TRANSCRIPTION (From http://memory.loc.gov): "Works which endure come from the soul of the people. The mighty in their pride walk alone to destruction. The humble walk hand in hand with providence to immortality. Their works survive.
When the people of the colonies were defending their liberties against the might of kings, they chose their banner from the design set in the firmament through all eternity. The flags of great empires of that day have gone, but the stars and stripes remain. It pictures a vision of a people whose eyes are turned to the rising dawn. It represents of the hope of a father for his posterity. It was never flaunted for the glory of royalty, but to be born under it is to be the child of a king, and to establish a home under it is to be the founder of a royal house. Alone of all flags, it expresses the sovereignty of the people which endures when all else passes away. Speaking with their voice, it has the sanctity of revelations. He who lives under it and disloyal to it is a traitor to the human race everywhere. What could be saved if the flag of the American nation were to perish?
America has many glories. The last one that she would wish to surrender is the glory of the men who have served her in war. While such devotion lives, the nation is secure. Whatever dangers may threaten from within or without, she can view them calmly. Turning to her veterans, she can say: "These are our defenders. They are invincible. In them is our safety."
After more than five years of the bitterest war in human experience, the last great stronghold of force surrendering to the demands of America and her allies agreed to cast aside the sword and live under the law. America decided that the path of the Mayflower should not be closed. She decided to sail the seas. She decided to sail not under an Edict of Potsdam, cramped in narrow lands, seeking safety in unarmed merchant men painted in fantastic hues as the badge of an infinite servitude; but she decided to sail under the ancient Declaration of Independence, choosing her own course, maintaining security by the guns of her ships of the LINE, flying at the mast the stars and stripes forever, the emblem of a militant liberty.
With peace has come prosperity. Burdens have been great, but the strength to bear them has been greater. The condition of those who toil is higher, better, more secure than in all the ages past. Out of the darkness of a great conflict has appeared the vision of a nearer, clearer than ever before, the life on earth and less under the deadening restraint of course more and more under the vitalizing influence of reason. Moral power has been triumphing over physical power. Education will tend to bring reason and experience of the past into the solution of the problems of the future. We must look to service and not selfishness, for service is the foundation of progress. The greatest lesson that we have to learn is to seek ever the public welfare, to build up, to maintain our American heritage."

November 2, 2006
Segment 1 and 3: "Genocide Remembered: The Armenian Genocide"
PART I:  Real Media. MP3. Time: 28:18.
PART II: Real Media. MP3. Time: 21:39.
Last year, Pacifica Radio commemorated the 90th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide with this documentary, produced by Maria Armoudian & Lucy DerTavitian. For more information about the Genocide, see http://www.umd.umich.edu/dept/armenian/facts/index.html. For first-hand accounts, see Donald E. Miller and Lorna Touryan Miller, Survivors: An Oral History Of The Armenian Genocide (U. of California Press, 1999).

Segment 2: From the Archives: "The Jonestown Suicide/Massacre Death Tape (11-18-1978)."
Real Media. MP3. Time: 44:30.
On November 18th, 1978, more than 900 followers of the Rev. Jim Jones committed mass suicide and murder by drinking (or coercing others to drink) fruit drink mixed with cyanide. The victims included men, women and hundreds of children. For an overview of the Jonestown Massacre, see: http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial4/jonestown/. For a fine audio documentary on the event, see the National Pubic Radio site: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1509317. For primary documents, go to: http://web.archive.org/web/19990428190751/http://www.icehouse.net/zodiac/#pt and http://jonestown.sdsu.edu.

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October 26, 2006
Segment 1 and 3: " Dr. Jay Spaulding on the History of Darfur."
PART I:  Real Media. MP3. Time: 26:14.
PART II: Real Media. MP3. Time: 27:49.
Jay L. Spaulding, Professor of African History at Kean University, NJ, presented this talk, titled "Darfur: The Crisis in Historical Perspective," at the University at Albany on 4/6/2006. For more information on the History of Darfur, see: http://ias.berkeley.edu/africa/Courses/Lectures/Darfur-Links.htm. [Recorded by Jennifer Van Ness].

Segment 2: From the Archives: "Remembering the Armenian Genocide (preview of next week's show).
Real Media. MP3. Time: 3:41.
This eyewitness account of the Armenian Genocide comes from a 2005 documentary produced and hosted by Maria Armoudian & Lucy DerTavitian, to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. For more information, tune in next week for the rest of the documentary.

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October 19, 2006
Segment 1: "Accidents Will Happen: The Three Mile Island Nuclear Accident." (1979)
Real Media. MP3. Time: 29:18.
This documentary on the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor accident of March 1979 was produced by Alan Snitow and Aileen Alfandary for Pacifica Radio and was broadcast in April of that year on many of Pacifica's affiliates. For more information on this and other Pacifica programs, go to Pacifica Radio Archives at www.pacificaradioarchives.org. For information on the Three Mile Island Accident, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Mile_Island, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/three/, and http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/fact-sheets/3mile-isle.html.

