Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns condemns proposed Florida bill

BookBrowse News - The Full Story

Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns condemns proposed Florida bill

Mar 10 2023

Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns has joined a rising chorus of condemnation against a proposed Florida bill that seeks to muzzle intellectual freedom in colleges and universities.

House Bill 999 is a sly hodgepodge of contradictory dictums designed to bleach the study of American history and deny the persistence of racism. “General education core courses may not suppress or distort significant historical events,” the bill states, pleasantly enough. But then it also mandates that these courses may not “include a curriculum that teaches identity politics, such as Critical Race Theory, or defines American history as contrary to the creation of a new nation based on universal principles stated in the Declaration of Independence.”

... “America’s greatness stems not from its suppression of our complicated history but our willingness to engage and understand it,” Burns wrote. “Each generation has helped further bring to life the values articulated in the Declaration and made more perfect in Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. Our contribution should not be to silence those trying to understand the past more fully.”

More News Stories

Win This Book
Win Theo of Golden

Theo of Golden by Allen Levi

One spring morning, a stranger arrives in the small southern city of Golden. No one knows where he has come from…or why…

Enter

BookBrowse Book Club

  • Book Jacket
    Merry-Go-Round Broke Down
    by David Woo, Margalit Shinar
    Nine linked stories reveal how globalization sparks life-changing consequences across continents.
  • Book Jacket
    Chelsea Girls
    by Catherine Lloyd
    A glamorous biographical novel on Mary Quant, whose daring design of the miniskirt revolutionized fashion.
  • Book Jacket
    Days of Sun and Shadow
    by India Hayford
    A young woman’s coming-of-age story set in the early American frontier, shaped by tragedy, nature, and resilience.

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket
    Summer of Love
    by Kerri Maher
    Three women reshape their family's Napa Valley winery after the 1967 Summer of Love.
  • Book Jacket
    An Infinite Love Story
    by Chanel Cleeton
    “A tender, romantic drama that soars as high as it’s astronauts.” —Kate Quinn
Book
Trivia
  • Book Trivia

    Can you name the title?

    Test your book knowledge with our daily trivia challenge!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

The C is A R

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.