Segment 1: From the Archives: Freedom's People, 1941-42. "The Negro and Christian Democracy." (Final Broadcast, April 19, 1942).
MP3. Time: 29:10
This is the final broadcast of "Freedom's People" (1941-42), an 8-part series produced by the Federal Radio Education Committee in the U.S. Office of Education and broadcast over the NBC network. It was the first major radio series focusing on African-American life, culture, and history. For the first broadcast in the series, and for more information on Freedom's People in general, go to the Talking History program listing for October 2, 2003.

Segment 2: From the Archives: Pres. Harry S. Truman Reporting on the Potsdam Conference of July-August, 1945.
MP3. Time: 25:32
President Harry S. Truman reports to the nation on the results of the Potsdam Conference in this August 9, 1945 broadcast. At the Conference (held from July 17 to August 2, 1945) the Big Three Allied powers -- the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union -- met to finalize and begin implementation of agreements reached at Yalta earlier that year. Harry Truman, Churchill (and later the newly-elected British Prime Minister Clement Attlee), and Joseph Stalin agreed to divide postwar Germany into four occupation zones, administered by Britain, France, the United States and the Soviet Union. They settled issues of reparations, discussed the reconstruction and reorganization of Germany, and called for Japan to surrender or risk total destruction. For information on this particular 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.

Segment 3: "Gettysburg in Public Memory."
MP3. Time: 16:17
Talking History's Jim Madison interviews Jim Weeks, author of Gettysburg: Memory, Market and an American Shrine, about the Battle of Gettysburg and its changing role in public memory. Produced: November, 2003.

November 27, 2003
Segment 1: Lawrence Wittner on the Struggle Against the Bomb (part 2).
MP3. Time: 24:25
Part 2 of an interview of Prof. Lawrence Wittner, conducted in early September, 2003, by Alan Chartock for WAMC-FM in Albany, New York. See last week for more details on the interview and Prof. Wittner.

Segment 2: From the Archives: George Washington's Declaration of Thanksgiving as a National Holiday (October 3, 1789).
OFF SITE LINK.
On October 3rd, 1789, George Washington became the first president to proclaim a national day of Thanksgiving -- with these words: "I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be." Here, in this PBS Web site, Larry Arnn reads from Washington's original declaration: http://www.pbs.org/georgewashington/multimedia/arnn/thanksgiving.html.

Segment 3: "Jefferson, Empire, and the Louisiana Purchase."
MP3. Time: 20:53
Talking History/OAH's Bryan Le Beau discusses Jefferson's agrarian vision and the Louisiana Purchase with Roger Kennedy, director emeritus of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History and author of Mr. Jefferson's Lost Cause: Land, Farmers, Slavery and the Louisiana Purchase (Oxford University Press, 2003). Also, historian James Banner offers a commentary on the American empire and the Louisiana Purchase. Produced: November, 2003.

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November 20, 2003
Segment 1: Lawrence Wittner on the Struggle Against the Bomb (part 1).
MP3. Time: 33:04
In early September, 2003, Prof. Lawrence Wittner was interviewed by Alan Chartock for WAMC-FM about his recently completed historical trilogy on the world anti-nuclear weapons movement. Below is part 1 of that interview; part 2 will be aired next week. Our thanks to Chartock and WAMC for permission to air this interview.
Lawrence Wittner was born in 1941 in Brooklyn, New York. He attended Columbia College, the University of Wisconsin, and Columbia University, where he received his Ph.D. in History in 1967. Since then he has taught at Hampton Institute, at Vassar College, at Japanese universities (under the Fulbright program), and at the State University of New York/Albany, where he is currently Professor of History. A former president of the Council on Peace Research in History (now the Peace History Society), he has written extensively on the history of peace movements and on the history of United States foreign policy. He has received major fellowships or grants from the American Council of Learned Societies, the MacArthur Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the United States Institute of Peace. His books include Rebels Against War (1969, rev. ed. 1984), Cold War America (1974, rev. ed. 1978), and American Intervention in Greece (1982). His most extensive project has been a scholarly trilogy entitled The Struggle Against the Bomb, a history of the world nuclear disarmament movement. The first volume, One World or None, was published in 1993 by Stanford University Press and was awarded the Warren Kuehl Prize of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations as the outstanding book on the history of internationalism and/or peace movements. The second volume, Resisting the Bomb, was published by Stanford in 1997. The third volume, Toward Nuclear Abolition, appeared in August 2003. He has also edited three other books and written more than a hundred articles and book reviews. .

Segment 2: From the Archives: John F. Kennedy on the Limited Test Ban Treaty (July 26, 1963).
MP3. Time: 29:19
John F. Kennedy's radio and television address before the American people on the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty was delivered by Kennedy on July 26, 1963. The Soviet Union and the US had restarted nuclear testing, including atmospheric testing, in 1961. Heavy radiation levels in the atmosphere and a concern about escalation of testing beyong control led to the signing of this treaty. For a transcript of this speech, go to the John F. Kennedy Library Web site: http://www.cs.umb.edu/jfklibrary/speeches.htm. For more information on the Limited Test Ban Treaty of 1963, go to the National Security Archives site: http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB94/index.htm.

Segment 3: "Robert Dallek on John F. Kennedy."
MP3. Time: 19:12
Talking History/OAH's Bryan Le Beau discusses the life of John F. Kennedy with Robert Dallek, Professor of History at Boston University and author of John F. Kennedy: An Unfinished Life. Produced: November 2003.

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November 13, 2003
Segment 1: "The Vietnam Tapes of Lance Corporal Michael A. Baronowski."
MP3 Unavailable. Time: 22:18
"In 1966, a 19 year-old marine took a reel-to-reel tape recorder with him into the Vietnam War. For two months, until he was killed in action, Michael Baronowski made 3-inch open reel tapes of his friends, of life in foxholes, of combat. Thirty-four years later, his friend and comrade Tim Duffe found those tapes." Produced by Christina Egloff with Jay Allison for the series Lost & Found Sound http://www.npr.org/programs/lnfsound/stories/000421.credits.html> and aired on NPR's All Things Considered in 2000. For a transcript of this documentary, go to: http://www.americanradioworks.org/features/vietnam/us/baronowski.html>.

Segment 2: From the Archives: Senator Joseph McCarthy Responds to and Criticizes Pres. Harry S. Truman in a Lincoln, Nebraska Speech (August 24, 1951).
MP3. Time: 14:19
Senator Joseph McCarthy replies to a speech made by Pres. Harry S. Truman before the American Legion on August 14, 1951. McCarthy spoke in Lincoln, Nebraska on August 24, 1951. For more information on this 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.