Segment 2: Bertrand Russell on the Arms Race (1959).
Real Media. MP3. Time: 11:58.
Bertrand Russell, the Noble prize winning philosopher, mathematician, and authore, became a vocal critic of the arms race in the post-WWII Cold War era. In this selection of a speech on nuclear disarmament, first recorded in Manchester, England, on May Day of 1959, Russell expressed some of his concerns about the fate of humanity in the face of the growing arms race. For information about Russell and his activism, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertrand_Russell and http://www.mcmaster.ca/russdocs/russell.htm.

Segment 3: The Black Panthers Remembered."
Real Media. MP3. Time: 1:02:15
Forty years ago this month, in October of 1966, the Marxist Black Panther Party for Self-Defense was established in Oakland, California. Founded by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, the party formed the militant left of the Black Power movement in the late 1960s. Its militant and vocal posture and paramilitary organization soon drew the attention of the government and particularly the FBI. The latter soon implemented a policy of infiltration and disruption -- known as COINTELPRO -- which ultimately destroyed the party. For details on the history of the Party -- its birth, growth, and ultimate decline -- see: Jessica Christina Harris, "Revolutionary Black Nationalism: The Black Panther Party," Journal of Negro History, 85:3 (Summer, 2000): 162-174; http://www.marxists.org/history/usa/workers/black-panthers/; http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USApantherB.htm; andhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Panthers.

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October 12, 2006
Segment 1 and 3: "Roll On Columbia: Woody Guthrie's Columbia River Songs."
PART I:  Real Media. MP3. Time: 31:07.
PART II: Real Media. MP3. Time: 14:56.
In early May of 1941, Woody Guthrie was employed by the U.S. Department of the Interior's Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) on the Columbia River. The BPA hired him to write songs celebrating the work of the Administration in building dams producing and making available to millions cheap electricity. Guthrie wrote 26 songs during the month that followed, including such classics as Pastures of Plenty and Roll on Columbia. Michael O'Rourke produced this radio documentary for Oregon Public Broadcasting. In 2000, a documentary film on the same subject was produced by the University of Oregon's Knight Library Media Services and the School of Journalism and Communication. For information on the film (and additional information on Guthrie's Columbia River songs, see: http://libweb.uoregon.edu/ec/wguthrie/index.html.

Segment 2: From the Archives: "The Occupation of Alcatraz (1969-71).
Real Media. MP3. Time: 6:44.
On November 20, 1969, 79 American Indians began a long occupation of the former prison island of Alcatraz. They -- and the hundreds of others who soon joined them -- maintained control of the Island for 19 months. On June 11, 1971, federal marshals, the Coast Guard, and FBI agents removed the last remnants of the occupying group. Though they did not retain control of the island, the Alcatraz occupiers initiated a major movement, bringing together tribal members from different reservations and tribal groups and stimulating a long series of occupations of federal facilities and private lands. For more information about the Alcatraz takeover and the movement that it helped inspire, see: http://www.pbs.org/itvs/alcatrazisnotanisland/occupation.html. This audio selection comes from a KPFA broadcast originating from Alcatraz during the occupation. Our thanks to the Pacifica Radio Archives for this piece.

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October 5, 2006
Segment 1: "The Political Life of James Baldwin." (2006)
Real Media. MP3. Time: 27:40.
"James Baldwin was known to the world as the genius behind the works Go Tell It On the Mountain, Notes of a Native Son, Giovanni's Room, and The Fire Next Time, among others. His work - whether fiction or nonfiction - brought the realities of life for African Americans in the United States to worldwide attention. His responsibility was to be, as he so often prefaced his speeches, 'brutally honest.' That honesty brought him to the forefront of the Civil Rights Movement." From the Vault, Pacifica's recent program based on archival audio from Pacifica Radio Archive's collection, brings us this selection from Baldwin's most memorable speeches. Our thanks to From the Vault and the Pacifica Radio Archives for providing this segment. For more information on this and other Pacifica programs, go to Pacifica Radio Archives at www.pacificaradioarchives.org. For a short biography of James Baldwin, see: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/baldwin_j.html.

Segment 2: From the Archives: "Chinua Achebe on Colonialism, Religion, and Language." (1986).
OFF-SITE LINK.
Nigerian novelist and poet Chinua Achebe's writings offer a critical look at colonialism and post-colonial struggles in Africa. Achebe is one of Africa's best known and most widely read novelists. Here, in these excerpts from an interview conducted on July 27, 1986 by BBC's Fiona Ledger, he speaks about religion, language, and the responsibility of writers to the next generation. For more information about Achebe, see: http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/documentaries/profile/chinua-achebe.shtml, http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/achebe.htm, and http://web.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/achebe2.htm. Achebe is presently Charles P. Stevenson Jr. Professor of Languages and Literature at Bard College

Segment 3: "Confederate Emancipation."
Real Media. MP3. Time: 16:05
Talking History/OAH's Bryan Le Beau joins Bruce Levine, author of Confederate Emancipation: Southern Plans to Free and Arm Slaves during the Civil War, for a discussion of the background of a surprising proposal adopted in March 1865 by the Confederacy. It declared that slaves who remained "true to the Confederacy in this war," and took up arms in its defense, would be liberated. Levine is a professor of history at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Produced: June, 2006.

