THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, a new six-part, 12-hour documentary directed by Ken Burns, Sarah Botstein and David Schmidt 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 fight for independence and the birth of the United States of America, the film follows dozens of characters from a wide variety of backgrounds. Through their individual stories, viewers experience the war through the memories of the men and women who experienced it: the rank-and-file Continental soldiers and American militiamen, Patriot political and military leaders, British Army officers, American Loyalists, Native soldiers and civilians, enslaved and free African Americans, French allies to the United States, German soldiers in the British service, and various civilians living in North America, including many made refugees by the war.