Segment 3: "American Soldiers in the Pacific and Asia in World War II."
MP3. Time: 15:43
Talking History/OAH's Jim Madison discusses the experiences of American soldiers in Asia and the Pacific during WWII with Peter Schrijvers, author of The GI War Against Japan: American Soldiers in Asia and the Pacific During World War II (New York University Press, 2002) and The Crash of Ruin: American Combat Soldiers in Europe during World War II (New York University Press, 2001). Produced: November 2003.

Segment 4: Comment ~ Harvey Shapiro on Poets of World War II.
MP3. Time: 6:42
Harvey Shapiro comments on the poetry of WWII. Shapiro is the editor of a recent anthology, Poets of World War II (Library of America, 2003). Harvey Shapiro flew thirty-five missions as an Air Force radio gunner during World War II and was decorated for his service. He has served as editor of the The New York Times Book Review and The New York Times Magazine and has published a number of books of poetry, including National Cold Storage Company (1988) and How Charlie Shavers Died and Other Poems. From Talking History/OAH. Produced: November, 2003.  

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November 6, 2003
Segment 1: "Caligula: Emperor of Rome."
MP3. Time: 18:12
Eileen Dugan completes Talking History/OAH's three-part examination of prominent men and women of the ancient world with historian Anthony Barrett, exploring the life of the notorius and bloody emperor Caligula. Caligula, born in A.D. 12, was the son of Germanicus and Agrippina (and the great-grandson of Augustus and Livia). He became a notorius and much-hated tyrant, and was murdered in 41 B.C. Barrett is the author several books on Ancient Rome, including Agrippina: Sex, Power, and Politics in the Early Empire (Yale Univ. Press, 1999). Produced: October 2003.

Segment 2: From the Archives: Chinese Aggression in Korea Condemned by the US in the UN (January 18, 1951).
MP3. Time: 6:08
The US representative to the UN condemned Chinese and Korean aggression in Korea on January 18, 1951 -- just after the success of a major North Korean offensive and the refusal of North Korea to accept a cease fire offer from the UN. For more information on this audio, 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. This particular recording came from Record Group 306: Records of the U.S. Information Agency, 1900 - 1988.

Segment 3: From the Archives: Eisenhower Condemns Truman Administration's Korean War Policy in a Campaign Speech (Detroit, Michigan, October 24, 1952).
MP3. Time: 29:17
This is a recording of a campaign speech made by General Dwight D. Eisnehower on October 24, 1952. In it, he condemns the Democrats and the Truman Administration for their mishandling of the Korean War and promises to go to Korea if he should win -- and bring the war to a quick conclusion. For information on this particular 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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October 30, 2003
Segment 1: From the Archives: Women in the Making of America ~ Women in Politics and Government.
MP3. Time: 29:31
The New Deal introduced a new role for government in the U.S. Agencies such as the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Works Progress Administration (WPA) were established to provide employment opportunities for hundreds of thousands of Americans. The Federal Theatre Project (FTP), a division of the WPA, employed actors, directors and technicians; the Federal Radio Division, a unit of the FTP, was established to foster "culture and education, through various radio series, across the United States." It's first broadcast took place on March 15, 1936, and it continued to produce radio series until June of 1939. During the three years of its existence, the Radio Division aired around 80 series, and produced approximately 2000 programs a year. Women were an important presence in the division; they worked in almost every capacity, as program hosts, scriptwriters, announcers, and actors. Among the women who worked for the Radio Division was Eva vom Baur Hansl (1889-1978), who produced two major series for the Division. Collaborating with scriptwriter Jane Ashman, the two women produced Women in the Making of America (1939), one of the earliest radio documentary series to examine women's history from a feminist perspective. The series argued -- as the single program offered here illustrates -- that women have and should play important roles in American civil and public life, as well as in all spheres of culture and society.
Hansl was a writer, editor, and radio broadcaster who dedicated herself throughout her life to women's vocational issues. In one of her autobiographical writings, penned in the mid-1960, she looked back at her journalistic and radio career: "Much of my lifetime I have devoted to promoting the interest, activities and welfare of women, in the family, the community and the labor force. In the midst of the feminist and suffrage movements (1911-16) I reported their progress for the New York Tribune and the Sun. During the years of raising a family I pioneered in the parent-education movement; helped to launch the Parents' Magazine, served as its first editor and organized play-schools and parent study groups in Princeton and Summit, New Jersey, and in Greenwich, Connecticut. My children grown, I returned to newspaper work on the New York Times, then supervised two radio network series reviewing the contribution of women to the American way of life." Hansl's career spanned three generations of feminism; in 1963 she published "American Women," a report about John F. Kennedy's Commission on the Status of Women. The Commission helped feed one of the most vital waves of American feminism later that decade.
More information about the Federal Theater Project can be found at the Library of Congress' American Memory Web site: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/fedtp/fthome.html and at http://fsweb.wm.edu/amst370/2001/sp4/ftp.html. Information about Women in the Making of America and about Eva Hansl is available in the archives of Syracuse University and Smith College (both have collections of her papers), as well as in the Library of Congress (which holds all of the surviving scripts of the Radio Division). Surviving recordings of programs are available at the Library of Congress and at the National Archives' Motion Picture, Sound, and Video Records LICON, Special Media Archives Services Division, College Park, MD. This particular recording came from the National Archives' collection.

Segment 2: From the Archives: Charles A. Lindbergh and America First (May 23, 1941).
MP3. Time: 22:42
This is a recording of a speech made by Charles Lindbergh on May 23, 1941 at an American First rally in Madison Square Garden. The America First Committee, in which Lindbergh was quite active, was founded in September of 1940. It grew quickly to become one of the nation's most vocal and powerful isolationist groups, drawing a membership which surpassed 800,000. The organization used print publicity, rallies, and radio (it purchased blocks of time on network stations) to influence public opinion against US involvement in the European war. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, America First quickly disbanded.
For more information on Charles A. Lindbergh and America First, see Wayne S. Cole, Charles A. Lindbergh and the Battle Against American Intervention in World War II (Harcourt, 1974); A. Scott Berg, Lindbergh (Putnam Pub. Group, 1998); and http://www.charleslindbergh.com/americanfirst/index.asp.
For information on this partricular 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.

Segment 3: "Agrippa: Mother of Nero"
MP3. Time: 17:00
Eileen Dugan continues Talking History/OAH's three-part examination of prominent men and women of ancient Rome with Anthony Barrett, exploring the life of Agrippina, mother of Nero. Barrett is the author of Agrippina: Sex, Power, and Politics in the Early Empire (Yale Univ. Press, 1999). Produced: October 2003.  