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September 28, 2006
Segment 1: "Henry Miller Remembers France." (1956)
Real Media. MP3. Time: 28:24.
Henry Miller, best known for his novels Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn,, spent a great deal of time abroad. His work, known for "breaking with existing literary forms and developing a new sort of 'novel' that is a mixture of novel, autobiography, social criticism, philosophical reflection, surrealist free association, and mysticism," was instrumental in bringing down literary censorship laws in the U.S. in the 1960s. In this Pacifica Radio interview with Henry Miller, conducted in 1956 by Ben Grauer, Miller talks about his years in France -- focusing particularly on the 1930s. It includes, as well, new material -- excerpts from a variety of Miller�s works -- added by From the Vault, Pacifica's recent program based on archival audio from Pacifica Radio Archive's collection. Our thanks to From the Vault and the Pacifica Radio Archives for providing this segment. For more information on this and other Pacifica programs, go to Pacifica Radio Archives at www.pacificaradioarchives.org. For a short biography of Miller, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Miller.

Segment 2: From the Archives: "James Baldwin on the Artist's Struggle" (1962).
Real Media. MP3. Time: 5:29.
James Baldwin is one of the best known black novelists of the 20th century, and like Henry Miller, the subject of our previous segment, spent much of his life broad, writing. He was born on August 2, 1924, but left the U.S. in 1948 for France, after Richard Wright, his freind and mentor, helped the budding writer obtain a grant for his travels. Baldwin's first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain, was published in 1953 marked the beginning of Baldwin's highly successful and productive writing career. He returned to the U.S. in the 1960s to participate in the Civil Rights movement of the period, but returned to his home in France after growing disilussioned with the growing racial violence in the U.S. and the slow pace of Civil Rights reform. He died died at his home in Saint-Paul-de-Vence in France on December 1, 1987. In the speech from this this excerpt is taken, first roadcast on WBAI on November 29, 1962, Baldwin talks about "The Artist's Struggle for Integrity." This recording comes to us from the Pacifica Radio Archives. For more information about Baldwin, see: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/baldwin_j.html. We'll be revisiting Baldwin next week with yet another segment, focusing on his life and politics.

Segment 3: "OAH/Palgrave Best Essays in American History."
Real Media. MP3. Time: 21:18
Talking History/OAH's Bryan Le Beau joins Joyce Appleby, editor of OAH Palgrave Best Essays in American History, to discuss individual essays from a recent compilation of historical essays which originally appeared in the Journal of American History, and the reasons for their inclusion in this landmark publication. Appleby is professor emerita of history at the University of California, Los Angeles. Produced: May, 2006.

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September 21, 2006
Segment 1: "Atomic Veterans series, Part 2: Toshi Higuchi interview of Ronald Benoit." (10-31-2004) [See 8-10-2006 broadcast for part 1]
Real Media. MP3. Time: 13:14.
This is an edited selection from an interview with Robert Benoit conducted on October 31, 2004 by former University at Albany graduate student Toshi Higuchi as part of his final project for "Readings and Practicum in Oral History," [http://www.albany.edu/history/oralhistory/] an oral history course taught by Prof. Gerald Zahavi. Higuchi conducted five interviews with atomic veterans for the project. This selection was edited by Zahavi. For a related project by Higuchi, a documentary titled "Embracing the Bomb," see our Dec. 30, 2004 broadcast.

Segment 2: "Gerald Zahavi interview of Roger Ray ~ Castle Bravo." (May 2004).
Real Media. MP3. Time: 14:37.
This is a selection from an extended interview conducted by Gerald Zahavi with Roger Ray. Between 1948 and 1958, the U.S. tested 66 nuclear devices in the Marshall Islands -- in the Bikini and Enewetak atolls. Ray played a key role in supervising many aspects of the latter series of tests, and later in attempts to clean up Enewetak Atoll and repatriate the Enewetakese (they had been relocated to a distant atoll before the tests began). In this segment, Ray recalls one of the hydrogen bomb tests that went wrong, Castle Bravo. For more information about Castle Bravo and other tests, see: http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Tests/Castle.html and http://www.cddc.vt.edu/host/atomic/atmosphr/index.html.

Segment 3: "From the Archives: Linus Pauling" (1958).
Real Media. MP3. Time: 14:10
On February of 1958, noted physicists and Noble Prize winners Edward Teller (the "father" of the H-bomb) and Linus Pauling sat down to debate the effects of continuing nuclear testing and fallout on humans. This is Pauling's initial comments during the debate. For more information about Pauling's career and anti-nuclear activism, see: http://www.harvardsquarelibrary.org/unitarians/pauling.html.

