PHILADELPHIA − Standing outside Independence Hall, the building in which America's forebears signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, even iconic documentarianKen Burnscan't help but make a reference to everybody's favorite musical aboutthe American Revolution.
"That's the room where it happened," Burns said, bobbing his head in the direction of the historic building.
To those unfamiliar, Burns was quoting the most famous song from "Hamilton,"Lin Manuel Miranda'ssmash-hit, Pulitzer-winning Broadway musical about founding father Alexander Hamilton that exploded onto the scene a decade ago and shows no signs of slowing down its cultural dominance, withsold-out shows in New Yorkanda recent release in movie theaters.Burns, whose huge body of work has done quite a bit in the way of teaching history to Americans, can't say enough good things about what "Hamilton" has done for our collective appreciation of history.
"It's done one of the greatest services to history you could possibly imagine," Burns says. "I have a 15-year-old, almost 15-year-old granddaughter and a 20-year-old daughter. They can all recite the entire 2 1/2 hours from memory. And so they know the differences between Hamilton and Jefferson. They understand the hypocrisy of slavery in the midst of people freeing themselves. They understand a lot of nuances about it that I don't think they would have gotten from a traditional education."
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The filmmaker will be telling the story from the same period of history in his documentary epic"The American Revolution,"debuting on PBS Nov. 16 (8 ET/PT, check your local listings). He and Miranda joined forces — and swapped compliments — at a recent event to promote the documentary at Trinity Church in New York City, where Hamilton is buried.
"I'm in awe of your life's work and I'm so glad you've tackled this subject," Miranda said at the event.
The documentary will air over six consecutive nights on PBS, telling the story from the lead up to the Revolutionary War to victory at Yorktown and the formation of the United States, a complex and nuanced story that features a certain young soldier and financier known as Alexander Hamilton, among many other historical figures.
As big as his 12-hour film is and as much press as he is currently getting, Burns thinks "Hamilton" is bigger than anything he's done this century. Or anything anybody else has done.
"It's one of the great cultural phenomenons of the last 25 years."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Ken Burns thinks 'Hamilton' did 'the greatest service to history'