Review ‘Benjamin Franklin’ Ken Burns Documentary

It’s a bit mischievous to suggest that Benjamin Franklin had conservative leanings. Yes, I’ve heard he was a revolutionary. But Franklin was very late to join the cause, and spent so much time in London working to repair relations with Britain that he was on the Atlantic Ocean coming home when war finally broke out in 1775. You might call him a conservative revolutionary (as opposed to, say, Thomas Paine).

Trying to stamp today’s political labels on historical figures who were dealing with very different questions is a bit of a fool’s errand, but in watching Ken Burns’s two-part, four-hour documentary Benjamin Franklin (streaming on the PBS app and the PBS Documentaries Prime Video Channel), I found it an intriguing exercise.

About the Author

Kyle Smith

Kyle Smith is the film critic for the Wall Street Journal.

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It’s a bit mischievous to suggest that Benjamin Franklin had conservative leanings. Yes, I’ve heard he was a revolutionary. But Franklin was very late to join the cause, and spent so much time in London working to repair relations with Britain that he was on the Atlantic Ocean coming home when war finally broke out in 1775. You might call him a conservative revolutionary (as opposed to, say, Thomas Paine).

Trying to stamp today’s political labels on historical figures who were dealing with very different questions is a bit of a fool’s errand, but in watching Ken Burns’s two-part, four-hour documentary Benjamin Franklin (streaming on the PBS app and the PBS Documentaries Prime Video Channel), I found it an intriguing exercise.