The West begins as the whole world to the people who live there. It becomes a New World when Europeans arrive, a world shaken by incompatible visions. And almost three centuries later, when Lewis ...

Beginning with a searing indictment of slavery, this first episode dramatically evokes the causes of the war, from the Cotton Kingdom of the South to the northern abolitionists who opposed it.

David Schmidt is a producer and co-director with Ken Burns and Sarah Botstein of “The American Revolution,” which is scheduled to air on PBS in November. A special preview is planned in Colonial ...