June 24, 2026
Provided image/Netflix
'The American Experiment' includes reenactments of critical events in the Revolutionary War.
With the nation's semiquincentennial right around the corner, Netflix is releasing a new series exploring America's improbable, fractious founding.
"The American Experiment," arriving Wednesday, explores the events that led to the Revolutionary War, the conflict itself and the country's formative first years under President George Washington. Netflix enlisted over 60 historians, curators, native chiefs, historical interpreters and political leaders to tell the story — all over just five episodes.
"It was a super ambitious slice of history for five hours," said Brian Knappenberger, who directed the series. "... You could dig in and do a huge series about any number of the series' figures, and any number of these turns in history. So it was about, as a whole, what was most effective and most engaging."
He starts the story around the time of the French and Indian War, a conflict that Washington largely started with his ambush of French troops in present-day Fayette County. Boston and Philadelphia take center stage as the colonists protest British taxes, levied to pay down the crown's war debt, and convene to discuss a more formal rebellion. With the outbreak of war, "The American Experiment" sprints through the revolution's major battles and challenges. Then it dives into the Founding Fathers' difficult task of establishing a new government.
The Museum of the American Revolution played a role in the series, thanks to commentary from Adrienne Whaley, the institute's director of education, and James Taub, an associate curator. Taub was especially excited to contribute to the series' chapter on the French intervention, facilitated by Philly's own Benjamin Franklin, that he insists was "more than Lafayette." The curator discusses more obscure figures like the Comte de Rochambeau, a lieutenant general who marched his troops with Washington's to the war-ending Battle of Yorktown.
"If there's one real crusade that I'm on, it's for people to know that the United States would not have won the revolution without the aid of France," Taub said.
Several more historians appear in documentary, but Knappenberger also wanted to speak with "people that were a part of the system." That left him with politicians, and he got some extremely high-profile ones. Kamala Harris, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Mike Pence, Al Gore, Ted Cruz, Nancy Pelosi and Stephen Breyer all sat for interviews, along with another seven sitting and former members of Congress. Knappenberger asked the White House to participate, too, he says, but President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance both declined.
Along with modern politicians, the series mixes in footage of more recent rebellions — including the civilian response to mass Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in Minneapolis earlier this year, during which federal agents killed Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti. The framing drives home a point that Taub and his colleagues try to impress at the museum, that the American Revolution is not ancient history but "an ongoing event."
"I want people to connect our modern world and the tensions that they feel in our modern world to our founding," Knappenberger said. "That's what I want. I want people to see that the things that we're grappling with and dealing with now, they go back to the very early days of our republic. And I want people to not feel separated from that."
"The American Experiment" isn't the only project reexamining the nation's founding. Ken Burns' 12-hour take on the revolution debuted on PBS last fall. Seemingly every museum in Philadelphia has also rolled out an exhibit on the U.S. fight for independence, filtered through the lens of Quaker pacifism or the munition smuggling rings led by Jewish merchants.
As more people learn the details left out of their middle school history classes, Taub hopes they can connect with the 18th century colonists who once roamed Broad Street.
"I would encourage people through these new documentaries and other media, and through their visits to the museum, to really think about, put yourself in the shoes of someone in the 1770s here in Philadelphia," he said. "And really ask yourself if you would've been shaking hands with Ben Franklin, would you have said that guy's going too far? Or would you say, man, I just wanna make sure I can get to John's Water Ice without a soldier stopping me. So it's a really, really interesting time for us to celebrate our country's history and to reflect upon what it means to us today."
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