STUDIO: PBS Home Video
RELEASE DATE: August 26, 2008
STARRING: Narrated by author and historian David McCullough, Linda Hunt, Jason Robards, Stacy Keach, and David Ogen Stiers
FEATURES: 15-Disc set with a variety of special features, including mini-documentaries, bonus video, extended interviews, Teacher's Guide PDF files, and more.

At a time when the United States needs some perspective on its place in the world and how it will evolve as a country within the 21st Century, history can often shed light on lessons learned in the past and how former Presidents handled both domestic and foreign affairs at the same time. Although mainstream networks offer disposable entertainment while cable news networks have tapped into the celebrity driven format to deliver information to the world, PBS always find a way to stay grounded in reality with historical and educational programming and their American Experience series. Hitting DVD shelves on August 26, The Presidents Collection takes an impressive 15-disc historical journey through the decades of the 20th Century to explore the professional and private lives of ten former Presidents to reveal their impact on the world, their legacy, their victories and failures, and their approach to politics.

Although the U.S. has had many leaders since its inception as a self governed country, The Presidents Collection focuses specifically on the following ten men who helped shape the Union - Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Harry Truman, The Kennedys, Lyndon Baines Johnson, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. When elected to office, each man was challenged by the unique dynamics of their time. Given the current challenges of world conflict the U.S. faces today, it’s interesting and insightful to see how former Presidents handled similar situations.

From Woodrow Wilson’s hands-off approach to war and the country’s isolationism to LBJ and Nixon’s handling of the Vietnam Conflict to Reagan’s victory over the Cold War, and the various approaches in between, the set punctuates the fact that very few U.S. Presidents have been able to avoid some sort of war or conflict during their time in office. War and conflict often comes with the territory when you’re a global superpower and there’s always another nation vying for the same power. The Presidents Collection is revealing on many levels, with parallels that still resonate today. It’s interesting to think that so many people called Ronald Reagan a warmonger but he brought an end to the Cold War without firing a shot. It goes to show how taking a tough approach to foreign affairs is vastly different than being a warmonger, which many people often confuse.

While the set also focuses on how each President handled domestic affairs, including FDR’s new economic hope for the nation and Carter’s challenges with Opec that led to the gas shortages of the late ‘70s, more sides of the men are revealed through a multitude of special features and expanded footage across each disc, some needing two discs in the cases of Wilson, Truman, FDR, The Kennedys, and Ronald Reagan. Highlights of the extras on some of the two-disc sets include mini-documentaries on race relations and women’s rights during Woodrow Wilson’s Presidency (with impressive World War I poster art), JFK’s Hidden Life via an interview with historian and JFK author Robert Dallek plus an enlightening Kennedy family tree that makes it easy to link together America’s version of the Royal family. While each disc comes with a Teacher’s Guide in PDF format, the George Bush disc also includes an expanded bonus video on the man and his politics.

Brought to life and told through archival footage, analysis from noted historians plus family members of the former leaders, The Presidents Collection is also narrated by the words of such notable names as author and historian David McCullough, Linda Hunt, Jason Robards, Stacy Keach, and David Ogen Stiers. For any high-school history teacher, The Presidents Collection is an invaluable aid with expanded details not found in conventional history books. At $130, it’s well worth the money since you’ll be able to get years of mileage out of the set. If you’re a political history buff who checks into PBS for its educational or historical programming, The Presidents Collection is an amazing set to add to your own DVD collection.