Presidential historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Doris Kearns Goodwin is stepping into a new role as executive producer of “The West,” an eight-part documentary series debuting on the History Channel this Memorial Day.

Produced alongside Academy Award-winning actor and filmmaker Kevin Costner, the series provides an in-depth look at the multifaceted history of the American West. It chronicles the lives and struggles of Native Americans, settlers, soldiers, missionaries, gold miners and more.

“I wanted to know more about the West. ... I didn’t know it from the ground up,” Goodwin said of her decision to join the project on Boston Public Radio on Wednesday.

But while her exploration of the American West has been invigorating, Goodwin is deeply concerned about the direction of education in the United States. She noted the alarming erasure of the history of Jim Crow and slavery in classrooms, to widespread book bans and curriculum restrictions.

“I wake up every day worrying about the fact that you keep hearing about history being diminished in high schools. And then you hear about this desire somehow to teach history only from the triumphs not from the struggles.”

She spoke of the Civil Rights Movement and the 1963 Children’s Crusade in Birmingham, two of several events that led to the Civil Rights Act. Goodwin emphasized that these struggles led to hard-won victories that make American history meaningful.

“We should be proud of that. We overcome things,” she said.

Goodwin also voiced concern about the Trump administration’s cutting billions in research funding and opposing several court rulings in the past few months.

“The thing that’s inexplicable is the scientific research being undone. The research is going to be undone for generations,” she warned.

Still, Goodwin remains hopeful. “I think the greatest guardrail is going to be the citizens. It’s not the leaders we have to depend upon. It is us. This is our country. It’s our government.”

Recent protests, such as the “Hands Off!” rally in at Boston Common and demonstrations across communities like Worcester and Acton, reflect a growing grassroots movement of civic resistance, she said.

“You’ve seen people resisting in various places. ... The more we get a sense of what’s happening and what we value, I think people respond — and that’s our ultimate goal.

“History is what gives me strength,” Goodwin said. “We’ve come through really hard times before, and each time we emerge with greater strength.”