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October 23, 2003
Segment 1: "Livia: Mother of Nero"
MP3. Time: 19:35
Talking History's Eileen Dugan begins a three-part series exploring the lives of prominent men and women of ancient Rome. Dugan and her guest, historian Anthony Barrett, examine the life of Livia, wife of the emperor Augustus. Barrett is Professor of History at the University of British Columbia and author of Livia: First Imperial Lady of Rome.

Segment 2: From the Archives ~ WWII Nazi Shortwave Propaganda (1940-1945).
MP3. Time: 12:09
This is a selection of Nazi shortwave propaganda radio broadcasts from 1940-1945, including boradcasts by William Joyce ("Lord Haw Haw") and 'Lancer' (Norman Baillie-Stewart). Propaganda was central tool of the Nazis during WWII. Hitler had blamed the demoralization of the German people and the ultimate defeat of Germany in World War I in part on the allies' effective utilization of propaganda. When he came into power, he was determined to create a propaganda machine that would build support for his regime and that would also counter and surpass any that would be used against Germany in the future.
Throughout the late 1930s and during WWII, German propaganda was produced under the auspices of the Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda ("Promi"), under the tight supervision of Dr. Joseph Goebbels who took charge of this ministry shortly after Hitler took power in 1933. The ministry was organized into several subordinate units: press, fine arts, music, theater, film, literature, and radio. Shortwave radio broadcasts were under the control of the Rundfunk Ausland (Foreign Radio Section), and were regarded as a vital element of Nazi propaganda. According to one source, "German shortwave hours were increased from two hours a day to 118 per day, and eventually twelve languages were broadcast on a 24 hour basis, including English. A 100 kilowatt transmitter and antenna complex was built at Zeesen, a suburb of Berlin. Specialty target programming to the United States began in 1933, to South Africa, South America, and East Asia in 1934, and South Asia and Central America in 1938. Mediumwave transmitters on the periphery of the Third Reich provided specialty programs to listeners in neighboring countries. Nevertheless, the Germans always had a problem staffing their foreign services with announcers who were both technically competent and loyal to Nazi ideas. Several announcers who became well-known in their countries included British Union of Fascists member William Joyce, who was one of the two "Lord Haw-Haw"s; Frenchmen Paul Ferdonnet and Andre Olbrecht, called 'the traitors of [Radio] Stuttgart'; and Americans Frederick William Kaltenbach, 'Lord Hee-Haw', and Mildred Gillars, one of the two announcers called 'Axis Sally'." [See International Broadcasting at Wikipedia Encyclopedia (www.wikpedia.org) for more details on German Propaganda. Also see M. R. Doherty, Nazi Wireless Propaganda: Lord Haw-Haw and British Public Opinion in the Second World War (Edinburgh University Press, 2000) and Doherty's bibliography at the end of his monograph for more details on Nazi radio propaganda efforts during World War II.]
A number of archival recordings of Nazi World War II radio broadcasts have survived in various archives around the worlds. For more information on these particular recordings contact Talking History/University at Albany, the BBC Sound Archive (http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/sound.html), which has a very extensive collection of these broadcasts, or the National Archives' Motion Picture, Sound, and Video Records LICON, Special Media Archives Services Division, College Park, MD. There are also many on-line sources for Nazi propaganda broadcasts. Selections of William Joyce's propaganda broadcasts, for example, are available on the WWW at http://www.earthstation1.com/Lord_Haw_Haw.html.

Segment 3: From the Archives ~ Father Charles E. Coughlin (Selection of his April 11, 1937 Broadcast).
MP3. Time: 18:51
Father Charles E Coughlin (1891-1979) was one of the most influential personalities on American radio in the 1930s. At the height of his career as a "radio priest" -- in the early 1930s -- he had more than 30 million listeners. This is a long excerpt from one of his broadcasts, from April 11, 1937. Coughlin was "a champion of the poor, a foe of big business, and a critic of federal indifference in the face of widespread economic distress, he spoke to the hopes and fears of lower-middle class Americans throughout the country." Born into a devoutly religious Catholic family on October 25, 1891, Coughlin grew up in a comfortable middle-class home in Toronto. He was ordained into the Catholic priesthood in 1916. By 1926, Coughlin had made a strong impression on the bishop of Detroit, who authorized him to build the Shrine of the Little Flower. Typical of Coughlin's dramatic excesses, the church he constructed, which was intended to serve a small parish of some two dozen families, could seat about 600. For pews Coughlin installed theater seats. In 1927 Coughlin offered the first Catholic services on the radio. They were an immediate success. Part of Coughlin's appeal can be credited to his understanding of what the American public wanted to hear, but many attributed his popularity in part to the sound of his mellifluous voice. Writer Wallace Stegner described it as a "voice of such mellow richness, such manly, heart-warming confidential intimacy, such emotional and ingratiating charm, that anyone tuning past it almost automatically returned to hear it again." In the fall of 1930, CBS picked up Coughlin's radio show, broadcasting it over a national network for the first time. The priest began receiving approximately 80,000 letters a week. In the 1932 presidential election campaign, Coughlin was a staunch supporter of FDR, avowing that it was either "Roosevelt or Ruin." For Coughlin, the highlight of the campaign was an invitation to speak at the Democratic National Convention. Although FDR had borrowed some of Coughlin's rhetoric, after his election victory, he moved to distance himself from the radio priest. Coughlin grew more critical of the Roosevelt Administration. In November of 1934, Coughlin set up his own organization, the National Union for Social Justice. Two years later he began publishing a nationally circulating paper called "Social Justice" and, as his public identification with Roosevelt's New Deal politics waned, he began to seek closer grounds with some of the most right-wing and reactionary groups in the country. Although anti-Semitic themes appeared in some of Coughlin's speeches fairly early in his career, it wasn't until the late 1930s that the priest's rhetoric became increasingly filled with attacks on Jews. By 1938, the pages of "Social Justice" were frequently filled with accusations about Jewish control of America's financial institutions. In the summer of that year, Coughlin published a version of "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion." A virulently anti-Semitic piece of propaganda that had originated in Russia at the turn of the century, the "Protocols" accused Jews of planning to seize control of the world. Jewish leaders were shocked by Coughlin's actions. Later that year, the radio priest delivered perhaps his most startling and hateful speech to date. In response to the November 10, 1938, "Kristallnacht" attack on Jews in German-controlled territory, Coughlin began by asking, "Why is there persecution in Germany today?" He went on to explain that "Jewish persecution only followed after Christians first were persecuted." The owner of WMCA, the New York station that carried Coughlin's show, refused to broadcast Coughlin's next radio message. The Nazi press reacted to the news with fury: "America is Not Allowed to Hear the Truth" declared one headline. "Jewish organizations camouflaged as American...have conducted such a campaign...that the radio station company has proceeded to muzzle the well-loved Father Coughlin." A "New York Times" correspondent in Germany noted that Coughlin had become for the moment "the hero of Nazi Germany." Coughlin's political influence diminished drastically after the United States entered World War II. In April 1942, Attorney General Francis Biddle ordered a federal grand jury investigation of "Social Justice" because of its apparently pro-Axis propaganda. Three weeks later, the U.S. Post Office suspended the publication's second class mailing privilege, and after years of trying to prevent Coughlin from publishing his anti-Semitic attacks, the Archbishop of Detroit Edward Mooney successfully forbade the priest from having any ties with "Social Justice" or "with any other publication." After the silencing, Coughlin continued to preach at the Shrine of the Little Flower, but by the time he died in 1979 at the age of 88, the media was giving him very little attention. In the years since, some extreme right-wing organizations have begun to grant Coughlin the status of an elder statesman. In the early '90s, one anti-black, anti-Semitic tabloid dedicated an entire edition to excerpts of the priest's writings and speeches."[Source: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/holocaust/peopleevents/pandeAMEX96.html]. For more information about Coughlin and his radio broadcasts, see Donald Warren, Radio Priest: Charles Coughlin, the Father of Hate Radio (Free Press, 1996). For more information on this particular 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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October 16, 2003
Segment 1: "Howard Blue on World War II Radio Dramas and the Post-War Blacklist. (Part 2 of 2)"
MP3. Time: 28:03
Continued from part 1; see last week's description below.

