Tiny Luverne represented America’s rural areas and small towns, which comprised a much larger part of America’s population 65 years ago. Sacramento had a sizable Japanese-American population that was herded into camps out of a misguided fear they would form a Fifth column. Waterbury was a city of identifiable ethnicities. In Mobile, racial strife was a factor as thousands poured into the city for wartime jobs. Waterbury and Mobile became war towns as factories were converted and built to turn out ammo and equipment. There was nothing haphazard about their selection. ![]() Sacramento and the small farming community of Luverne, Minn. To organize and shape this staggering volume of material, Burns selected four towns: Waterbury, Conn. Even more ambitious than any previous Burns documentary, including “The Civil War,” this one paints a panoramic portrait not just of the fighting and the strategy in Europe and the Pacific but also of the impact on the country - the entire American experience (to borrow the title of another PBS series). Although it offers no comparisons, there are obvious and stark contrasts viewers can draw between this war, which reached into every American life, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that, despite advances in communication technology, feel remote and have scant impact on most Americans.īy showing the way American lives were shaped and changed by the conflict, “War” sets itself apart from previous documentaries on the subject. spent fighting the war, but the result is nearly as glorious. ![]() Ken Burns and Lynn Novick's "The War" is a 15-hour treasure that recounts America's role in World War II on the battlefronts and the home front. soldier on Saipan in an image courtesy of PBS.
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