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Aural History Productions Talking History, based at the University at Albany, State University of New York, is a production, distribution, and instructional center for all forms of "aural" history. Our mission is to provide teachers, students, researchers and the general public with as broad and outstanding a collection of audio documentaries, speeches, debates, oral histories, conference sessions, commentaries, archival audio sources, and other aural history resources as is available anywhere. We hope to expand our understanding of history by exploring the audio dimensions of our past, and we hope to enlarge the tools and venues of historical research and publication by promoting production of radio documentaries and other forms of aural history. In addition to our weekly radio program, we are engaged in numerous educational efforts, from running and sponsoring workshops to offering full-semester courses on radio production and oral history. Some of the most talented radio producers and engineers currently working in public and non-commercial radio now contribute to Talking Historyboth to our programming and to our educational efforts through production workshops. Here, you'll also find digital archives of their enormously creative and captivating works. Our weekly broadcast/internet radio program, Talking History, focuses on all aspects of history. Follow the link to the left, "The Radio Show," for more information on the program and to access the live WWW broadcast. Below you will find our latest archived shows; to enjoy more, make use of the pop-down menu to the left; it will give you access to our full radio archive. Dec.16, 2010 Segment 1 and 3: "The Write Question: Visions of the Big Sky" (2010). PART 1: Real Media (TO BE ADDED). MP3 (TO BE ADDED). Time: 29:00 PART 2: Real Media (TO BE ADDED). MP3 (TO BE ADDED). Time: 29:00 This piece comes to us from The Write Question at KUFM, Montana Public Radio. In this 2 part program, producer Ch�rie Newman speaks with historian Dan Flores who holds the A.B. Hammond Chair in Western History at the University of Montana, Missoula. They "...revisit the Northern Rockies artistic tradition to explore its diversity and richness that Flores writes about. In his essays about the artists, photographers, and thematic historical imagery of the region, he blends art and cultural history with personal reflection to assess the formation of the region's character. In part 2 they continue their conversation about place, regional identity and "Visions of the Big Sky," specifically the fiction of Custer's Last Stand, how eastern critics panned the landscape photography of Ansel Adams, and where the idea of the North American Continent as a pliant Mother Earth came from. Segment 2: "The Journal of Lewis and Clarke: Chapter 6 -to the Headwaters of the Missouri" 2009 (LibriVox Reading).
Dec. 9, 2010 Segment 2: "Jonathan Edward's Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" 1741; 2009 (LibriVox Reading).
Dec. 2, 2010 Segment 2: "Edmund Burke on the English Empire in India." 1783 (LibriVox Reading).
Nov. 25, 2010 [ARCHIVE PROGRAM REPEAT/ Talking History took Thanksgiving off!] Segment 1 (full show): From the Archives: "Timothy Leary at RPI, April 8, 1967." Real Media. MP3. Time: 42:51 On April 8th, 1967, Dr. Timothy F. Leary, writer, psychologist, and promoter of the consciousness-raising use of psychedelic drugs spoke at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, New York. His appearance, and the controversy it ignited in the local community, made the national news. The New York Times, reporting on the event, characterized Leary as "the self-styled prophet of a religion based on the use of the drug LSD," and described his appearance as follows: "The former Harvard teacher sat cross-legged and dressed in white as he told several thousand studens from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute of his 'consciousness-expanding' religion, whose basic tenet, he said, was to 'get high, turn on and drop out." (NYT, April 9, 1967, p. 95). Rennselaer County District Attorney (later to become a prominent local judge) M. Andrew Dwyer, along with the local Lions Club, Troy Chamber of Commerce, and numerous local clergy attempted to halt Leary's appearance, without success. RPI administrators strongly defended the right of a University to air unpopular and controversial speakers (prefatory comments explaining their decision are preserved on this recording). However, they made one compromise: tickets to the event were only sold to students, faculty, and staff of