The West, a nine-part series, chronicles the turbulent history of one of the most extraordinary landscapes on earth – a mythic landscape, simultaneously enticing and forbidding, filled with stories of both heartbreaking tragedy and undying hope. Beginning in the era when the land belonged only to Native Americans and ending in the 20th century, the film is populated by unforgettable historical characters, some famous and others relatively unknown – from gold seekers to cowboys to homesteaders to Indian leaders – whose competing dreams transformed the land, and turned the West into a lasting symbol of the nation itself, a tragic, inspiring intersection where the best of us met the worst of us and nothing was left unchanged.

Executive Producer
KEN BURNS

A Film By
STEPHEN IVES

Written By
GEOFFREY C. WARD and
DAYTON DUNCAN

Produced By
STEPHEN IVES
JODY ABRAMSON
MICHAEL KANTOR

Edited By
PAUL BARNES
RICHARD HANKIN
MICHAEL LEVINE
ADAM ZUCKER

Cinematography
BUDDY SQUIRES
ALLEN MOORE

Narrated By
PETER COYOTE

Funding provided by
General Motors Corporation
The National Endowment for the Humanities
Corporation for Public Broadcasting
The Public Broadcasting Service
The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations

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Original Broadcast September 1996

Film Honors:
• Erik Barnouw Prize