Segment 2: From the Archives ~ The Resettlement Administration's The Homestead Act (1936).
MP3. Time: 14:41
The Resettlement Administration (RA)--later absorbed into the Farm Security Administration--was established in 1935 as one of the New Deal's many alphabet agencies. Its first director, Rexford G. Tugwell, had been a professor of Economics at Columbia University (a specialist in agricultural economics) and one of FDR's closest advisers. The RA granted low-cost loans and assistance to poor farmers and sharecroppers, worked to resettle migrant farmers and farm workers and provided them with temporary housing, sought to restore and bring under cultivation eroded land, and implemented flood protection measures throughout the nation. In addition to all of these measures, it also established a unique division, the Information Division, charged with informing the public about, and promoting, government aqricultural reforms. Within the RA, a sub-department was soon formed, the Historical Section, which was charged with providing photographic and sociological documentation of the work of the RA. Besides the now-famous collections of photographs collected by its staff--which included Arthur Rothstein, Carl Mydans, Walker Evans, Ben Shahn, and Dorothea Lange--the Historical Section worked with a radio division to produce radio documentaries and features promoting and publicizing the work of the Administration and offering historical perspectives on many of the problems the agency was created to address. Around three dozen radio programs produced by the Section survive in the National Archives. This is one of them, originally produced in 1936. It focuses on the legacy of the Homestead Act of 1862 and utilizes dramatic documentary techniques--including the use of actors and recreations. For more information on this particular 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.

Segment 3: From the Archives ~ Mohandas Gandhi (1865-1948): My Spiritual Message (1931).
MP3. Time: 5:28
Mohandas Gandhi, also known as Mahatma ('Great-Souled'), was the leader of the Indian nationalist movement against British rule. He is widely remembered now as the 20th century's quintessential practitioner and advocate of the doctrine of non-violent protest to achieve political and social justice. This is a selection from a recording made of him in 1931 in London, while he was attending the Round Table Conference as the representative of the Indian National Congress. The tape from which this copy was made dated this talk to 1925. Other sources suggested 1928 as the date. It was only when we researched the BBC archive that we discovered that Gandhi delivered this speech on October 17, 1931 in Kinglsey Hall, London. It was apparently transcribed onto a 78 LP record; how many copies of the original have survived is unknown.  

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October 9, 2003
Segment 1: "Howard Blue on World War II Radio Dramas and the Post-War Blacklist. (Part 1 of 2)"
MP3. Time: 30:36
Most of us know something about World War II and about the use of propaganda during World War II, but how many of us know about the important role radio and radio drama played during the War? Such radio programs as An American in Britain, Cavalcade of America, Chaplain Jim, The Free Company, Lux Radio Theatre, New World A 'Comin, An Open Letter on Racism, Passport for Adam, This Is War, This Is Our Enemy, Uncle Sam and many other shows were central elements in a widespread campaign to buttress domestic loyalty and to sway American hearts and minds during the War. Besides buttressing home front morale, these programs also challenged Americans' racial, ethnic, and gender prejudices. This was not surprising in light of the fact that many of the radio writers and actors involved in these shows were liberals, progressives, and generally associated with the American Left. Their association with Left-wing causes and groups-including the Communist party in some cases-was not overly problematic to station managers, sponsors, and Federal government officials during the War, when the Soviet Union was an ally. But the story changes dramatically after the surrender of Japan the defeat of Germany. The radio blacklist began, and progressive radio personalities soon found themselves targeted by networks, the government, and fellow right-wing actors and writers. This is the story that Talking History's Gerald Zahavi and author Howard Blue explore in this 2-part interview (part 2 will air next week). Blue is the author of Words at War: World War II Era Radio Drama and the Postwar Broadcasting Industry Blacklist (Scarecrow Press, 2002). Produced: October 2003; original interview date: May 14, 2003.

Segment 2: From the Archives ~ Norman Corwin's America at War (Opening broadcast of the series This is War!).
MP3. Time: 27:34
This is War! was a thirteen-series produced under the auspices of the Office of Facts and Figures (OFF), a propaganda agency created in 1942 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and headed by Archibald MacLeish (then serving as the Librarian of Congress). The series was created to present the fundamental issues of World War II to Americans; it was aired on all four major radio networks. Norman Corwin was selected to kick of the series, and in fact produced six out of its thirteen segments. The specific show presented here, America at War, was the first program in the series and featured Robert Montgomery as the narrator and included the Almanac Singers, with Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie, singing "Round and Round Hitler's Grave." It was aired on February 14, 1942 -- Valentine's Day. This is War! was considered radio's first all-out effort at wartime domestic propaganda. .  

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October 2, 2003
Segment 1: "The Crash of 1929."
MP3. Time: 18:22
OAH Talking History�s Fred Nielson, of the University of Nebraska, revisits the October 1929 stock market crash which ushered in the Great Depression. His guest is Prof. Maury Klein of the Department of History of the University of Rhode Island, author of the recently published Rainbow's End: The Crash of 1929 (Oxford University Press, 2003). Produced: October 2003. Listen Now: MP3 Format (Coming Soon!) Commentary: Lewis Gould will join us to point out what he believes is wrong with the American presidency and how we might fix it.