RPI. The public was not invited. The talk, however, was broadcast by the News and Public Affairs Department of Radio Rensselaer (WRPI), the station from which Talking History now originates. This recording comes from the WRPI vaults. Unfortunately, problems on the recording day and almost four decades of less-than-ideal storage conditions did impact the quality of the recording. Please bear with occasional audio drop-offs; overall, the recording is not in bad shape. It was slightly edited for broadcast. Our thanks to WRPI and to the numerous station engineers who were responsible for this and many other now historic recordings (some of which we hope to bring you in the future). Additional audio segments utilized on the on-air broadcast, including "Legend of a Mind" by the Moody Blues, are protected by copyright restrictions and can't be archived on line. For those interested in learning more about Timothy Leary, there are numerous on-line short biographies of Leary, some more sensational than others. We hesitate to recommend specific sites. A recent anthology of viewpoints from those who knew Timothy Leary can be found in Robert Forte's (ed.) Timothy Leary: Outside Looking In : Appreciations, Castigations, and Reminiscences by Ram Dass, Andrew Weil, Allen Ginsberg, Winona Ryder, William Burroughs, Albert Hofmann, Aldous Huxley, Terence McKenna, Ken Kesey, Huston Smith, Hunter S. Thompson, and Others (1999). For more information about Leary's ideas, see his own writings: Change Your Brain (1988); Your Brain is God (1988). Flashbacks (1983); High Priest (1968); The Politics of Ecstasy (1968); Start Your Own Religion (1967); Psychedelic Prayers & Other Meditations (1966); The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead, co-author, with Ralph Metzner, Richard Alpert, Karma-Glin-Pa Bar Do Thos Grol (1964); The Interpersonal Diagnosis of Personality (1957). Segment 1 and 3: "1926: Father Coughlin 'On the Air' and the Rise of Right Wing Radio" (2010). PART 1: Real Media. MP3. Time: 28:37 PART 2: Real Media. MP3. Time: 30:16 Action Speaks!, a series that examines "contemporary issues through the lens of history by using under-appreciated dates of the twentieth century that have changed America," contributed this program to Talking History: a discussion of the role of Father Coughlin, the "Radio Priest" of the 1930s, in the development of a conservative talk radio. Action Speaks! host and Creative Director Marc Levitt is joined by the following guest panelists: Dr. Sheldon Marcus, a Professor in the Division of Educational leadership and Policy of Fordham University�s Graduate School of Education; Dr. Susan Smulyan, Professor of American Civilization at Brown University, and the author of Selling Radio: The Commercialization of American Broadcasting (1992) and Popular Ideologies: Mass Culture at Mid-Century (2007); Michael Harrison, the founder and editor of Talkers Magazine, the leading trade publication serving the talk radio industry in America; and Dr. Evelyn Sterne, an Associate Professor in the Department of History at University of Rhode Island whose research interests include evangelism and working class history (her book Ballots and Bibles: Ethnic Politics and the Catholic Church in Providence, published in 2004, is a study of the relationship between religion and political incorporation among immigrant groups in Providence at the turn of the 20th century). Here's a short summary of their discussion, as described by the producers: "With the popularity of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and now Glenn Beck, we felt it was time to look at the �original� nationally known conservative radio talk show host, Father Charles Edward Coughlin, who organized and addressed large rallies, called for a return to God and became a leading oppositional figure for a sitting President. Father Coughlin�s reach was huge, establishing a national network of radio stations to carry his show and help him to raise funds for his preferred causes. Originally attracted by the New Deal, Father Coughlin veered right from FDR�s policies, establishing ties eventually to Nazi and anti-Semitic elements in our society. In our conversation we look at Father Coughlin�s career to see what methods of communication and distribution he created and to compare our current group of conservative commentators in philosophy, method, and content as well as in their reach and popularity." Segment 2: "Thomas Hobbes: The Leviathan, 1651 (Reading from LibriVox, 2008)."
November 11, 2010 Segment 2: "From the Archives: Contract With America ~ Newt Gingrich Speaks in April, 1994."
