Ken Burns has built a singular career as a documentarian in this country with his epic, historical films about crucial periods in American history. His breakthrough subject was The Civil War, a series that garnered multiple awards and an enormous viewership and led to many other projects on America, such as radio, baseball, Mark Twain, Frank Lloyd Wright, jazz and World War II, the national parks and the dust bowl. Using his trademark technique of historical accounts, period photos and intensive research, Burns has made a film that not only speaks to this (literally) dark time in American history but is also a cautionary tale for our times.