What To Know
- To celebrate America’s 250th, Netflix has released a five-part docuseries on the nation’s founding.
- Included are several current and former politicians, and here’s a guide to who speaks out in the show.
To celebrate the 250th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, Netflix has released The American Experiment, a five-part docuseries highlighting the trials the Founding Fathers went through to make that happen and how it has rippled through the United States’ history ever since, for better and for worse. The series specifically details the journey of the American Revolutionists, led by George Washington, to break the colonies free of Great Britain and then invent a brand-new system of governance that has, so far, lasted two and a half centuries, with many more internal conflicts along the way.
To detail the journey, the series uses primary documents, including the journals of Washington and John Adams, first-person accounts of the perilous battles, the most famous periodicals that affected public perception of the war, and, of course, the presiding documents that followed all of those efforts. The series also hinges on the testimonials of experts, including some notable current and former politicians from both sides of the political aisle.
Included in the list are three former vice presidents: Al Gore (D), Mike Pence (R), and Kamala Harris (D). Also included are several sitting and former senators: Hillary Rodham Clinton (D), Ted Cruz (R), Jeff Flake (R), Rand Paul (R), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D), and Ron Wyden (D). House representatives Nancy Pelosi (D) and Jamie Raskin (D) are also featured, along with former Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer (D) and former National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster (R).
Throughout the series, these figures all reflect on the strengths of the Founding Fathers.
“One of the hallmarks of the kind of oppressive ruler that our founders feared might emerge sometime in the U.S. is to put troops in the communities and turn them against the American people. That was a key mistake that King George did,” Gore said of the Revolutionaries’ rationale. “For our founders, the idea that agents from the government could walk around and demand that people account for themselves and identify themselves in order to continue living their lives in freedom, that would’ve been appalling and repulsive.”
Harris added of the Bill of Rights eventually adopted, “When we talk about power, I believe that we at our founding and still also believe in the power of our people to speak up and speak out against the abuses that they see.”
Flake said that this history should be more readily remembered: “The further we get away from significant wars that America has fought, and so many have sacrificed their lives, it’s easier to forget that, the great sacrifice that so many have made for us to have what we have today.”
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And Cruz noted the framers’ intention to limit the powers of the executive, saying, “The framers were worried that you would have an executive who’d behave like a king. And so they wanted to put limitations in place. The framers were not naive. They understood that people would seek power.”
Also featured in the series are a wealth of academic experts in early American history (in order of first appearance):
Matthew Keagle — Creator, Fort Ticonderoga
Kathleen Duval — Author, Native Nations
Robert Miller — Chief Justice, Pascua Yaqui Tribe
Chuck Hoskin Jr. — Principal Chief, Cherokee Nation
Lindsay M. Chervinsky — Executive Director, The George Washington Presidential Library
Doug Bradburn — President and CEO, George Washington’s Mount Vernon
Alexis Coe — American History Columnist, The New York Times
Don N. Hagist — Editor, Journal of the American Revolution
Benjamin L. Carp — Author, Defiance of the Patriots
Sara Georgini — Series Editor, The Papers of John Adams
Cassandra Good — Author, Founding Friendships
Joseph J. Ellis — Author, American Creation
Joanne B. Freeman — Author, Affairs of Honor
Jill Lepore — We the People
Adrienne Whaley — Director of Education, Museum of the American Revolution
Eric Burns — Author, Infamous Scribblers
Yuval Levin — Author, American Covenant
Danielle Allen — Author, Our Declaration
Lonnie G. Bunch III — Secretary, Smithsonian Institution
Maya Jasanoff — Author, Liberty’s Exiles
Robert M.S. McDonald — Professor of History, United States Military Academy
Tom Nichols — Professor Emeritus of National Security Affairs, U.S. Naval War College
Ron Chernow — Author, Washington: A Life
Antoine Watts — Historical Interpreter, 1st Rhode Island Regiment
Margaret Washington — Professor Emerita of History, Cornell University
Jelani Cobb — Dean, Columbia Journalism School
Daina Ramey Berry — Author, The Price for Their Pound of Flesh
Kevin Chapman — Historical Interpreter, 1st Rhode Island Regiment
William Hogeland — Author, Declaration
Jane Kamensky — President and CEO, Monticello
Gordon S. Wood — Author, The Creation of the American Republic
Nathaniel Philbrick — Author, Valiant Ambition
Saul Cornell — Author, The Other Founders
Carol Berkin — Author, A Brilliant Solution
Noah Feldman — Author, The Three Lives of James Madison
James Taub — Associate Curator, Museum of the American Revolution
Mary Sarah Bilder — Author, Madison’s Hand
Dennis C. Rasmussen — Author, The Constitution’s Penman
Woody Holton — Author, Liberty Is Sweet
William M. Treanor — Dean Emeritus, Georgetown University Law Center
Jeffrey Rosen — CEO Emeritus, National Constitution Center
Mary Sarah Bilder — Author, Madison’s Hand
Sergio J. Campos — Professor, Boston College Law School
Lawrence Lessig — Professor, Harvard Law School
Jameel Jaffer — Executive Director, Knight First Amendment Institute
John Yoo — Professor, UC Berkeley Law School
The American Experiment, Netflix