November 4, 2010 [REPEAT PROGRAM - INTERNET BROADCAST ONLY THIS WEEK} Segments 1 and 3: "King and Gandhi's Nonviolence." PART 1: Real Media. MP3. Time: 26:34. PART 2: Real Media. MP3. Time: 22:54. This program comes to us from Pacifica's Against the Grain. Stanford University Professor of History and Martin Luther King Jr. Papers Project editor Dr. Clayborne Carson and Barnard College Professor and Gandhi expert Dennis Dalton discuss ideas about nonviolence as promoted by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi. They note that both men's notions of nonviolent resistance did not simply involve an advocacy of avoidance of violence, but something far more sophisticated and carefully considered. [Originally broadcast by Against the Grain on 1-16-2006]. Segment 3: "From the Archives: The HUAC Testimony of Bertolt Brecht (1947)." Real Media. MP3. Time: 4:36. This is a selection from Bertolt Brecht's October 30, 1947 testimony before the House Committee on Un-American Activities. Brecht's full testimony lasted around an hour and he willingly asnwered all questions put to him by the Committee, carefully noting that because he was a "guest" of the United States, he did not feel that he could avail himself of the constitutional protections that other non-cooperative witnesses claimed. Still, his "ccoperation" was carefully orchestrated by him and his friend Hermann Budzislawski, who helped him rehearse for his Committee appearance and come up with seemingly honest though quite imprecise answers to Committee members' probing questions. The following day, Brecht left the U.S. for Europe; he never came back. For more about Brecht and his American years, see: http://www.usc.edu/isd/archives/arc/libraries/feuchtwanger/exhibits/Brecht/. "Law, Race, and Slavery in American History: An Interview with Annette Gordon-Reed." [TALKING HISTORY WAS NOT BROADCAST TODAY. WE BRING YOU THIS EPISODE FROM OUR ARCHIVE, ORIGINALLY BROADCAST ON APRIL 24, 2003.] Part 1: Real Media. MP3. Time: 22:21. Part 2: Real Media. MP3. Time: 23:49. Prof. Richard Hamm of the University at Albany interviews New York University Law School professor Annette Gordon-Reed, author of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy, co-author with Vernon Jordan of Vernon Can Read: A Memoir and and the editor of Race on Trial: Law and Justice in American History. The interview focuses on law, racism, and slavery in American history. Segment 1 and 3: "History Under Siege, Episode 3: Battles Over the Past in Australia" (2008). PART 1: Real Media. MP3. Time: 33:47 PART 2: Real Media. MP3. Time: 20:24 We continue with Hindsight's series, "History Under Seige," examing contestations over national identity and diverging national historical narratives in four countries: Japan, France, Australia, and Argentina. Today we focus on Australia: "While Australia has witnessed its own sustained ideological battles over the interpretation of its national history, the issues and politics which have framed these debates have rarely been scrutinized against comparable experiences in other countries around the world. The recent focus in Australia on the teaching of national history, amid concerns over historical literacy, was played out in the United States in the early 1990s, and the experience in both countries was mirrored by similar sets of anxieties and arguments regarding historical understanding, citizenship and national identity. And like the United States, and countries in Asia and Europe, Australia has also seen the increasing politicisation of the past -- as politicians invoke history to serve present day interests. What can be learned from more careful scrutiny of the political use of the past, or particular aspects of the past, in the process of governance and policy making? And is there a link between the political use of the past, and the popular interest in one area of history over another? Why, for example, do young people in Australia today say they prefer to learn about the Anzac legend rather than the history of Indigenous Australia?" For more information on this and other Hindsight programs, go to [http://www.abc.net.au/rn/hindsight]. Segment 2: "From the Archives: The Nixon-Kennedy Debates (selection), 1960."
October 14, 2010 Segment 1 and 3: "Kennedy and the Peace Corps" (2010). PART 1: Real Media. MP3 Unavailable by request of producers. Time: 33:42 PART 2: Real Media. MP3 Unavailable by request of producers. Time: 15:34 From producer Lester Graham, we bring you this documentary examining the early history of the Peace Corps -- now fifty years old: "During the 1960 Nixon and Kennedy campaigns for president, John F. Kennedy made a late-night stop at the University of Michigan and challenged students to take their skills to the developing world to help others. The students embraced that challenge and proposed a program that Kennedy would call the Peace Corps. This documentary examines Kennedy's motivation and the students stories as the idea was developed. It also tracks the obstacles, including a reluctant Congress and the CIA which tried to infiltrate the ranks of the Peace Corps." Segment 2: "From the Archives: A LibriVox Reading of Louisa May Alcott's Work: A Story of Experience."
Oct. 7, 2010 Segment 2: "From the Archives: Melina Mercouri, 1968."
Sept. 30, 2010 Segment 2: "From the Archives: The Townsend Plan, 1935."
Sept. 23, 2010 Segment 2: "From the Archives: Why We Fight: The Battle of China (sound track excerpt, 1944)."
Sept. 16, 2010 Segment 2: "From the Archives: The Siege of Dien Bien Phu (1954)."
Sept. 9, 2010 Segment 2: "From the Archives: The 1967 Mideast War ~ Universal Newsreel Audio (1967)."