Segment 2: "Lewis Gould on the 22nd Amendment."
MP3. Time: 3:16.
From Talking History/OAH. Lewis Gould comments on the limitations of the 22nd Amendment and how it weakens both democracy and the presidency. Produced: October 2003.

Segment 3: From the Archives ~ The Words and Music of Bayard Rustin, 1940s and 1963.
OFF SITE LINK: Real Media Resources - PBS Web Site.
Bayard Rustin was one of the outstanding civil rights leaders in 20th century America. Ostracized for his associations with the Communist party in his early days, as well as for his homosexuality, he was nevertheless able to maintain an incredibly effective career as a tireless civil rights activist. He was a persistent and consistent defender of non-violent resistance--as a philosophy and a tactic. Active in the 1940s March on Washington Movement, working with A. Philip Randolph, he played a major role again as one of the primary organizers of the 1963 March on Washington, one of the largest nonviolent protests ever held in the United States. In 2003, POV and PBS broadcast the documentary Brother Outsider (2003). In the course of the film, the producers collected a variety of old recordings of Rustin. This Web site contains a sampling of them. For more information on the film follow the above links, or go to www.rustin.org.

Segment 4: From the Archives ~ "Freedom's People, 1941-42 (Opening Broadcast: Music)."
MP3. Time: 29:08
"Freedom's People" (1941-42), an 8-part series produced by the Federal Radio Education Committee in the U.S. Office of Education and broadcast over the NBC network, was the first major radio series focusing on African-American life, culture, and history. Its stated goal was to "promote national unity and better race relations." The brainchild of Dr. Ambrose Caliver, a specialist in Negro education within the Department of Education, the program enlisted a wide variety of African American intellectuals, musicians, and actors -- including E. Franklin Frazier, Sterling A. Brown, Joe Louis, A. Philip Randolph, Fats Waller, Jesse Owens, Cab Calloway, Josh White, and Paul Robeson.
This is the first broadcast in the series, aired in September of 1941. The series included all of the following segments: "Music" (Sept. 21, 1941); "Science and Discover" (October 19, 1941); "Sports" (November 23, 1941); "Military Service" (December 21, 1941); "The Negro Worker" (January 18, 1942); "The Education of the Negro" (February 15, 1942); "Creative Art" (March 15, 1942); "The Negro and Christian Democracy" (April 19, 1942).
For more information on the incredible career of Dr. Caliver and his contributions to black radio and black education, and for more specific information on "Freedom's People" see: chapter 2 of William Barlow, Voice over: The Making of Black Radio (Temple Univ. Press, 1998); Walter Daniel, Ambrose Caliver: Adult Educator and Civil Servant (Syracuse University, 1966); and Barbara Dianne Savage, Broadcasting Freedom: Radio, War, and the Politics of Race, 1938-1948 (Univ. of North Carolina Press, 1999). For information on this particular 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. Additional recordings of "Freedom's People" have survived in various archives. There are a number at the Recorded Sound Division of the Library of Congress as well as in the National Archives. We are collecting as many as we can locate and will bring you other segments in future broadcasts of Talking History.  

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September 25, 2003
Segment 1: "Alfred Kinsey and the Kinsey Report."
MP3. Time: 15:56.
OAH Talking History�s Jim Madison explores the historical significance of Alfred Kinsey and the Kinsey Report with John Bancroft, Director of the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction at Indiana University, Bloomington. Produced: September, 2003.

Segment 2: "Alan Gallay on the Indian Slave Trade."
MP3. Time: 3:22.
From Talking History/OAH. Alan Gallay, Professor of History at Western Washington University and author of The Indian Slave Trade: The Rise of the English Empire in the American South, 1670-1717 (Yale University Press, 2002), comments on the Indian Slave Trade. Produced: September, 2003.

Segment 3: From the BBC Archives ~ Ezra Pound on Bureaucracy, 1958.
OFF SITE LINK (BBC ARCHIVE): Real Media. Time: 7:10
A recording of Ezra Pound's talk called "The Four Steps," outlining his antipathy towards all forms of bureaucracy and attempting to explain his WWI pro-fascist broadcasts from Rome. Aired on BBC on June 21, 1958.
Idaho-born poet Ezra Pound served as an important propagandist on behalf of Benito Mussolini during World War II, making hundreds of pro-Fascist broadcasts to the United States between 1941 and 1943 from Rome. For this, he was arrested in 1945 in the United States and temporarily imprisoned in a camp for army criminals and later confined for a dozen years in a hospital for the criminally insane. In 1958, after his release, he returned to Italy. He died in Venice in 1972. This recording was made soon after his departure from the US. For more information on Pound and this broadcast, go to the BBC's on-line archive, at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/audiointerviews/profilepages/pounde1.shtml. Our thanks to the BBC for providing open access to its audio archives to the general public. In the coming years thousands of hours of rare and intellectually valuable BBC recordings will be posted on the BBC site. We tip our hats to them.

Segment 4: From the Archives ~ "This is Our Enemy: Nazi Youth." 1942.
MP3. Time: 27:17
This recording is part of over 1,000 radio broadcasts made between 1941-46 concerning the war effort on the US home front. "This is Our Enemy" was one of several series produced by the Office of War Information in collaboration with WOR and the Mutual Broadcasting Network (these included "Soldiers of Production," "Three-Thirds of a Nation," "Neighborhood Call," "Hasten the Day," "Victory Front" and several others). It featured dramatic and personal stories about America's enemies during World War II. In this episode, #55 of the series, "a young boy leaves his family [in occupied Europe] to study in Germany and while there, is converted to a Hitlerite. He returns home, a changed person, and problems develop between" the son and his father. The young man's loyalty to Nazism leads to his betrayal of his father's friends and ultimately to the father's murder of his own son. Starring Frank Gallup, Frank Lovejoy, Bill Lipton, Charlotte Holland, Ed Latimer, Stephen Schnabel, Danny Leone. Written by Dorothea Lewis and produced and directed by Frank Telford. Special Commentary by Van Cleve. For more information on this 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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September 18, 2003
Segment 1: "Khruschev."
MP3. Time: 27:56.
From Dialogue. George Liston Seay interviews William Taubman about the life and career of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. Taubman, an Amherst College political science professor, has recently completed a comprehensive and nuanced biography of Khrushchev, Khrushchev: The Man and His Era (W. W. Norton, 2002). Produced September 2003.