Segment 4: "From the Archives: The Enewetak Clean-Up." (1977).
Real Media. MP3. Time: 10:48
This is the sound track from a Department of Defense film titled "Preparation Clean Up, Enewetak Atoll" (1977). It was produced by the Defense Nuclear Agency and shows "the actions being taken to cleanup the islands comprising Enewetak Atoll so that the previous inhabitants could return to live on some of them. The inhabitants were forced to relocate to other islands in 1948 when the United States began atmospheric testing of nuclear devices at the Pacific Proving Ground. Over the 1948-1958 time period, 43 tests were conducted on or near Enewetak Atoll. Numerous decaying, abandoned buildings are shown that had to be demolished, while others were still suitable for use by the returning people. Homes, schools and government buildings had to be built. The film details the radiation studies conducted to determine the extent of contamination and the uptake of radioactive particles by plants. Some parts of the Atoll would never be suitable for habitation because of the extent of contamination. One of the decontamination activities planned was removing the contaminated soil, transporting it to craters on one of the highly contaminated islands, and encasing it in concrete. Those organizations cooperating in the cleanup effort included the Atomic Energy Commission, the Coast Guard, the Defense Nuclear Agency, and a marine biology firm."

Segment 5: "Roger Ray on the Enewetak Clean-up and Repatriation of the Enewetakese" (2004).
Real Media. MP3. Time: 6:11

In this second selection from an extended interview conducted by Gerald Zahavi with Roger Ray (see segment 2 above), Ray talks about the clean up of Enewetak Atoll and his involvement in the repatriation of the Enewetakese.

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September 14, 2006
Segment 1 and 3: "The City Will Rise." (2006)
Part 1: Real Media. MP3. Time: 24:54.
Part 2: Real Media. MP3. Time: 28:54.
This one hour documentary by prodiucer Jesse Boggs (Radio Smithsonian, Soundprint) covers the rebuilding of San Francisco and its amazingly rapid recovery. The radio special also explores the aftermath of three catastrophic events and focuses on how cities, communities, and individuals rebuild after disaster through gripping personal stories told by the people who lived them. Our thanks to Creative PR for permission to bring you this documentary on Talking History.

Segment 2: "From the Archives: The Hindenburg Tragedy." (1937)
Real Media. MP3. Time: 2:39.
On May 7, 1937, the German zeppelin, the Hindenburg, landed at the Lakehurst Naval Air Station, New Jersey. As it was landing, it exploded into flames. Of the 106 people on board, only 62 survived. This very famous spontaneous and emotive account of the explosion and fire that destroyed the Hindenburg was made by Herbert Morrison, an American radio reporter, and his audio engineer, Charlie Nehlsen. Both were working for Chicago station WLS at the time and were experimenting with delayed broadcast on-the-spot recording (at the time, networks eschewed the use of recorded material). It wasn't until after World War II that Morrison and Nehlsen's technique became widely adopted by news broadcasters. For more information on the Hindenberg broadcast, see: http://members.aol.com/jeff1070/hindenburg.html.

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September 7, 2006
Segment 1: "Emma Goldman: The Courage to Struggle." (1991)
Real Media. MP3. Time: 28:22.
This documentary, produced by Trish Valva in 1991 for Pacifica Radio, offers a fascinating look at a 20th century anarchist and feminist who struggled her whole life for free speech, the right to birth control, and women�s equality. It includes interviews with Dr. Candace Falk, editor of the Emma Goldman Papers, Mollie Ackerman, Goldman�s personal secretary, and Ora Robbins, whose family provided a home while Robbins was a teenager. Our thanks to From the Vault and the Pacifica Radio Archives for providing this segment. For more information on this and other Pacifica programs, go to Pacifica Radio Archives at www.pacificaradioarchives.org.

Segment 2: From the Archives: "David Dubinsky Recalls the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911" (1961).
Real Media. MP3. Time: 6:33.
This segment of a recording of David Dubinsky (1892-1982), the former president of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU), comes from Cornell University's Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives. It was recorded at the 50th anniversary commemoration of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of March 25, 1911. Along with Dubinsky, several other prominent labor and government officials spoke, including FDR's former Secretary of Labor, Frances Perkins. For more information about Dubinsky and the Triangle fire, see: www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/1994/10/art5full.pdf, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Dubinsky, and http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/trianglefire/.

Segment 3: From the Archives: "The Personal is Political: Candace Falk on Emma Goldman" (1985).
Real Media. MP3. Time: 26:56
This interview with Dr. Candace Falk, the director of the Emma Goldman Papers Project and author of the book Love, Anarchy, and Emma Goldman, was conducted in 1985. It focuses on the personal life of Emma Goldman and how it was related to her public life as an anarchist, birth control advocate, and feminist. Our thanks to From the Vault and the Pacifica Radio Archives for providing this segment.

