The Ken Burns/Sarah Botstein documentary which aired on PBS in the fall explored many issues raised by the events of the American Revolution that were not taught when most of us studied American history in high school and college. Join OLLI instructors during the spring, summer, and fall sessions to dig more deeply into the complex issues raised by the documentary in a seminar style course. Each class session will focus on one of the six two-hour episodes of the documentary, supplemented by a wide range of materials provided by PBS Learning and each OLLI seminar leader and posted on the course Padlet. The documentary can be streamed on your local PBS station. So, whether you watch the documentary for the first time, or a second or third time, be prepared to come to this course with factual and philosophical questions. For example, Was smallpox really that important to the outcome of the war? Why didn’t the Continental Congress support the Continental Army more effectively? Why was slavery such a pivotal political and tactical issue in the War? How united was the United States during the American Revolution? How revolutionary was the War of Independence? And most important, which issues that were being raised by citizens and political leaders between 1754 and 1789 still resonate for us in 2026 as we mark the 250th anniversary of American independence?

Katherine Kidd is a frequent OLLI instructor. An undergraduate history major, she earned her master's at Harvard in Russian Studies and her doctorate from Penn in international relations. She directed international studies majors at Fairfield and Sacred Heart Universities. She has coordinated OLLI at BCC's 18 month Rev 250 project.

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