The American Experience: Robert E. Lee (review)

Historical documentaries remain one of the most frustrating means of communication for historians who wish to reach an audience beyond the classroom. Published texts, either articles or books, are tried-and-true methods of conveying important information, in part because they provide both room for expanding upon complex ideas and a platform for readers to respond. Presentations such as informal lectures and professional papers allow some interaction with audience members. And scholars and laypeople alike are learning to use the Internet in more effective ways to communicate and discuss ideas and materials. But historical documentaries are a bane of the profession, because the historians involved in making them do not control the product, and those in charge of shaping the final production often have goals that have little to do with historical veracity or education. Thus, very fine historians find themselves participating in projects intended mostly to reinforce stereotypes or pander to historical fads, which attract wary audiences and lead to better advertising opportunities. Ken Burns proved that this template can be effective, and legions of young filmmakers have followed his model for broadcasting success, to the distress of the many teachers who struggle to counteract their effect.

The Burns template for a historical documentary is clear in the recruiting of history personnel to speak on film in this production. There are biographers of Robert E. Lee, most notably Emory Thomas, Michael Fellman, and Elizabeth Brown Pryor. Military history is presented by Gary Gallagher, Peter Carmichael, and Joseph Glatthaar. Ervin Jordan and Lesley Gordon make appearances to ensure that all potential demographics are well represented. And Winston Grooms adds the dash of southern charm that the late Shelby Foote provided for Burns’s landmark videos. Together, these scholars have a formidable array of research and writing experience, but unfortunately, most of this expertise never really emerges in the material presented onscreen. Instead, there appears to be an effort to present a “human” Lee. This at times becomes almost gossipy in its stripped-down focus on psychohistory to expose the inner workings of Lee’s heart, which once again remains “a secret to the end,” as Stephen Vincent Benet famously declared, “from all the picklocks of biographers.”

As do traditional biographies, this documentary begins with material on Lee’s early life. Attention is paid to the ties that he and his wife, Mary Custis Lee, had with Virginia’s Revolutionary generation. Here Lee is defined as ambitious, and West Point is described as the perfect place for him to develop his overwhelming ambition. From the start, images from this period are used in an effective manner to create a visually interesting product, if a bit thin in any efforts to link Lee’s ambition to his Revolutionary lineage. Once Lee leaves West Point and undertakes his military career, devotion to duty takes the place of ambition as his motivation in the discussion by on-screen analysts. To reinforce this, the speakers stress Lee’s long separation from his growing family, not mentioning his attempts to have them live with him at several posts of duty. Perhaps the addition of a biographer of Mary, who would discuss her unhappiness at being away from Arlington, might help to explain more fully why Lee’s wife and children spent so much time there and not with him. Oddly, everything Lee learned at West Point is ignored in explaining his experiences in Mexico, where he finally entered combat and excelled. While it is true that Lee learned much from Winfield Scott about using a small army to defeat a more numerous enemy, Lee also recalled much of Napoleon then and later. Unfortunately, the French emperor is never mentioned in this documentary as an influence on Lee and his generation of military officers.

When the scholars turn to the vexing question of Lee and slavery, it becomes clear that much of what survived the editor’s shears has more to do with a message than with...