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August 31, 2006
Segment 1: "Rough Crossings: The British Emancipation of Slaves During the American Revolution."
Real Media. MP3. Time: 28:21.
Dialogue's George Liston Seay interviews Columbia University historian Simon Schama about the British emancipation of slaves during the American Revolution. When Britain declared that all slaves of rebel masters would obtain freedom if they made their way to British territories, they were trying to strike at the heart (and pocketbooks) of slaveholding rebels. Thousands of slaves deserted their owners. Ironically, the British declaration pushed many reluctant Southern slaveholders more frimly into the rebel camp. Schama is the author of Rough Crossings: Britain, the Slaves and the American Revolution (Ecco, 2006).

Segment 2: From the Archives: "The Flint Sit-Down Strike of 1936/7."
OFF SITE LINK: http://www.studsterkel.org/htimes.php.
With Labor Day around the corner, and with the persistent decline of the U.S. Labor Movement very much in the news, perhaps it is a good time to look back to the era when that movement was very much on the rise, the 1930s. There are few few better examples of the growing power of labor in that decade than the famous Flint Sit-Down strike. Although there are numerous accounts of that strike, one of the most compelling comes to us from oral historian Studs Terkel. In 1971, he interviewed Bob Stinson, an auto worker who participated in the strike in December and January of 1936/37. Stinson's account, by the way, made its way into Terkel's oral history of the Great Depression, Hard Times. To listen to the interview, use the above link to Terkel's on-line collection of oral histories, made available to us through the efforts and resources of the Chicago Historical Society.

Segment 3: "Harvey Kaye on Thomas Paine."
Real Media. MP3. Time: 17:44
OAH/Talking History'sBryan Le Beau interviews Harvey Kaye about the life and career of Revolutionary-era writer Thomas Paine. Harvey Kaye is the author of Thomas Paine and the Promise of America. He is the Ben and Joyce Rosenberg Professor of Social Change and Development at the University of Wisconsin--Green Bay. Produced: May, 2006.

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August 24, 2006
TALKING HISTORY was pre-empted on WRPI-FM for local programming. We'll be back next week.

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August 17, 2006
Segment 1: "Dorothy Healey: A Southern California Communist" (1962).
Real Media. MP3. Time: 29:19.
Dorothy Ray Healey joined the California Communist party in 1928 and remained in it till 1973, participating in some of the most dramatic political and labor struggles in that state's history. She died on August 6, 2006, at the age of 81. This interview with Healey was broadcast over KPFK-FM on July 18, 1962. At the time she was head of the Southern California sub-district of the Communist party, though events in the 1960s, particularly the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Union, led her to rethink her loyalties to the party; she resigned from her leadership position in 1968. For more details on Healey, see Dorothy Ray Healey and Maurice Isserman, California Red: A Life in the American Communist Party (Univ. of Illinois Press, 1993). For her obituary, see: Los Angeles Times Obituary.

Segment 2: From the Archives: "Molotov in San Francisco" (1952)
Real Media. MP3. Time: 4:28.
Soviet Foreign Secretary Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov was a leading figure in the Soviet government from the 1920s, when he rose to power as a prot�g� of Joseph Stalin. He was the principal Soviet signatory of the Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact of 1939 (also known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact). In the 1950s, he was dismissed from office by Nikita Khrushchev but was later "rehabilitated" during the Leonid Brezhnev years and was allowed to rejoin the Communist Party in 1984. He died at the age of 96 in Moscow on 8 November 1986. The context for this recording [in Russian, with English translation] is as follows: in the spring of 1945, as World War II was nearing its end, Molotov was attending the United Nations Conference on International Organization in San Francisco. During that visit, he announced that the Red Army had finally subdued eastern Germany, had entered Berling, and that the Germans had surrendered. His announcement was recorded on May 9th, 1945. For more information about Molotov, see: Derek Watson, Molotov: A Biography (Pelgrave Macmillan, 2005). For more information about 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: "Dorothy Healey Resigns from the Communist Party. (KPFK-FM, 1973)."
Real Media. MP3. Time: 14:55
In 1973, Dorothy Healey, former head of the Southern California sub-district of the American Communist party (CPUSA), resigned from the CPUSA. She did this on her radio show broadcast over radio station KPFK-FM, Los Angeles' Pacifica station. This is a recording of her formal announcement. It was followed by over an hour of call-ins and responses.