Segment 2: "From the Archives ~ FDR's Labor Day Message, September 6, 1942."
MP3. Time: 9:55
Selection from a radio broadcast distributed by the Office of War Information in 1942. The broadcast focuses on FDR's labor day speech of Sept. 6, 1942. It comes from Record Group 208, the Records of the Office of War Information, National Archives (Archives II). The emphasis in this broadcast is on labor's voluntary and loyal service during World War II in contrast to the Axis powers' reliance on coerced and slave labor. In its emphasis on labor loyalty, efficiency, and patriotism, the Office of War Information ignored (or perhaps tried to counter) the existence of labor militancy and strikes during World War II. For more information on this 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.

Segment 3: "Women, Rights, and American Citizenship."
MP3. Time: 16:50.
Talking History�s Fred Nielsen explores the history of women's rights and citizenship with historian Linda Kerber. Kerber is Professor of history at the University of Iowa and former president of the Organization of American Historians. Much of this discussion focuses on the theme of Kerber's most recent work, No Constitutional Right to Be Ladies: Women and the Obligations of Citizenship (Hill and Wang, 1998). Produced: September 2003.  

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September 11, 2003
Segment 1: "Sister Circle."
MP3. Time: 28:08.
From Dialogue. George Liston Seay interviews Sharon Harley, editor of Sister Circle: Black Women and Work (Rutgers Univ. Press, 2002) about black women and work in American history. Harley is Associate Professor in the Afro-American Studies Program at the University of Maryland, College Park. Produced September 2002.

Segment 2: "From the Archives ~ An Interview with Henry Wallace, December 28, 1951."
MP3. Time: 10:43
Former Sect. of Agriculture, Vice President, and 1948 Progressive Party presidential candidate Henry Wallace appeared on Longines' Chronoscope on December 28, 1951. This is a selection from that program. Participants in this segment include Henry A. Wallace, and interviewers Lt. Col. Ansel E. Talbert and William Bradford Huie. Topics include "critical areas of concern in the world, displaced Arabs in Middle East, economic 'peace' assistance, and federal spending." The Longines Chronoscope was a series of 15-minute TV interviews broadcast between 1951 and 1955.This recording (RG200-lw-409) comes from the National Archives (Archives II). For more information on this recording contact Talking History/University at Albany, or look through the online guide to the Longines collection at the National Archives: (Longines Collection).

Segment 3: "The Deaths of Nancy Beth Cruzan."
MP3. Time: 18:25.
Talking History�s Andrew S. Bergerson (U. of Missouri-Kansas City) interviews William H. Colby, author of Long Goodbye: The Deaths of Nancy Cruzan, about the case of Nancy Cruzan and its historical context. Nancy Beth Cruzan was a young Missouri women who was left in a persistent vegetative state by a serious car accident in 1983. Colby was the attorney who represented her parents in a now landmark legal case that helped redefine questions of life and death in physiological, legal, and ethical terms. Produced August 2003.  

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September 4, 2003
Segment 1: "Caf� Lena."
MP3. Time: 25:54.
Peter Bae put together this documentary about a famous coffee house and nationally recognized music venue in Saratoga Springs, New York, where many now famous folk singers performed long before they achieved fame. It's a historical tale and tribute to an important institution in the early history of the folk music revival of the 1960s, and its proprietor--and now deceased founder--Lena Spencer. Caff� Lena was one of earliest venues to provide a stage for Bob Dylan on his initial tour; it was where Arlo Guthrie, Nancy Griffith, Dave Van Ronk, and many others found a home in the early years of their careers, and where Don McLean first played American Pie. This piece was originally produced as a final project for History 530R, Producing Historical Documentaries for Broadcast and Internet Radio. Cafe Lena is still being revised; when the final version is completed, we will replace this version with the final one.

Segment 2: "From the Archives ~ J.A. Krug on Taking Over the Coal Fields in 1946."
MP3. Time: 13:06
President Truman's Secretary of the Interior, J. A. Krug, participates in a press conference about the federal government takeover of the Bituminous coal mines in May of 1946. The press conference was held on May 21, 1946. This recording (RG48-54) comes from Record Group 48 (Records of the Department of the Interior), housed in the National Archives (Archives II). For more information on this 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.

Segment 3: "Ken Burns's America."
MP3. Time: 18:50.
Talking History�s Eileen Dugan interviews Gary Edgerton, Professor of Communication and Film Studies at Old Dominion University and author of Ken Burns's America (Pelgrave, 2001), about the career and work of documentary filmmaker Ken Burns. Produced September 2003.  

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August 28, 2003
Segment 1: "Public Art and Modern Art."
MP3. Time: 27:30.
From Dialogue: "The current 'culture wars' in America combine aspects of political ideology and aesthetic taste. They also raise issues of class distinctions -- issues that have generally been overlooked or denied in American popular culture. Nowhere have these various influences mixed more violently than in the debate over public art � paintings and murals that adorn plazas and buildings throughout the nation. The argument intensified with the Kennedy administration's decision to use modernist art to make political and cultural statements. Casey Blake explains how that decision still resonates in disputes over the government's role in cultural activities today." At the time of this interview, in the mid-1990s, Prof. Casey N. Blake was Director of American Studies at Indiana University; he is now Director of American Studies at Columbia University.

Segment 2: "From the Archives ~ M.A.S.H. 8055
MP3. Time: 12:48
A reporter interviews medical technicians at a U.N. advanced surgical hospital on the 38th parallel in Korea. Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) unit 8055, whose medical personnel were interviewed on this tape, was the basis of the fictional Mash unit 4077, which was the subject of the film and television series "M*A*S*H." This recording, dated March 4, 1953, comes from R.G. 306, Records of the United States Information Agency (RG 306-25), housed at the National Archives (Archives II). For more information on this 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.

Segment 3: "Homespun."
MP3. Time: 15:36.
Talking History�s Fred Nielsen interviews Pulitzer Prize winning historian Laurel Ulrich Thatcher about her recent book, The Age of Homespun: Objects and Stories in the Creation of an American Myth. The two discuss the importance of women's domestic labor in American history, and the importance of commodities manufactured by women in the home: clothing, rugs, tablecloths, baskets, and more. Ulrich�s previous book, A Midwife�s Tale, received the Pulitzer Prize for history in 1991. Produced August 2003.  

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August 21, 2003
Segment 1: "The Medieval Cathars."
MP3. Time: 15:36.
Talking History's Eileen Dugan interviews journalist and translator Stephen O'Shea, author of The Perfect Heresy: The Revolutionary Life and Death of the Medieval Cathars (Walker & Co., 2001) about the Roman Catholic Church's crusade in the 13th century (between 1209 and 1229) against the Albigenses, or Cathars, a group of heretical Christians who resided in the Languedoc region of Southern France. Produced August, 2003.

