Perhaps the series is like a lot of other things -- like movies about a historical event -- that is really just a vehicle for a "topic space" for a few days or weeks associated with some heavy advertising. There is nothing wrong with getting people's attention about historical topics (I spend most of my time doing it), but these seem increasingly to be one hit wonders, and then disappear again, leaving them as the sole residue in the imagination. I think of the temporary fascination given to native indians by Dances With Wolves, ragtime music by The Sting, Gandhi with the film Gandhi, and many others I could name. It is a strange, unsettling process, and not very healthy. But Jazz will sell a lot of Jazz records, and some people will be turned on to it, so one's complaints are really I think part of a real fear that no one will ever hear about this subject again once the series is over. It won't be the first, it will be the only.

yours, Peter T.