Ken Burns - "The Roosevelts"

From what little I've read about him, I gathered that TR's grand adventures out west were greatly exaggerated, staged, and even just plain faked. He used media (print, photogaphy) to create a largely fictitious character. I was surprised to see this aspect of his history glossed over. Unless, of course, what I have read about him wasn't reliable.
We were shocked to hear Peter Coyote mispronounce the word "mischievous." Not the kind of sixth-grade error we'd expect from him. Can't believe nobody caught it before release.
That said- Mrs. Reynolds and I are really enjoying the series.

 

It was his wife and mom. Both died in valentines day, the anniversary of when he got engaged to his wife. Brutal

 

Having studied that war for decades my thoughts are that the commentary overplayed his recklessness a bit. He was no professional soldier for sure, but the whole Cuba campaign was largely pell mell, replete with very little intelligence gathering and undersized / outdated artillery support. While the world had largely gone smokeless powder for artillery the US Army was still using black powder which left huge thick smoke clouds after firing - acting to obscure effective aiming and bringing heavy responsive Spanish Mauser rifle fire raining down on their positions - they were literally marking themselves as targets. The regular US army, almost the entire 5th Corps that pushed onto Santiago (there were only a few volunteer regiments early on) did not act much differently than the Rough Riders. The charge up San Juan ridge was already well under way by the time TR got there.
(my GF's granddad was a sergeant in the Rough Riders, my music room is his old study. His picture in uniform is right here as I type.)

As far as the imperialism aspect, it had significant commercial and political interests underlying it all, but it was also genuinely fueled in large part by patriotic hype depicting the Cubans as valiantly fighting vicious Spanish colonial overlords. Shades of our own War of Independence. The Philippine islands and the Filipinos nationalist war against the Spanish was literally unknown. The islands, as well as Guam, were barely an afterthought. Its said President McKinley had to be pointed to where the islands were on the world map hanging in the oval office, as the staff had no clue. In one of the supreme ironies of American history, during congressional debate about whether to honor Filipino nationalist aspirations, support for annexing the islands as US territory came about in a paternalistic speech about taking in our 'little brown brothers' so they could be modernized, educated, and 'Christianized,' utterly missing the fact that the Philippines have (largely) been Roman Catholic.... for centuries. Quite an era it was.

 

Excellent

 

I was afraid that they would gloss over TR's imperialistic macho stuff, but they seemed to get into that rather well. They also mentioned FDR's fixation on himself, which was very true. I wonder if they'll follow that theme. They will obviously not be trying to gloss over his affairs, which is honest.
One thing.............A book I read years ago made the case that TR's son's death took much of the wind out of his sails and that he never recovered from that blow. Not to downplay the illnesses from the amazon debacle, but they didn't seem to be of the opinion that his death didn't level him.

 

Yes, his wife and his mother died within 12 hours of each other [of different causes], in the same house, and their funerals were held jointly.

 

Didn't they say it was on Valentines Day, too? Harsh...

 

...Ah, it was what is now Valentines Day, but it wasn't a holiday then. Still harsh...

 

I'm a fan of these types of documentaries (and of Ken Burns generally), but this is riveting stuff. I thought I knew a lot about the Roosevelts, but seeing the personal side of these iconic historical figures makes me see them as real people for the first time. Eleanor's tragic backstory was a real revelation. And this little tidbit: who knew Eleanor and Franklin were related? And the tragic deaths of T.R.'s wife and mother?

 

I think it's been really great so far, but I won't be able to watch any more "live" due to scheduling conflicts. I agree, this should've been a once-a-week event, not two hours every night for a week.

Hopefully it'll be on On Demand or on the PBS website.

I'm the kind of person who would rather watch documentaries than sitcoms or any other fictional TV or movies. I've always loved 'em, from grade school on up. And while he rarely brings anything new to the table style-wise, Ken Burns is still a master of the form.

 

PBS usually reruns his documentaries often. My local station uses a lot of his works to fill overnight hours.

 

I liked his National Parks the best. I thought his Baseball could have been a lot better. I'm not watching this one yet but may check it out later on.

 

You should read John Muir's account of TRs visit with him at Yosemite...it sure reads like a sincere "adventure" to me -not a pr stunt.

 

I thought that was fairly common knowledge, actually.

What I didn't realize was that Theodore and Franklin were only fifth cousins. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but that means they only shared one set of great-great-great-great-grandparents in common! I think at that point it's a pretty diluted connection, despite the common surname. Then again I guess those semi-aristocratic families were a bit more tight-knit than us common folk.

Not sure about the web site, but all seven parts (including the ones not yet aired) are already available for streaming on the PBS channel/app on Apple TV.

 

You can access these free using the PBS app for mobile devices.

Shalom, y'all!

L. Bangs

 

I knew they were related, but until now I didn't realize that she was actually TR's niece (I thought she was more distantly related) and already had the last name Roosevelt. (No standing in line at the DMV for her, hahahaha.) None of this is a secret, of course, I guess I just never read up enough about it.

I also never realized how deeply the divide between the two sides of the family were...

Interesting that they're already streaming the unaired episodes... I don't have Apple TV, but hopefully I'll be able to watch the remainder soon... we're really enjoying it.

 

More distantly than being the niece of FDR's fifth-cousin? I think that makes FDR and Eleanor something like fifth-cousins once removed. Pretty distant.

 

Maybe not but feb 14th was TRs anniversary if getting engaged to his wife so it had personal significance

 

I'm much more of a TR fan than an FDR fan, so I've sort of jumped off the bus.

As a humorous aside, I can't help recalling what the grandmother said about Eleanor Roosevelt in "The Wedding Crashers." I'll just leave it at that in the interest of family-friendly programming.

 

Also on Roku PBS channel.

 

For sure. What I mean is, I knew they were related but I didn't realize that she was actually a Roosevelt already or so directly related to TR. I also thought TR and FDR were actually closer in relation than they were.

 

I agree, and would never denigrate TR's enormous role in wilderness preservation. However, I was referring to his earlier exploits in the mid-1880's; the Yosemite camp was nearly 20 years later, and as adventures go it was a walk in the park by comparison. I don't see one contradicting the other.
As I said earlier, I was commenting on some of the very few things I've read about TR. I don't really know what I'm talking about.

 

The format is predictable and verging on self-parody, Burns needs to learn some new tricks.

Still, I enjoy the history.

 

Burns=PBS