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August 10, 2006
Segment 1: "From the Archives: The Atomic Bombers (WBAI, 1962)."
Real Media. MP3. Time: 26:46.
Pacifica's From the Vault brings us a long selection of WBAI's 1962 program, "The Atomic Bombers," focusing on crew members who participated in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Segment 2: From the Archives: "Enrico Fermi on Chicago Pile 1." (1952)
Real Media. MP3. Time: 3:38.
This is a selection from Enrico Fermi's comments at the tenth anniversary celebration of the birth of the Manhattan Project and the first nuclear chain reaction, held at the University of Chicago. Recorded by the Atomic Energy Commission on December 2, 1952, Fermi reviews the operation of the first controlled fission reactor, known as "Chicago Pile 1," which was successfully tested on December 2, 1942. The reactor was constructed at the University of Chicago by a team under the leadership of Enrico Fermi. Originally planned to be built at a laboratory in the Argonne forest preserve (around 30 miles west of Chicago), a labor strike soon forced the project to be moved to a racquets court under the abandoned west stands of the University of Chicago's Stagg Field. For more details on the construction of that reactor, see Fermi's 1946 account in "The Development of the first chain reaction pile," Proceedings of the American Philosophy Society 90: 20-24. For more information about Fermi and the Manhattan Project, see: http://www.time.com/time/time100/scientist/profile/fermi.html, http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1938/fermi-bio.html, and http://physics.uchicago.edu/fermi.html. For more information about 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: "Atomic Veterans: Oral Histories, Part 1."
Real Media. MP3. Time: 19:52
This is an edited selection from an interview with Robert W. D. Ball conducted on November 19, 2004 by former University at Albany graduate student Toshi Higuchi as part of his final project for "Readings and Practicum in Oral History," [http://www.albany.edu/history/oralhistory/] an oral history course taught by Prof. Gerald Zahavi. Higuchi conducted five interviews with atomic veterans for the project, and we will be airing more excerpts from his other interviews next month. This selection was edited by Zahavi. For a related project by Higuchi, a documentary titled "Embracing the Bomb," see our Dec. 30, 2004 broadcast.

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August 3, 2006
Segment 1 and 3: "Passaic On Strike." (2006)
Part 1: Real Media. MP3. Time: 29:36.
Part 2: Real Media. MP3. Time: 24:22.
In 1926, 16 thousand woolworkers in Passaic, New Jersey, walked out after their meager wages were cut 10%. It was a long strike - nearly a year - and it caught the attention of intellectuals and activists nationwide. Over the harsh winter of 1926, Passaic became a battleground, not just between workers and bosses, but between the traditional trade unions and a renegade organizer in the American Communist Party, who envisioned a militant, industrial union for all workers. The program has ten parts, but was broadcast in two long segemnts -- Part I: The Battleground; Part II: Vera and Albert; Part III: Strike! Strike!; Part IV: The Strike Bulletin; Part V: Workers' Relief; Part VI: The Silent Movie; Part VII: Strike Strategy; Part VIII: The Riot Act; Part IX: Enter the AFL; Part X: The Final Chapter. This documentary was produced by Talking History contributing producers David S. Cohen & Marty Goldensohn for the New Jersey Historical Commission and NJN Public Radio in April of 2006.

Segment 2: "From the Archives: Truman and the 1952 Steel Strike." (1952)
Real Media. MP3. Time: 19:30.
In January of 1952, upon the expiration of its contract, the United Steelworkers of America sought wage and benefit increases from Steel manufacturers. Employers claimed they were hamstrunged by government price controls (imposed during the Korean War). Union leaders agreed to delay a strike until the Wage Stabilization Board could review its demands. Upon review of the Union's case, the Board did authorize a small wage increase, but the Steel Companies refused to go along. This precipitated a strike in April. Truman, blaming the employers, issued an executive order and seized the mills, citing his emergency wartime powers. His seizure, though, was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in June of that year (they called it an illegal usurpation of congressional powers). Soon after that ruling, Truman took his case to the Congress, appealing to them to authorize intervention; this recording is the speech he delivered to a joint meeting of Congress. The strike, by the way, continued well into August, when the nation's major steel mills offered a wage increase not dissimilar to that originally authorized by the War Stabilization Board. For a transcription of Truman's speech, see: http://steelseizure.stanford.edu/Truman/harry.truman.1952.june10.html. For more information about 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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July 27, 2006
Segment 1: "Nikola Tesla Electrical Wizard." (1979)
Real Media. MP3. Time: 29:57.
This program, focusing on various aspects of the life and legacy of electrical inventor Nikola Tesla (b. July 9/10, 1856, Smiljan, Croatia--d. Jan. 7, 1943, New York City), was produced at KPFA-Los Angeles by Burt Wilson back in 1979. We have edited it for length. For more information on Tesla's life, see the PBS Web site: http://www.pbs.org/tesla/ll/index.html. This recording comes to us from the Pacifica Radio Archives.