Sept. 2, 2010 Segment 2: "Working Series: Miner (2009)." Segment 3: "Working Series: Labor Inspector (2009)." Segment 4: "Hold the Fort ~ From Gospel Hymn to Labor Anthem" (Philip P. Bliss, 1870; recordings 1899 and 1991). Real Media. MP3 Unavailabe by request of the producer. Time: 28:37. Here's another historical piece from producer Helen Borten, focusing on a motorcycle rally and "riot" that tool place in Hollister, California between July 4 and July 6, 1947 -- the event that inspired the film "The Wild One." As described by Borten: "thousands of bikers roared into a small California town and changed our assumptions about America. A new investigation raises provocative questions about the influence of media on history and culture." For additional eyewitness accounts of what went on in Holister back in 1947, see: http://www.salinasramblersmc.org/history/Classic_Bike_Article.htm. August 26, 2010 [Talking History was pre-empted this week. We feature this previous (2004) broadcast for those who might have missed it.] Segment 1: "The Nights of Edith Piaf" (1994). Real Media. MP3 Unavailable. Time: 29:06 "She rose every day at dusk and sang, rehearsed, performed, ate and drank and sang until dawn. Then she slept all day and began to create and unravel again as the sun went down. Nearly every song Edith Piaf sang, and she recorded over 400 of them, was a moment taken from her life in Paris. Piaf would tell her composers a story, or describe a feeling or show them a gesture. And they would put music and lyrics to her pain and passion, giving her back her own musical autobiography. Charles Aznavour, Francis Lai, Georges Moustaki, Henri Contet -- some of France's greatest musicians and composers recall their nights with the 'the Little Sparrow'." First produced by The Kitchen Sisters for Soundprint in 1994. Segment 2: From the Archives: "John Steinbeck interview. (Feb. 11, 1952)." Real Media. MP3. Time: 11:57. A selection from an interview with John Steinbeck conducted on February 11, 1952. The interviewer is not identified. Steinbeck talks about the setting of his novel The Grapes of Wrath, the dust bowl of the 1930s, the Great Depression, Federal Government aid for farmers, and comparisons of migrant farmers in the 1930s and the 1950s. For more information on this audio recording, contact Talking History/University at Albany, or the National Archives' Motion Picture, Sound, and Video Records LICON, Special Media Archives Services Division, College Park, MD.
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3: "Frederick Douglas." Segment 1 and 3: "Lincoln'd Music" (2009). PART 1: Real Media. MP3. Time: 31:58 PART 2: Real Media. MP3. Time: 26:47 From Central Illinois and WUIS, we bring you this exploration of Abraham Lincoln's musical tastes, as a window into mid-19th century popular musical tastes in general. As described by the producers, it's an exploration of "the music Lincoln loved along with the music he heard throughout his life stretching from childhood through presidency � and ultimately assassination. We�ll hear some of the musical anecdotes that have been passed down through the years. And we�ll also find out more about period instruments and the origins of mid-nineteenth century popular songs." Segment 2: "A Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight" (1896; 1927 performance). Real Media. MP3. Time: 3:20 Sometimes songs that have nothing to do with war become associated with it. Soldiers pick up tunes and lyrics that resonate in a particular way that seems somehow appropriate for the battlefield. Such was the case with this ragtime tune, composed in 1896, the year of the great heat wave that took the lives of close to 1500 people in New York City (see Edward P. Kohn's recent book, Hot Time in the Old Town (Basic Books, 2010). Composed by August Metz, with lyrics by Joe Hayden, the song became, two years later, one of the most popular battle songs of the Spanish American War, especially among Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders. This version was performed many years afterwards, by Bessie Smith, in 1927.
