were in part responsible for that. The series might make up for this later.Industries after the war went back to this discrimination against women until the late 1970's when the women's movement at last started to take hold on corporate management. The country went from rosie the riveter to rosie the housewife, and then moved to where we are today where 2 parties are both busy trying to keep any woman out of the White House except for the First Ladies.

There's no doubt that Ken Burns is one of the best documentary producers of our time and this one maintains the high standards. He chooses the right music at just the right time and seems to have no problems in getting the best reporters and researchers to make their contributions. Whenever you watch one of his series you are guaranteed to be educated with some formerly unknown details on the subject at hand, and Burns always does this with tact and grace. The Roosevelts' story is typical of past power politics in the USA, where a compliant media ensured that truth was the first casualty. Having said that, the family certainly did more for the lot of the working US citizen than anyone since, and the personal foibles are minor compared to some of the antics of more recent incumbents. You'd like to think that politics was on a constant path to self improvement but I think that the Roosevelts set as high a standard as you're going to get , the Trumans,Eisenhowers and Carters are the only ones who can compare. Watch this with wistfulness,you're not likely to see such integrity in your leaders again in this lifetime.