America, the hottie

Ken Burns’ six-part documentary explains why the national parks system is ‘America’s Best Idea’

Even the most hard-core urbanite will be taken with awe while watching “Ken Burns’ The National Parks: America’s Best Idea” — if not because of the purple mountain majesties, then definitely due to the master filmmaker’s eloquence.

“We’re telling a narrative that begins with the natural national parks and follows the evolution of ideas and the stories of compelling individuals,” Burns says of the series, a six-part documentary chronicling the history and politics that have played a part in preserving natural wonders and sites of cultural significance.

“As the idea of ‘the national park’ evolved out of spectacular scenery to … the addition of historical sites, it grew like the country grew,” Burns explains. “And we’ve said all along that this story is the story of democracy, or the Declaration of Independence applied to the landscape. Where Thomas Jefferson had a fairly narrow idea of what ‘all men are created equal’ is and our history of us as a larger people is the enlargement of that, so too the national parks have grown.”