August
12, 2010
Segment 1 and 3: "Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster" (2010). PART 1: Real Media. MP3. Time: 25:20 PART 2: Real Media. MP3. Time: 19:48 Greg Hooker and Spencer Smith produced this adaptation of journalist Svetlana Alexievich's book, Voices from Chernobyl, an oral history of the worst nuclear power plant disaster in human history that took place in Chernobyl, Ukraine, on April 26, 1986. The production utilizes six dramatic actors reading the English translations of oral testimonies of survivors of Chernobyl. The piece was produced at WGDR, Goddard College in Plainview, Vermont, with permission of Salkey Archive Press. It is narrated by Greg Hooker and the testmonies of Lyudmilla, Valentin, Vasily, Sergei, Anna, and Larysa are performed by Deborah Bremer, Bob Carmody, Roman Kokodiniak, Brooke Pearson, Mary Wheeler, and Elizabeth Wilcox. WGDR, For more information about Chernobyl and Svetlana Alexievich's book, see: http://chernobyl.info/ and http://www.alexievich.info/indexEN.html. Segment 2: "Fyodor Mikhaylovich Dostoyevsky's Notes from Underground (1864; 1972 reading ~ partial)." Real Media. MP3. Time: 21:50 Fyodor Mikhaylovich Dostoyevsky was one of the greatest and most prominent 19th century Russian authors and essayists. His many novels -- including The Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment, Poor Folk, The Double, and others, explored the depths of social, political, and existential crises in a rapidly modernizing Russia. One of his works, Notes from Underground, prublished in 1864, is widely considered the greatest literary expression -- and anticipation of -- existentialism. Here we present a 1972 reading of Doestoevsky's Notes from Underground, compliments of Pacifica Radio Archives. The reading was produced by Kathy Dobkin as the "3rd annual WBAI reading of a classic novel." This excerpt from the first of four parts is read by stage and film actor Morris Carnovsky. To access the full reading, go to: http://fromthevaultradio.org/home/2010/06/18/1135/. Readings of the rest of the novel are accessible through links on that site.
July 29, 2010 Real Media. MP3. Time: 10:04 The Frankfurt School drew scholars from various social science and humanities disciplines -- sociology, economics, history, political science, anthropology, psychology, and philosophy. One of the most influential psychologists associated with the group was Erich Fromm. Fromm was heavily engaged in pushing his discipline into a socially transformative mode. Here, in this selection of a talk he delivered at the American Orthopsychiatry Association's 43rd Annual Meeting in San Francisco on April 13, 1966, he offers some of his views on "The Automaton Citizen and Human Rights." For the full talk, go to the Google Video site: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-385174775844362652.
July 22, 2010 Segment 1: "Nell Painter on the History of White People (2010)." Real Media. MP3. Time: 35:51. On July 18th, 2010, Nell Irvin Painter, Edwards Professor of American History, Emerita, at Princeton University, read from and discussed her recent book, The History of White People. Her presentation took place in the evening at the Old County Courthouse in Elizabethtown, New York. Former Princeton colleague and novelist Russell Banks introduced Painter. This talk was part of a series sponsored by John Brown Lives! and John Brown Coming Home. For more information about Painter and her recent book, see: www.nellpainter.com and NYT Review of A History of White People. Segment 2: "Ku Klux Klan 1950s Leader Eldon Edwards (1957)." Real Media. MP3. Time: 2:01 In the mid-1950s, reacting to civil rights progress in the courts, Eldon Edwards, an automobile paint sprayer from Georgia, founded a modern reincarnation of the 19th century Ku Klux Klan, "U.S. Klans, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan." The organization ultimately drew 15,000 members and spread to nine states. For more information on Eldon and his organization, see: www.adl.org/issue_combating_hate/uka/rise.asp. In 1957, Edwards was a guest of Mike Wallace on the ABC's 1957-58 "The Mike Wallace Interview" television series. This is a very brief, edited selection from that interview. The full interview is available at the Harry Ransom Center's Web site devoted to the series: http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/collections/film/holdings/wallace/. Segment 3: "Black Pirates (2010)" Real Media. MP3. Time: 8:30 From Virginia Foundation of the Humanities' (VFH) With Good Reason, we continue with part two of a broadcast we aired several weeks ago. Part one focused on the "Secession Showdown" in Virginia in 1860; this segment focuses on "Black Pirates" and features an interview by show host Sarah McConnell with historian Cassandra Newby-Alexander of Norfork State University, who "argues these black pirates experienced more freedom on their outlaw ships than on 'civilized' dry land. . . . Historians estimate that of the nearly 5,000 pirates who terrorized America�s Atlantic coast in the early 1700s, twenty-five to thirty percent were of African descent, many of them freed slaves." Segment 4: "Historian Henry Steele Commager (1954)" Real Media. MP3. Time: 11:46 Former NYU, Columbia University, and Amherst College historian Henry Steele Commager was interviewed by Larry Lesueur and August Heckscher in this November 1954 edition of the Longines Chronoscope (this is the audio from the original television broadcast). The discussion touched on a number of issues, including an examination of free speech and tolerance in the 1950s in comparison to earlier periods in the U.S. and relative to European nations. Original broadcasts of the Longines Chronoscope are all availabel at the National Archives (Archives II) in College Park, Maryland. They are now in the public domain and no longer copyright restricted. For more information on Commager, see: http://www.commager.org/biography.asp
July 15, 2010 Real Media. MP3. Time: 10:12 French writer Jules Verne is widely considered the originator of the modern science fiction genre. His From the Earth to the Moon (De la Terre � la Lune) was published in 1865 and predicted an era in which space travel was possible. Though the mechanisms for space flight were somewhat poorly conjectured by Verne, there were some uncanny similarities in Verne's novel to the U.S. Apollo program of the 1960s (actually, the program ran from 1961 to 1975): Verne's cannon -- the instrument that projected Verne's manned capsule -- was called Columbiad and the Apollo 11 command module was named Columbia; in Verne's novel -- as on the first successful Apollo moon launch -- the astronaut crew numbered three; the journey in both cases began in Florida. There were still other similarities. For the full text of Verne's novel, see: http://jv.gilead.org.il/pg/moon/. Copies are also available on Google Books at: http://books.google.com/. For other information on Verne, see: http://www.julesverne.ca/index.html. For the full LibriVox reading of the entire book (from which we took this selection), go to: http://librivox.org/from-the-earth-to-the-moon-by-jules-verne/.
