The recent posts about the American revolution made me want to learn more about early American history from the Pilgrims till after the Revolutionary war.
I'm looking for a series or accurate historical documentary that explains the period and the people involved.

Any suggestions?

Not a media documentary that you’re asking about, but if you get to the point of wanting to read, an excellent book about the Revolution (or First Civil War as one commentator pointed out), is The Glorious Cause by Robert Middlekauff. It covers only the period 1763-1789, so not as much as you’re interested in, but its coverage of the events leading up to the war is more detailed than any other account I’ve ever read.

It seems to me that most histories of the era skip over all the events that led up to the Revolution with not much more than a superficial “It was about no taxation without representation.” I’m rereading it now and the war has just started, but as I was going through the earlier part I thought to myself time and again that it was more detailed than anything else I’d ever read or heard about.

Reading this it just occurred to me that this past Saturday was the 250th anniversary of the beginning of the American Revolutionary War.

I recommend “Perplexity” as a starting point. It is an AI Search engine that provides answers and references. Although some have taken exception to using such, give it a try.

I suspect that the dearth of detailed history on our colonial period may be due to a sense of shame among those of the time. Very few people find nobility in being subservient to tyranny, and a reticence to commit such events to written history is very understandable. Related is that many of the colonists of early America were people that were marginalized in their countries of origin for religious, political, and criminal reasons, and that status many have made them disinclined to focus the attention of their former oppressors on their new homes.

Our colonial history lasted for hundreds of years before we put an end to it. It does seem that there should be more general knowledge about events and conditions of that time.

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The recent posts about the American revolution made me want to learn more about early American history from the Pilgrims....

When they got off the Mayflower they were pretty much out of beer.

HBO's series John Adams was very well done and I would recommend that one highly.

Not a documentary but a dramatic miniseries series focusing on John Adams and really good.

Ric Burn's The Pilgrims is probably the best fairly unbiased account of the founding of Plymouth and really the beginning of this country.

https://www.amazon.com/America...lgrims/dp/B015KRERII

Thanks for the suggestions.
I watched John Adams on HBO when it first came out, I thought it was a fantastic series, I will watch again.
The Pilgrims sounds good. I will search for it on my streaming channels or look on Ebay for a used DVD.

I haven't watched Burns' film. It was on American Experience which is PBS. Sometimes they produce good quality stuff, but I'd like another positive recommendation before I take that on.

If you want a solid historical narrative from an outstanding (and pro-American) historian, check out Daniel Boorstin's trilogy, The Americans; but specifically Volume 1: The Colonial Experience. He delves deeply into how Americans came to be Americans.

This book had a profound effect on me when I read it years ago. You will read, for example, about how Cotton Mather--yes the hellfire and brimstone preacher--helped bring smallpox inoculation to America (long before vaccination). How David Rittenhouse (yes, same last name), a brilliant scientist, mathematician, clock-maker designed and built ingenious machines that showed astronomical events. Washington eventually made him the first director of the U.S. mint, where he designed our first national currency.
We were incredibly blessed with thinkers who were doers, philosophers yet politicians. They read deeply from ancient history and Enlightenment philosophy, and from all that came our glorious Constitution.

Much, much more. It's only $6 on Kindle.

In November, the 6-part series “American Revolution” by Ken Burns will be on PBS. How “political” it’ll be is anyone’s guess at this time. His “Civil War” series show in 1990-91 was very good, but some of his more recent forays have been disappointing. Caveat emptor.

This is more fictional/fun but the AMC series TURN: Washington's Spies was also very good I thought.

The way they treated the Benedict Arnold betrayal was IMO likely the most realistic and extensive, it wasn't like this guy woke up one morning and decided to join the British, he was a highly decorated and wounded Continental Army battle veteran and it was over several years that this played out. Would have been like a George Patton defecting over to the German Wehrmacht.

His wife made him do it. You know how that goes. When Washington arrived to arrest Arnold, his wife pretended to be crazy. Washington was distracted, while Arnold crawled out a window and escaped.
I think that story was in David McCullough's 1776, a must-read.

Oh, here's another source, specifically about the Revolutionary War: Rick Atkinson's trilogy, of which the second volume is coming out next week. If you liked his WW II history, you'll like this too.

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...Oh, here's another source, specifically about the Revolutionary War: Rick Atkinson's trilogy, of which the second volume is coming out next week. If you liked his WW II history, you'll like this too.

Yes, I second this recommendation. I enjoyed his 1st Volume. I am looking forward to delivery of my copy of the 2nd volume, which I preordered from Amazon. (And I've read his WWII trilogy and enjoyed it.)