Segment 2: "From the Archives: Eleanor Roosevelt Spars With the Soviets." (1948)
Real Media. MP3. Time: 1:05.
The United Nations established its Human Rights Commission early 1946 and Eleanor Roosevelt was chosen to lead its efforts to draft a Declaration of Human Rights. In the response the extensive and egregious violations of human rights that took place before and during World War II, the UN Commission sought to generate a widely accepted general statement on fundamental human rights, one that might prevent such violations in the future. The Commission spent close to two years working on the statement, which was finally adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on December 10, 1948. During the course of the deliberations, the U.S. and Soviet representatives often sparred over various aspects of the statement, including whether "human rights" should include references to the obligations of states to its citizens (which the Soviets proposed) or just on the individual human rights (which the U.S. favored). In 1947 and 1948, it was clear that the emerging Cold War tensions of the era were making their way into the Commission's deliberations. In several exchanges -- both public and private -- Eleanor Roosevelt clashed with the Soviet delegation over the definition of human rights and the precise wording of the statement. Here, in this very short recording, Roosevelt brings part of the debate into the domestic realm. For additional information on Roosevelt's work on the UN Human Rights Commission, see Mary Ann Glendon, A World Made New: Eleanor Roosevelt and the Creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Knopf, 2000) and Joseph P. Lash, Eleanor: The Years Alone (Norton, 1972), 55-81, and http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/eleanorroosevelt.htm. For more information about 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: "Truman and the Cold War."
Real Media. MP3. Time: 17:41
Talking History's Bryan Le Beau interviews Melvyn Leffler, who spoke to Le Beau while attending a Cold War conference in Kansas City in March 2006. Their discussion focused on Leffler�s conference paper, "Truman, US Grand Strategy, and the Cold War, 1945-1952." Leffler is a professor of history at the University Virginia. Produced: June 2006.

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July 20, 2006
Segments 1 and 3: "Ida B. Wells."
PART 1: Real Media. MP3. Time: 25:02.
PART 2: Real Media. MP3. Time: 16:02.
This program comes to us from Pacifica's Against the Grain; it examines the legacy of Ida B. Wells, who, born to slavery, became "a muckraking journalist, a champion of women�s rights, a newspaper editor and publisher, and the most prominent foe of the lynching of African Americans in the vicious backlash that followed post-Civil War Reconstruction." Historian Paula J. Giddings, author of Ida: A Sword Among Lions: Ida B. Wells and the Campaign Against Lynching (Amistad, 205), delivered this talk on Wells at a conference of the African American Women . Against the Grain is produced by C.S. Soong and Sasha Lilley. [Originally broadcast by Against the Grain on 3-8-2006].

Segment 2: "From the Archives: The Golden Age of Radio Drama ~ Sorry, Wrong Number." (1943)
Real Media. MP3. Time: 5:37.
Lucille Fletcher's radio play, "Sorry, Wrong Number," was initially broadcast on the CBS radio network on May 25th, 1943. It is still considered one of the tightest and best examples of the art of radio theater (along with Orson Welles' "War of the Worlds" 1938 production). Fletcher's play was so well received that it was regularly re-broadcast. The latest version of the play was produced by Pacifica Radio Archives in 2003 and was recently re-broadcast on Pacifica's From the Vault. The new production starred Miss Shirley Knight and Ed Asner, and was directed by Erik Bauersfeld. We present it here, with our deep thanks to Pacifica: Real Media | MP3. For a brief biography of Lucille Fletcher (1912-2000), see: http://www.obituary.com/fletcherlucille.htm. To obtain a CD copy of Pacifica's production and to support the wonderful sound preservation work of the Pacifica Archives, contact the Pacifica Radio Archives at: http://fromthevaultradio.org/home/the-audio-used-within/014-sorry-wrong-number/.

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July 13, 2006
Segment 1: "From the Archives: Defending the OPA." (1946)
Real Media. MP3. Time: 13:00.
Pete Seeger and a number of other well known folk singers sing to "save the OPA," the Office of Price Administration, and its price control regulations. The OPA was established during World War II, created to address the problem of wartime inflation. From 1942 and througout the war and the immediate post-War period, the OPA was responsible for regulating prices, rents, ration scarce consumer goods m(including automobiles, sugar, rubber, coffee, gasoline and fuel oil, meat, processed foods, and many other commodities. In the post-War period, these controls were slowly lifter and the agency was finally eliminated int 1947, some of its controlling functions being taken over by various other agencies. For more details on the administrative history of the agency, see the National Archives' finding aid to the Administration's records at: http://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/188.html#188.1. For more information about 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 2: "Washington on the Spot -- on Price Controls, and More." (circa 1951)
Real Media. MP3. Time: 8:49.
NBC, back in the early 1950s, aired a radio program titled "Washington on the Spot," in which listeners sent in questions addressed to various government officials, agencies, and lawmakers. Continuing with our theme of price controls in U.S. history, in this selected segment, several listeners who sent in questions -- most, not all, dealing with policies related to the Office of Price Stabilization -- are answered by various government officials. For more information about 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: "John Kenneth Galbraith in His Own Words."(1986; 2002)"
Real Media. MP3. Time: 9:13
Harvard Economist John Kenneth Galbraith, who died on April 29, 2006, was one of the best-known economists in 20th century America. During World War II, he served as deputy head of the Office of Price Administration. He went on to serve as an economic advisor to the post-war administrations in Japan and Germany, and later joined the Kennedy administration, serving as economic advisor and later US ambassador to India. He was the author of such classics as American Capitalism: The Concept of Countervailing Power (1952), The Great Crash, 1929 (1955), The Affluent Society (1958, rev. ed. 1985), The Liberal Hour (1960), The New Industrial State (2d rev. ed. 1971), Economics and the Public Purpose (1973), and The Good Society: The Humane Agenda (1997). Some short selections from two interviews conducted with Economist John Kenneth Galbraith -- the first by Tom Ashbrook from an On Point 2002 broadcast, the second from Harry Kreisler's Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley 1986 interview. Go to http://www.onpointradio.org/shows/2002/03/20020311_b_main.asp for a full version of Ashbrook's interview, and http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/conversations/Galbraith/ for Kreisler's interview. For a short on-line biography/obituary of Galbraith, see: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/30/obituaries/30galbraith.html?ex=1304049600&en=c486b75860ff8fb3&ei=5090. For a more thorough treatment of his life, see Richard Parker's 800+ page biography, John Kenneth Galbraith: His Life, His Politics, His Economics (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005).