July 8, 2010 Segment 1: "John C. Greene on 'Science in the Time of Thomas Jefferson' (1963)." Real Media. MP3. Time: 28:04. Broadcast initially by the Voice of America (VOA) in 1963, as part of a VOA series on the history of science, here's a talk by John C. Greene, a major historian of U.S. science who taught at the University of Connecticut for decades. He is the author of The Death of Adam: Evolution and Its Impact on Western Thought (1959), Science, Ideology and World View: Essays in the History of evolutionary Ideas (1981), and American Science in the Age of Jefferson (1984). For a short biography and overview of his work, see the introductory sections of the finding aid to his papers, deposited at the Univ. of Connecticut - Storrs: http://doddcenter.uconn.edu/findaids/Greene/MSS19960008.html. Segment 2: "Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography (1791) ~ a LibriVox Reading (2007)." Real Media. MP3. Time: 31:16 Founding father, inventor, diplomat, scientist, writer, publisher, and philosopher: Benjamin Franklin was known for all these things. He left quite a legacy, and part of that legacy is very familiar to U.S. history students: his Autobiography. It has become an iconic text, used widely in survey courses in U.S. history. Perhaps little know by students and the general public, however, is the fact that Franklin's autobiography first appeared posthumously in France and in French -- back in 1791 (as Memoires De La Vie Privee). It took another two years before the first English translation was produced, published in London in 1793 as The Private Life of the Late Benjamin Franklin, LL.D. Originally Written By Himself, And Now Translated From The French. Here -- from LibriVox (www.librvox.org, is a reading of chapter 9 of Franklin's autobiography. For the full text of the Autobiography, see: http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/franklin-home.html. Segment 3: "Virginia's Secession Movement (2010)" Real Media. MP3. Time: 18:00 From Virginia Foundation of the Humanities' (VFH) With Good Reason, we bring you this recent segment on the "Secession Showdown" of 1860 in Virginia. Civil War author Bill Freehling offers his views on "turning points in one state's months-long, bitter battle over whether to secede from the Union." Freehling is Senior Fellow with the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and author of Prelude to the Civil War, The Road to Disunion, The South vs. The South, and most recently, edited, along with Craig M. Simpson, Showdown in Virginia: The 1861 Convention and the Fate of the Union (Univ. of Virginia Press, 2010).
July 1, 2010 Real Media. MP3. Time: 08:27 In segment 1 Sheila Rowbotham discusses the writings of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, perhaps best know for her short story, "The Yellow Wallpaper," and her treatise Women and Economics. Here, from LibriVox, is an excerpt from Chapter 11 of Gilman's Herland, a 1915 utopian novel that portrays an ideal, isolated society of women and the three male explorers who enter their world. Audio readings of the entire work, are available at http://librivox.org/herland-by-charlotte-perkins-gilman .
June 24, 2010 Real Media. MP3. Time: 11:58 Abe Fortas was appointed to the Supreme court by Lyndon Johnson. Later when Johnson nominated Fortas to be Chief Justice a filibuster ensued over charges that Fortas had acted inappropriately in terms of his financial dealings and his contact with Johnson while on the bench. Here, in a recording from the University of Virginia Miller Center of Public Affairs is Abe Fortas speaking in 1981, offering his recollections of President Lyndon Johnson. For the complete Fortas talk and other audio as well, go to http://millercenter.org/scripps/archive/forum/detail/81.