Segment 2: "Michelangelo and the Sistine Chapel."
MP3. Time: 17:48
Eileen Dugan interviews Ross King, author of Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling (Walker & Co., 2003) about the story behind Michelangelo Buonarroti's painting of the Sistine Chapel in Rome. Produced August, 2003.

Segment 3: "From the Archives ~ Truman on Taft-Hartley
MP3. Time: 13:48
Selection from Pres. Harry S. Truman's explanation for his veto of the Taft-Hartley Bill. Delivered in June of 1947 and aired nationally on several radio networks. This recording comes from the media collection (RG200-tape 273) of the National Archives' Motion Picture, Sound, and Video Records LICON, Special Media Archives Services Division, College Park, MD.

Segment 4: "From the Archives ~ Stories of The Border Patrol (Episode 8 of a radio series about the work of the Border Patrol of the US Immigration Service)
MP3. Time: 13:48
This broadcast, probably from the 1940s, comes from a reel-to-reel tape (RG85-20a) housed at the National Archives (Archives II) in the media collection of Record Group 85, Records of the US Immigration and Naturalization Service. For more information on this 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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August 14, 2003
Segment 1: "About All That Jazz: One Man's Musical History (part 2)."
MP3. Time: 29:10.
Here is part 2 of "About All That Jazz," continued from last week's Dialogue segment: "There is no more intensely American art form than Jazz. Ever since Black Americans transformed African rhythms in the late 19th century, Jazz has marked and influenced decades of American history, socially and artistically. In this conversation Dr. Robert Litwak charts that history with a special emphasis on the Big Band era."

Segment 2: "Murder, Magic, and Madness at Chicago's Columbian Exposition of 1893."
MP3. Time: 14:44
Bryan Le Beau interviews Erik Larson, author of The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America (Crown, 2003), a book that explores the interconnected stories of Daniel H. Burnham, the architect responsible for the construction of Chicago's Columbian Exposition of 1893, and H.H. Holmes, a serial killer masquerading as a charming doctor. Produced: August, 2003.

Segment 3: "From the Archives ~ August 15, 1945 Voice of America Broadcast on Negotiations Leading to Japanese WWII Surrender."
MP3. Time: 2:45
August 15, 1945 broadcast of Voice of America news bulletin pertaining to negotiations leading to the Japanese WWII surrender. This broadcast comes from a reel-to-reel tape (RG208-156) housed at the National Archives (Archives II) in the media collection of Record Group 208. For more information on this 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.

Segment 4: "Comment: Cushing Strout on Fictionalizing History."
MP3. Time: 4:16
S. Cushing Strout Jr., Emiritus Profesor of American Studies at Cornell University, comments on the relationship between historical novels and history, and the value of fictionalized accounts of the past. Produced June 2003.  

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August 7, 2003
Segment 1: "About All That Jazz: One Man's Musical History (part 1)."
MP3. Time: 29:10.
Here is another contribution from George Liston Seay and Dialogue. "There is no more intensely American art form than Jazz. Ever since Black Americans transformed African rhythms in the late 19th century, Jazz has marked and influenced decades of American history, socially and artistically. In this conversation Dr. Robert Litwak charts that history with a special emphasis on the Big Band era."

Segment 2: "From the Archives ~ August 8, 1945 News Reports on the Bombing of Hiroshima."
MP3. Time: 7:46
Selections from August 8th CBS broadcasts pertaining to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on August 7, 1945. This broadcast comes from a reel-to-reel tape (RG200-690) housed at the National Archives (Archives II) in the media collection of Record Group 200. For more information on this 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.

Segment 3: "Cleopatra Revisited."
MP3. Time: 18:38.
Cleopatra, who died in 30 B.C., is the subject of this discussion between Talking History's Eileen Dugan and Susan Walker, of the British Museum's Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities. The discussion focuses on a recent major exhibition and catalog on Cleopatra which examines the ways the queen's image has changed from the Renaissance to the present.  

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July 31, 2003
Segment 1: "A History of the Rollercoaster."
MP3. Time: 12:55.
Eileen Dugan discusses the history of the rollercoaster and giant amusement park rides with David Lindsay, author of numerous works on US cultural and material history -- most recently, House of Invention: The Secret Life of Everyday Objects (Lyons Press, 2002). Produced: May 2003.

Segment 2: "Coney Island."
MP3. Time: 17:40
Matt Kennedy, the 86 year old employee of the Coney Island Chamber of Commerce, is one of many longtime and devoted Coney Island employees interviewed by Dave Isay in this historic audio tour of Brooklyn's famous shoreline amusement park. Isay and his interviewees recall Coney Island's glory days. Produced: 1990.

Segment 3: "From the Archives ~ Dillon S. Myer on the War Relocation Authority and the Relocation of Japanese-Americans During World War II."
MP3. Time: 13:24.
This radio broadcast, produced in 1943 by the War Relocation Authority, features the agency's director, Dillon S. Myer, explaining the work of the Authority during World War II. The Authority "formulated and executed a program for removal, relocation, maintenance, and supervision, in 10 interior relocation centers, of persons (principally of Japanese ancestry) excluded from military areas designated in accordance with EO 9066, February 19, 1942." After revocation by the Western Defense Command, on December 17, 1944, of the West Coast general exclusion order, effective January 2, 1945, the WRA was primarily involved in resettling Japanese-American internees. It was abolished in June 30, 1946, by Executive Order #9742. This broadcast comes from a reel-to-reel tape housed at the National Archives (Archives II) in the media collection of Record Group 210. For more information on this 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.

Segment 4: "Webster's Dictionary and the Development of American English."
MP3. Time: 17:57
This year marks the 175th anniversary of Webster's Dictionary of the American Language. In this segment, Fred Nielsen interviews Jill Le Pore, author of A is for American: Letters and Other Characters in the Newly United States (Vintage, 2003), about the history of the publication and to comment on its importance in the development of American English. Produced: April 2003.  

