You can't get too picky with this stuff. I've seen people use both Burns and Potter as stepping stones into more serious stuff. Not everyone does, but if just ONE person does make that leap, then someone of value has been accomplished that might otherwise not have happened. I have my own elitist (and yes...it is that...I'll be honest about it) outlook on history (which includes lumping Ambrose in with the plagiarists and disliking Keegan as a shallow re-hasher of ideas...to name two examples), but at the same time I see the value in those people I dislike in that they can act as stepping stones for others into a deeper understanding of the subject. Everyone has to start somewhere, and if a hack or flashy documentary maker can get just one person asking "why" or "I want to know more" or "gee...let's turn off the TV and read" then I'm ok with it.
Not everyone's going to have that inquiring mind, but in part I blame the education system for that. But to lift a quote from someone else (I think it's Mao, but he might have borrowed it from elsewhere as well), "the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single footstep." If "The War" gets some people to take that single footstep, and then keep taking others, then I'm ok with it.
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