The American Revolution, a new six-part, 12-hour documentary series that explores the country’s founding struggle and its eight-year War for Independence, will premiere on November 16 and air for six consecutive nights through November 21st at 8:00-10:00 p.m. ET on PBS. The full series will be available to stream beginning November 16 at PBS.org and on the PBS App.
The AVDF-funded series, which has been in production for eight years, was directed and produced by Ken Burns, Sarah Botstein and David Schmidt and written by long-time collaborator Geoffrey C. Ward. The filmmakers and PBS scheduled the broadcast for 2025, the 250th anniversary of the start of the war, which began in the spring of 1775, more than a year before the Declaration of Independence.
The American Revolution examines how America’s founding turned the world upside-down. Thirteen British colonies on the Atlantic Coast rose in rebellion, won their independence, and established a new form of government that radically reshaped the continent and inspired centuries of democratic movements around the globe.
An expansive look at the virtues and contradictions of the war and the birth of the United States of America, the film follows dozens of figures from a wide variety of backgrounds. Viewers will experience the war through the memories of the men and women who experienced it: the rank-and-file Continental soldiers and American militiamen (some of them teenagers), Patriot political and military leaders, British Army officers, American Loyalists, Native soldiers and civilians, enslaved and free African Americans, German soldiers in the British service, French and Spanish allies, and various civilians living in North America, Loyalist as well as Patriot, including many made refugees by the war. The American Revolution was a war for independence, a civil war, and a world war. It impacted millions – from Canada to the Caribbean and beyond. Few escaped its violence. At one time or another, the British Army occupied all the major population centers in the United States – including New York City for more than seven years.
“The American Revolution is one of the most important events in human history.” said Ken Burns. “We went from being subjects to inventing a new concept, citizens, and set in motion democratic revolutions around the globe. As we prepare to celebrate the 250th anniversary of our founding, I’m hopeful that people throughout the country will come together to discuss the importance of this history and to appreciate even more what our ancestors did to secure our liberty and freedoms.”
The Revolution began a movement for people around the world to imagine new and better futures for themselves, their nations, and for humanity. It opened the door to advance civil liberties and human rights, and it asked questions that we are still trying to answer today. “I think to believe in America, rooted in the American Revolution, is to believe in possibility,” the historian Jane Kamensky says in the series. “Everybody, on every side, including people who were denied even the ownership of themselves, had the sense of possibility worth fighting for.”
Burns’s long-time collaborator Geoffrey C. Ward (THE VIETNAM WAR, JAZZ, BASEBALL, THE CIVIL WAR) wrote the script and is the primary author of the companion book, The American Revolution, which will be published by Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Penguin Random House, on November 11, 2025.
Led by the cinematographer Buddy Squires, the series features original footage that highlights the beauty and diversity of the North American landscape. The team shot in every season over the course of several years and at nearly a hundred locations, within and beyond the original 13 colonies. The filmmakers also worked with extensive networks of reenactors to film troop movement and camp life.
The film, narrated by Peter Coyote, includes the first-person voices of nearly 200 individual historic figures, read by a cast of actors, including Tom Hanks, Ethan Hawke, Samuel L. Jackson, Gene Jones, and Michael Keaton among others.
PBS and Florentine Films, Burns’s production company, are conducting outreach and engagement with a wide-range of national and local organizations focused on commemorating the country’s founding. In January, the filmmakers began to undertake a 25-plus market tour of the United States, holding screenings and having conversations with the general public, teachers, students and others. Additional markets will be added for 2026. To stay up to date on specific event dates and details, go to pbs.org/americanrevolution.
In addition, PBS Learning Media, working with WETA and other station partners and national and local organizations, will lead classroom outreach and develop digital resources and professional learning opportunities for educators and students in grades 3-12.
Beyond the filmmakers’ tour, PBS and WETA will work within the public television network to help its more than 350 local stations to engage with new and diverse audiences through projects such as screening and discussion events, digital media workshops, local productions, websites, and new media broadcasts tailored to the needs of their own communities. National and local partners will help to further expand the impact of the project.
For more information about the upcoming film The American Revolution, click here.
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