Ken Burns PBS series recasts NJ as the center of the war’s crisis

New Jersey’s landscape has taken center stage in Ken Burns’ "The American Revolution."

The ongoing PBS series portrays the Garden State as the defining battleground of the conflict’s lowest points and puts many familiar towns front and center. The documentary notably follows Washington’s retreat across Bergen County and through the center of the state, with Burns documenting a moment when the army’s survival hung on narrow crossings and was threatened by a divided populace.

Burns' 12-hour series draws from letters and archival accounts to document the political fractures and military failures that shaped the retreat across New Jersey and beyond. It presents the conflict as a hyper-violent civil war, with many in North Jersey in particular remaining loyal to the Crown. That trend endured