Ken Burns
Author
Series
Publisher
Random House Audio
Language
English
Description
This summer, Random House Audio, OverDrive and First Book partnered to produce a “community-sourced” audiobook.
This project, dubbed Lend Your Voice, asked hundreds of amateur narrators to add their voices to a recording of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz during one hot weekend in June during the American Library Association Annual Conference in Washington, D.C.
All of the narrators did a great job—most nailed it in one take and wanted to read...
Author
Pub. Date
2016.
Language
English
Formats
Description
"A treasury of American Presidents by historian Ken Burns"--
Burns explores the legacy of each of America's presidents, from George Washington to Barack Obama. Each two-page spread covers the basic facts of the era, the man, and an important aspect of his presidency.
Author
Series
Ken Burns ; 1
Language
English
Description
Discover the true story of America's “Great Experiment.” Go beyond the oft-told tales of gangsters, rum-runners, flappers and speakeasies to experience the rise, rule and fall of the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in Ken Burns and Lynn Novick's PROHIBITION. Since the early years of the American Republic, alcohol has been embedded in the fabric of American culture. But by 1830, the average American over 15 years old consumes nearly seven...
Author
Series
Ken Burns ; 1
Language
English
Description
What caused the war? Beginning with an examination of slavery, this episode looks at the causes of the war and the burning questions of union and states' rights. John Brown leads a rebellion at Harper's Ferry, Abraham Lincoln is elected president, Fort Sumter is fired upon and both sides rush to arms. Introducing the series' major figures — Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant — the episode concludes with the...
Author
Series
Ken Burns ; 10
Language
English
Description
In the 1960s, jazz becomes divided into "schools" -- Dixieland, swing, bop, hard bop, cool, modal, free, avant-garde. The question of what is jazz and what isn't rages, dividing audiences, dividing musicians, dividing generations. For many, the real question is whether jazz, the most American of art forms, will survive at all. Rock 'n' roll groups dominate record sales and radio, and many jazz musicians, like Dexter Gordon, are forced to leave America...
Author
Series
Ken Burns ; 4
Language
English
Description
This episode begins with the nightmarish Union disaster at Fredericksburg and follows two clashes that spring: at Chancellorsville in May, where Lee wins his most brilliant victory but loses Stonewall Jackson; and at Vicksburg, where Grant is prevented from taking the city by siege. Also covered are the fierce northern opposition to Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, the miseries of regimental life and the increasing desperation of the Confederate...
Author
Series
Ken Burns ; 5
Language
English
Description
This episode opens with a dramatic account of the turning point of the war: the battle of Gettysburg - the greatest battle ever fought in the Western Hemisphere. For three days 150,000 will fight to the death in the gentle Pennsylvania countryside culminating in Pickett's legendary charge. This extended episode then goes on to chronicle the fall of Vicksburg, the New York draft riots, the first use of black troops, and the western battles at Chickamauga...
Author
Series
Ken Burns ; 8
Language
English
Description
The episode begins with William Tecumseh Sherman's brilliant march to the sea, which brings the war to the heart of Georgia and the Carolinas and spells the end of the Confederacy. In March, following Lincoln's second inauguration, first Petersburg and then Richmond finally fall to Grant's army. Lee's tattered Army of Northern Virginia flees westward towards a tiny crossroads town called Appomattox Court House. There the dramatic and deeply moving...
Author
Series
Ken Burns ; 5
Language
English
Description
Big band jazz, "swing," becomes the most popular music in America. Clarinetist Benny Goodman, whose band creates a sensation on radio broadcasts and in live performances, becomes the first white bandleader to hire black musicians and presents the first integrated public performances of jazz. Billie Holiday's buoyant music and exquisite phrasing enable her to overcome a limited range as a singer. Louis Armstrong lands roles in Hollywood films, and...
Author
Series
Ken Burns ; 3
Language
English
Description
Discover the true story of America's “Great Experiment” — the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution outlawing alcohol — in Ken Burns and Lynn Novick's PROHIBITION.Support for Prohibition diminishes in the mid-1920s as the playfulness of sneaking around for a drink gives way to disenchantment with its glaring unintended consequences. By criminalizing one of the nation's largest industries, the law has given savvy gangsters a way to make huge...