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July 24, 2003
Segment 1: "An Albany Ship for Ireland: Irish Famine Relief."
MP3. Time: 37:48.
Prof. Harvey Strum, Program Coordinator for Social Sciences and Social Studies, and Chair of the Liberal Studies Dept. at Sage College of Albany, has published articles on Irish famine relief in Brooklyn (New York Irish History, 1998), New York City (Seaport, Fall 2000), Illinois (Journal of State Historical Society of Ill, 2001), Rhode Island (Rhode Island History, 2002) and South Carolina (South Carolina Historical Magazine, 2002). Here he discusses Irish Famine relief in Albany, New York. In l847 there was a nationwide campaign of voluntary aid to the starving in Ireland and Scotland. Albany created a local committee and citizens, Catholics and Protestants, joined in raising funds to send provisions via the New York City Irish Relief Committee for distribution by the Society of Friends in Dublin. This effort eventually grew into a national campaign for Ireland and Scotland, with citizens across the country putting aside their political, ethnic, and religious differences as Free Blacks in Richmond, Jews in New York and Charleston, German Americans, and Choctaws and Cherokees contributed to what became the national campaign for Ireland and Scotland. Recorded in November of 2002 at the New York State Museum. Part of the Albany Heritage program of 2002.

Segment 2: "From the Archives: Elizabeth T. Bentley's HUAC Testimony" (selection).
MP3. Time: 03:50
In this selection from a 1948 HUAC hearing, Elizabeth Bentley, a courier for a Soviet spy ring (she was dubbed the "blond spy queen" by the media), testifies about some of the members of an underground espionage network which operated in Washington within the FDR administration. Bentley was also a major prosecution witness against Ethel and Julius Rosenberg. For more information about Elizabeth Bentley and the impact of her testimony on America's domestic Cold War, see Red Spy Queen: A Biography of Elizabeth Bentley (2002) by Kathryn S. Olmsted.

Segment 3: "Renaissance Cuisine ."
MP3. Time: 16:26.
Talking History's Andrew Bergerson interviews Ken Albala, author of Eating Right in the Renaissance. The two discuss the history of the idea of "eating right" -- particularly as it was manifested in the dietary practices of the Renaissance. Produced March 2003 by Talking History/OAH.  

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July 17, 2003
Segment 1: "Why Mencken Matters."
MP3. Time: 30:12.
Prof. Terry Teachout, author of The Skeptic : A Life of H. L. Mencken (HarperCollins, 2002), delivered this talk in his criticism class at Rutgers University-Newark. It was recorded and produced by Omid Farza, a student at Rutgers-Newark. Our thanks to Rob Snyder and Terry Teachout for helping make this production available to Talking History.

Segment 2: "From the Archives: Selection from 'The Epic of America' series (episode 11, "The Flag Outruns the Constitution"), Work Projects Administration Records."
MP3. Time: 6:37.
This now archival piece of audio was first produced and broadcast by the Work Projects Adminstration, a division of the Federal Works Agency (originally, the Works Progress Administration, or WPA). It was produced by the National Theater in collaboration with the American Legion Auxiliary and was aired by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and the Mutual Network. This is a selection from episode 11 of the docudrama production based on James T. Adams' The Epic of America (1933) and focuses on America's foreign policy at the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries. It comes from a reel-to-reel audio recording that is part of Record Group 69 (Records of the Work Projects Administration), currently stored at the National Archives and Records Administration, Archives II.

Segment 3: "Racial Borders: The Buffalo Soldiers."
MP3. Time: 17:47.
Talking History's Bryan Le Beau interviews James Leiker, author of Racial Borders: Black Soldiers Along the Rio Grande (Texas A&M University Press, 2002) about the hundreds of African American army soldiers stationed along the Texas-Mexico border in the post-Civil War era. They were engaged in a number of missions: protecting white communities, forcing Native Americans onto reservations, and breaking up labor disputes. Produced June 2003.  

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July 10, 2003
Segment 1: "'We the People': Bruce Cole, the NEH, and Teaching American History"
MP3. Time: 16:10.
Bruce Cole, head of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) discusses a new project undertaken by the NEH, "We the People," a Bush initiative intended to increase Americans' knowledge of their history. Produced April 2003

Segment 2: "From the Archives: 'This Was News: The Tom Mooney Case.' The WPA Looks at the Tom Mooney Case."
MP3. Time: 6:47.
This now archival piece of audio was first produced and broadcast by the Works Progress Administration's (WPA) Federal Theater, Radio Division on February 9, 1938. It comes from the National Archives and Records Administration, National Archives II, where we discovered it on a recent research trip. It is one of many archival audio pieces we will be featuring here in the coming months. The segment originally appeared on the "This Was News" dramatic series that was produced for broadcast by the WPA in the late 1930s. The series revolved around dramatic reconstructions of news stories from the past. This one is about the Tom Mooney case. For more details on the Mooney case, go to: www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAmooney.htm.

Segment 3: "Hunter Scott on the Sinking of the Indianapolis."
MP3. Time: 15:20.
On July 30, 1945, after completing a top secret mission to deliver parts of the atom bomb "Little Boy," which would be dropped on Hiroshima, the battle cruiser USS Indianapolis was torpedoed in the South Pacific by a Japanese submarine. Fred Nielsen talks to Hunter Scott, of Pensacola, Fla., who, at age 11, became interested in the Indianapolis after seeing a reference to it in the movie, Jaws. He began researching the story and interviewed survivors for a history fair project. As a result of his historical research, Scott helped transform our understanding of the events surrounding the sinking of the Indianapolis and also helped clear the name of the ship's captain, Capt. Charles Butler McVay, who had been court-martialed for contributing to the ship's destruction. Produced June 2003.

Segment 4: "Comment: Virginia Wexman on the film The Great Train Robbery."
MP3. Time: 4:08
This commentary by film historian Virginia Wexman, professor of English at the University of Illinois-Chicago, examines Edwin S. Porter's film The Great Train Robbery, whose 100th anniversary is celebrated this year. Produced June 2003.  

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July 3, 2003
Segment 1: "Mollie's Job: Deindustrialization in America."
MP3. Time: 30:21.
Talking History's Gerald Zahavi interviews journalist William Adler, the author of Mollie's Job: A Story of Life and Work on the Global Assembly Line (Scribner, 2000) and Land of Opportunity: One Family's Quest for the American Dream in the Age of Crack (Atlantic Monthly Press, 1995), about the human costs of globalization in post-World War II America. The discussion focuses mainly on Adler's Mollie's Job, a book that examines the human dramas behind the domestic and transnational migration of an electrical manufacturing company. The company's history is examined through the eyes of its founders, workers, politicians, union organizers, and corporate raiders who shaped its fate.

Segment 2: "Religion in American History."
MP3. Time: 18:31.
Fred Nielson interviews historian of religion Mark A. Noll about the role of religion in American history. Noll is the author of America's God: From Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln (Oxford Univ. Press, 2002), The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1995), and The Old Religion in a New World: The History of North American Christianity (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2001), Produced June 2003.  

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