I happen to be one of those who believes that you can't teach the
Civil War without attention to battles and how the war was going. But that
said, I found "The Civil War" paying too little attention to political,
intellectual, and social aspects of the war. Many of my research interests
lie in southern history, and the South comes across virtually as a
monolith in Burns's films--with little thought given to explaining
southerners' acceptance of secession or to showing dissent (before the
closing days of the war).
Despite all these nasty criticisms (and I can come up with more),
I have to say "The Civil War" is beautifully produced and visually stunning.
Perhaps if you can, with the help of secondary accounts, other primary
sources, promote the students' seeing it as an interpretation (rather than
just a showy montage) and help them see how it differs from others, you
will have done a lot in promoting critical thinking and close examination
of texts. But that will take you away from the enjoyment of its beauty,
and I suspect you will find significant resistance among your students.
The recent AHA Perspectives covered a Boston conference which
dealt with many of these questions. Perhaps I am overly critical of
Burns, but I would be interested in seeing the comments of others who
have taught it (I did see Kelly's) or who have considered it.
Sincerely, Jane Turner Censer George Mason University