Author
Series
Ken Burns ; 3
Language
English
Description
Louis Armstrong arrives in New York from Chicago where, during a brief stay with the Fletcher Henderson band, he amazes his fellow musicians and teaches the city to swing. A blues craze, spearheaded by Bessie Smith, takes the nation by storm. Cornetist Bix Beiderbecke, the first great white jazz artist, eventually plays for bandleader Paul Whiteman, whose blending of classical and jazz traditions comes to epitomize jazz for many Americans. This episode...
Author
Series
Ken Burns ; 2
Language
English
Description
Thomas Jefferson is by most accounts the most admired and greatest figure in American history. However, he was a man whose behavior in many ways contradicted his public declarations. He supported resistance and revolution in America and France, yet was not a charismatic politician or front-line soldier. His eloquence was immortalized in the Declaration of Independence, which declared that "All men are created equal." He disapproved of the slave trade,...
Author
Series
Ken Burns ; 6
Language
English
Description
As the Great Depression deepens, jazz thrives. The saxophone emerges as an iconic instrument of the music; the episode introduces two of its masters, Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young. Young migrates to Kansas City, where a vibrant music scene is prospering. Out of this ferment emerges pianist Count Basie, who forms a band that epitomizes the Kansas City sound. With the help of John Hammond, Basie takes his band to New York, where his remarkable rhythm...
Author
Series
Ken Burns ; 1
Language
English
Description
As one of America's founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson is considered by some to be the man of the millennium, analogous to the progress of the first 200 years of American history. He was a man of freedom and expansion, yet he had the restraint that is necessary to succeed with that freedom--the commitment to becoming learned and skilled. As the third president of the United States, Jefferson was responsible for doubling the size of the country with...
Author
Series
Ken Burns ; 2
Language
English
Description
Discover the true story of America's “Great Experiment” — the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution outlawing alcohol — in Ken Burns and Lynn Novick's PROHIBITION. In 1920, Prohibition goes into effect, making it illegal to manufacture, transport or sell intoxicating liquor. This episode examines the problems of enforcement, as millions of law-abiding Americans become lawbreakers overnight. While a significant portion of the country is...
Author
Series
Ken Burns ; 9
Language
English
Description
This extraordinary final episode begins in the bittersweet aftermath of Lee's surrender and then goes on to narrate the horrendous events of five days later when, on April 14, Lincoln is assassinated. After chronicling Lincoln's poignant funeral, the series recounts the final days of the war, the capture of John Wilkes Booth and his conspirators, and the fates of the series' major characters. The episode then considers the consequences and meaning...
Author
Series
Ken Burns ; 6
Language
English
Description
This episode begins with a biographical comparison of Grant and Lee and then chronicles the extraordinary series of battles that pitted the two generals against each other from the wilderness to Petersburg in Virginia. With Grant and Lee finally deadlocked at Petersburg, the episode moves to the ghastly hospitals in both the North and South, and follows Sherman's Atlanta campaign through the mountains of northern Georgia. As the horrendous casualty...
Author
Series
Ken Burns ; 2
Language
English
Description
The second episode is set during the tumultuous era known as the "Jazz Age," when the rhythms and spirit of jazz music mirror the world that emerged in the wake of World War I. The program introduces two extraordinary individuals whose lives will be interwoven throughout the rest of the series: the brilliant bandleader and composer Duke Ellington and the virtuoso New Orleans-born cornetist Louis Armstrong, who single-handedly transforms jazz from...
Author
Series
Ken Burns ; 4
Language
English
Description
Amid the hard times of the Depression, a new dance, the Lindy Hop, begins to catch on at the dance halls of New York. The reminiscences of two of Harlem's greatest dancers, Frankie Manning and Norma Miller, help frame this episode. Louis Armstrong begins to sing on stage; though his career suffers from a string of bad luck, his trumpet playing and singing continue to astonish listeners. Duke Ellington's band begins to appear in Hollywood films, and...
Author
Series
Ken Burns ; 7
Language
English
Description
The infectious music of the swing bands sets the mood for soldiers going off to fight in World War II. Gifted trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and alto saxophonist Charlie Parker, in after-hours jam sessions with other young rebels, including the drummer Kenny Clarke and pianist Thelonious Monk, take jazz in startling new directions with their complex music--bebop. Their innovations, however, are largely unnoticed amidst the war effort. Armed Forces Radio...