Watch The Congress | A Documentary by Ken Burns | PBS

Introduction to "The Congress": The Engine of Democracy

The United States Congress, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives, is known as “the engine of democracy.”

Clip 4m 45s

For 200 years, the United States Congress has been one of the country's most important and least understood institutions. Using historical photographs and newsreels, evocative live footage and interviews, Ken Burns chronicles the events that have shaped the first 200 years of congress and, in turn, our country.