Kent Masterson Brown can still recall every step of a childhood trip to the Antietam National Battlefield, where he first kindled a fascination with history and became “absolutely hooked” on the study of the American Civil War.

The impression left with him that day altered the trajectory of his life, inspiring him to pursue a career in constitutional law and to litigate several high-profile federal cases in Washington, D.C., before returning to his love for history, creating and editing The Civil War magazine, writing seven books on the war, and producing 11 documentary films, many of which focus on our nation’s and Kentucky’s formative days.

KET has an enormous reputation nationally and justifiably so. And it’s to KET’s credit that my films have been seen all over the country.

Kent Masterson Brown, author, filmmaker, founder of Witnessing History Education Foundation, Inc.

“We have such a grand country with a spectacular history, one filled with incredibly notable people, men and women who made this country what it is,” said Brown, a native of Lexington who still resides just outside the city. “The whole purpose of what I do is to introduce people to this great history of ours — I want them to feel like I did once upon a time ago.”

To that end, Brown said he’s found “a wonderful partner” in KET, which has aired each of his documentaries and helped make them available to other public television stations across the nation.

“I’ve always enjoyed public television a lot because it broadcasts things no one else does – stories about politics and history that are of broad interest to viewers,” Brown said. “So it means a great deal to me that KET has been my closest and most important unsigned partner over the years. KET has an enormous reputation nationally and justifiably so. And it’s to KET’s credit that my films have been seen all over the country.”

Though Brown’s films have been showered with national awards, what he’s found even more gratifying is they’ve proven to be a rich source material for generating classroom resources. Beginning with his film Daniel Boone and the Opening of the American West and continuing with his most recent film on the American Revolution, The Shot Heard Round the World, Brown and KET have collaborated to create video resource collections on PBS LearningMedia, complete with accompanying teacher guides, that bring key moments of American and Kentucky history to life for students.

“Putting these stories on the screen is often the best way to get young people to understand how these scenes would have looked and unfolded at the time – and we’ve heard from teachers that students find it all captivating,” Brown said, adding that many of the resources are used in classrooms thousands of times each year. “And by understanding what these people went through, you develop an appreciation for who these people were and cannot help but admire them. There’s a lot of power in individual stories.”

Brown said he has two new film projects underway: a new documentary called 1776 about the Continental Congress and Declaration of Independence, and he’s also a consultant on the new KET production Lexington: 250 Years, which examines the city’s founding and early years.