Segment 4: "From the Archives: Mary Margaret McBride interviews Eric A. Johnston." (1951)
Real Media. MP3. Time: 17:12
Writer and broadcaster Mary Margaret McBride (1899-1976) was one of the most famous radio personalities from the late 1930s through the 1950s. She cultivated a spontaneous interview style which is wonderfully illustrated in this excerpt from her July 5, 1951 show, an interview with Eric A. Johnston (1895-1961). Johnston -- besides serving as the head of the United States Chamber of Commerce and as the President of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) -- served as the Administrator of the Office of Price Stabilization under the Truman and Eisenhower administrations. For more information about Johnston, see: http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=7339. For more information about McBride's life and career, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Margaret_McBride.

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July 6, 2006
Segment 1: "A History of the the Pledge of Allegiance."
Real Media. MP3. Time: 18:30.
Talking History's Bryan Le Beau interviews Richard J. Ellis, author of To the Flag: The Unlikely History of the Pledge of Allegiance (University Press of Kansas, 2005). Ellis traces the origins and transformation of the pledge from 1892, when it appeared in a children's magazine, through its transformation during the schoolhouse flag movement, and its codification at the First National Flag Conference in 1923. He also examines the uses of the pledge as an instrument of Cold War politics: "Under God" was added to the Pledge in 1954 to differentiate the US political system from "Godless" Communism. Ellis is the Mark O. Hatfield Professor of Politics at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon.

Segment 2: From the Archives: "Burning the Flag: Texas v. Gregory Lee Johnson (1989): Oral Argument."
Real Media. MP3. Time: 56:12.
The U.S. Supereme Court, in Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397 (1989), invalidated state prohibitions on desecrating the American flag (at the time, 48 of the 50 states had such laws in force). Justice William Brennan wrote for a five-justice majority in holding that the defendant's act of flag burning was protected speech under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. Here is a brief summary of the case (from the Web site cited below): "During the 1984 Republican National Convention in Dallas, Texas, respondent Johnson participated in a political demonstration to protest the policies of the Reagan administration and some Dallas-based corporations. After a march through the city streets, Johnson burned an American flag while protesters chanted. No one was physically injured or threatened with injury, although several witnesses were seriously offended by the flag burning. Johnson was convicted of desecration of a venerated object in violation of a Texas statute, and a State Court of Appeals affirmed. However, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals reversed, holding that the State, consistent with the First Amendment, could not punish Johnson for burning the flag in these circumstances. The court first found that Johnson's burning of the flag was expressive conduct protected by the First Amendment. The court concluded that the State could not criminally sanction flag desecration in order to preserve the flag as a symbol of national unity. It also held that the statute did not meet the State's goal of preventing breaches of the peace, since it was not drawn narrowly enough to encompass only those flag burnings that would likely result in a serious disturbance, and since the flag burning in this case did not threaten such a reaction. Further, it stressed that another Texas statute prohibited breaches of the peace and could be used to prevent disturbances without punishing this flag desecration." For the full text of the decision, go to: http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=491&invol=397. Many recordings of the last half-century of Supreme Court oral arguments and decisions are available at the National Archives. For more information about 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. This recording may also be found at the Oyez Web site at: http://www.oyez.org/oyez/resource/case/379/audioresources.

Segment 3: "From the Archives: William O. Douglas on His Beliefs (1951)."
Real Media. MP3. Time: 3:22
William O. Douglas, Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1939 to 1975, was one of the staunchest defenders of the First Amendment. In keeping with the theme of today's show, we offer this short statement by him about his fundamental beliefs. The recording comes from his "This I Believe" statement, first aired in 1951. A large collection of classic "This I Believe" programs (now revived in a new NPR series, see http://www.npr.org/thisibelieve.html) are available at the National Archives, in Record Group 330. A growing number of them are being made available on line at the NPR Web site noted above.

Segment 4: "Perilous Times: Civil Liberties During Wartime."
Real Media. MP3. Time: 18:48
Talking History's Fred Nielsen interviews Geoffrey Stone, author of Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime from the Sedition Act of 1798 to the War on Terrorism (W. W. Norton & Company, 2004). Stone argues that the US government generally tolerates opposition to its policies -- except in times of war, when vocal dissent is met with punishment. Geoffrey R. Stone is a professor of history at the University of Chicago Law School.

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