June 17, 2010
Segment 1 and 3: "Votes for Women" (2010). PART 1: Real Media. | MP3 unavailable by producer request. Time: 30:58 PART 2: Real Media. | MP3 unavailable by producer request. Time: 20:03 Sandra Sleight-Brennan recently produced this one-hour documentary to mark the 90th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment. Utilizing songs, voice re-creations, interviews, and historical commentary, the documentary reviews the long years of struggle that culminated in the final ratification of the 19th amendment on August 19, 1920. For more information on the history of the quest for women's suffrage, see: http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/woman-suffrage/ and http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/nineteentham.htm. Segment 2: "James Keir Hardie on Women's Suffrage in Britain (1905)." Real Media. MP3. Time: 3:36 Scottish socialist and labor leader James Keir Hardie was one of the founders of the British Labor Party. He is one of the best known 20th century political labor leaders in Great Britain. During his long and influential career, he advocated self-rule for India, an end to segregation in South Africa, opposition to World War I (he was a life-long pacifist), and promoted -- as he did in this speech delivered in the House of Commons in 1905 -- suffrage for women. The reading of Hardie's speech comes to us from www.librivox.org (see, specifically, http://librivox.org/united-kingdom-house-of-commons-speeches-collection/. For a short overview of Hardie's life and career, see: www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/PRhardie.htm.
Segment 1: "The Maypole at Merrymount (1999)." Real Media. MP3. Time: 28:30. Here's another historical documentary from Mary Borten, from the series "A Sense of Place." The piece focuses on the conflict between two 17th century North American colonial antagonists: "In their own words, Governor Bradford of Plymouth Colony and adventurer Thomas Morton tell the story of a clash that destroyed one man and symbolized fateful differences that determined our attitudes toward Native Americans and the ultimate course of the nation. This long-forgotten conflict between the Pilgrim Fathers and a freethinking fur trader resonates with today's moral concerns. Marvelous voices, the men's own vivid narrative and evocative music make this footnote to history as fresh as tomorrow." Segment 2: "Arthur Garfield Hays on McCarthyism (1951)." Real Media. MP3. Time: 4:03 Arthur Garfield Hays (1881-1954) had a dual personality. He was perhaps best known for his decades-long work for the American Civil Liberties Union (he was a founding member). But he was also a wealthy corporate attorney, which perhaps provided him the resources to take on many pro-bono cases. Among the many cases Hays was involved with were the Tennessee Scopes Trial (1925), related to the issue of prohibitions on the teaching of evolution; the Sacco and Vanzetti Case; and the 1933 defense of members of the Communist party in Germany accused of setting th Reichstag Fire. Segment 3: "Racial Cleansing in America (2007)." Real Media. MP3. Time: 19:45 From Duke University's Center for Documentary Studies, we present this short examination of racial expulsion in America: "Once in awhile you come across an American town or county that has long been virtually all-white, even though surrounding communities have substantial black populations. It may not always be an accident. In the six decades after the Civil War, in more than a few rural communities, white mobs violently expelled virtually all of their black neighbors. A new book, Buried in the Bitter Waters, describes a dozen of these racial expulsions. Among the places living with this uneasy history is Corbin, Kentucky, a small railroad town in the Appalachian foothills." Segment 1 and 3: "Working with Studs [Terkel]" (2010). PART 1: Real Media. | MP3 unavailable by producer request. Time: 13:27 PART 2: Real Media. | MP3 unavailable by producer request. Time: 26:27 From Transom.org, we present this intimate portrait of oral historian Studs Terkel: "For many years, Transom editor, Sydney Lewis, worked side by side with Studs on his radio show and his books. For this remembrance, told in a seamless blend of doumentary and reminiscence, she brings together of crew of Stud's co-workers with their great stories along with wonderful previously-unheard tape of Studs himself." Segment 2: "Jane Addams on the Evils of Prostitution (1912)." Real Media. MP3. Time: 6:43 Here is a reading (from www.librivox.org) of chapter 1, "As Inferred from an Analogy," of Jane Addams' A New Conscience and an Ancient Evil, a treatise on prostitution. The various chapters of the book first appeared in McClure's magazine. The full 1912 text is available at Google books; go to books.google.com and search for the book title.
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