As good as it gets.

This is another great documentary accredited to Ken Burns. Nicely done and extremely informative. I purchased this for my wife who loves it and has watched it several times over.

A true masterpiece, regardless of historical reservations!

Regardless of historical reservations and allegations of bias from both North and South, I regard this work of Ken Burns as a true masterpiece. I bought my first set on VHS several years ago at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and played it through a dozen or more times. I went to the expense of having this set transferred to new tapes for my VHS player here in England. Having heard in 2002 that it was available on DVD and that the whole series had been digitally enhanced, I purchased the same and I can vouch for its much improved picture quality. I have played the DVD series several times, too, and I never tire of it (nor of the separate music CD, which is one of my all-time favourites).

Why do I love the series? Well, despite (as I have said) historical reservations on my part and allegations of bias from both North and South (as I have read), Mr Burns has gathered together over many years the most remarkable collection of old still pictures, interviews with such as the superb Shelby Foote, extremely beautiful modern scenery film footage and stills, inimitable commentary by David McCullough, and, most especially, ancient film footage of such as the reunion of veterans at Gettysburg in 1938 (the last mentioned brings tears to my eyes to this day). Mr Burns has made a wonderful whole of wonderful parts and has done a wonderfully impressive technical job.

And my historical reservations? Well, I am British and, in a British tradition dating from well before the American 'Civil War' or 'The War for Southern Independence,' I am a Southern sympathiser. I feel 'at home' when visiting such as Virginia to this day and I regret very much the loss of much of what went with the dreadful wind from the North of 1861 - 1865. I have many Yankee friends but we mostly steer clear of discussion of the Northern aggression under the appalling law-bender Lincoln and the religious hypocrites at his back. I tend, therefore, not to believe any medium that portrays the old Southerners as other than victims. This magnificent video or DVD set does not do this: it makes an attempt at balance - maybe successfully, maybe not.

Thankfully, the South has 'risen' again in a manner of speaking, but it's a shame that more than a century and so many lives were lost by succeeding and successive generations of Dixie's people.

Having got that off my British chest, I urge those who have not seen the PBS TV series, the VHS videos or the DVD set to rush out and get them/it. Of course, you don't need to rush out: just order the lot from my friends at Amazon!

Great piece of work; good start for beginning historians.

This series is THE definitive documentary on the American Civil War - it's the first of it's kind in style and content and powerfully evocative of the spirit of the time. However, there are some inconsistencies which become apparent to the attentive viewer. For example, statements made throughout the film representing North and South waiver between certainty of Northern perserverance and widespread dissension regarding Lincoln's leadership - points which are not in agreement and do not make a cohesive statement about the momentum of the Union. And as 'CenterMan' states in his review, this documentary has a decidedly 'Eastern' tilt and emphasis, probably because Burns is himself a New Englander. The Western states and territories played an extremely important part in the war both militarily and economically, but this is not touched on. To back up another of 'CenterMan's points, the armies of the West, and ESPECIALLY the Generals of the West, were utterly essential to the evolution of the war and warefare in general by the North, from an Eastern generals' stalemate to a frontiersmens' sweep. Most all of the generals who were made famous by the Civil War, both North and South, earned their stripes and first practiced their military trade serving together as field officers in the Mexican-American War twenty years prior, and in fact the North's superior use of artillery throughout the war was largely the result of methods first tried and learned by Yankee gunners and officers at Vera Cruz and Mexico City. Both Sherman and Grant, who made broad sweeping movements using entire army groups and army corps became familiar with these tactics in the wide open expanses of the Mexico and then the Indian territories, and used them to devastating effect against the flash and elan of the Confederates. Also, the political and financial importance of California, Utah, and Oregon, which supplied desperately needed cash and gold to the Union in spite of a large seccessionist element, is completely overlooked by Burns. This seems to point out a kind of misperception among many Easterners, both then and now, that the United States is centered on and revolves around their section of the country. It is a serious misperception and is a major reason the rift between North and South reached the breadth and depth that it did. Burns focuses on the traditional military and socially emotional issues of the war, which are shown anew, but he does not cover the cornerstones of demographics (the huge disparity in population growth between North and South, in birthrates and immigration) agriculture, finance, or industry, (in particular steel and the railroads), both before and during the war, which are essential to a broad understanding of the Civil War.Ultimately this documentary is an excellent introductory showpiece and is thoroughly engrossing, and should hopefully inspire students of the subject to probe deeper into it. It is an excellent piece of art and is worth seeing and owning.