The Radio Archive ~ January - June 2012

June 28, 2012
Segment 1 | "Cheers and Jeers: Alcohol in America" (2012).

Download: MP3

This week Backstory asks "...when and why alcohol consumption and production has ebbed and flowed. They look at why rum became the drink of choice among revolutionary troops, explore why American Indians were rejecting alcohol two centuries before the rest of the country, and follow the long march toward Prohibition." Visit the Backstory Web site for more information about this and other their other programs: http://backstoryradio.org.

Segment 2 | Archival Audio Segment: "Prohibition Repeal Pro and Con"

Download: MP3

This audio segment from a 1930's newsreel features John D. Rockefeller and Fred A. Victor, Superintendent of the NYS Anti-saloon league outlining their respective positions on the repeal of Prohibition. As Rockefeller notes, given his and his family's strong financial support of the Anti-Saloon League, his advocacy of Prohibitio repeal was unexpected at the time. Original is audio and video from the Internet Archive, http://archive.org/details/tobacco_pew27a00. Additional details in the University of California, San Francisco Legacy Tobacco Documents holdings http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/pew27a00

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June 21, 2012
Segment 1 | "Backstory: The War of 1812 ~ Which One Was That?" (2012).

Download: MP3

This week Backstory explores the history of the War of 1812: "200 years ago this week, the U.S. declared war for the first time in its history. Today, few people remember who we were fighting, much less what we were fighting for. If you do remember anything about the War of 1812, it's probably something from the back of a high school history flashcard, like the burning of the White House or the Battle of New Orleans. But despite its status as a forgotten war, the War of 1812 was hugely influential in shaping the nation we live in today. And so in this hour of BackStory, we go beyond the trivia, and explore some of the war's deeper legacies. We look at why the war loomed so large in novels & poems of the post-war years, how the war re-defined government policies towards Native Americans, and why the war nearly led to a Civil War within the U.S. Through it all, we set out to answer the most fundamental questions about the War of 1812: What did we win, what did we lose, and why should we care? Guests Include: Rear Admiral Herman A. Shelanski, Commander Carrier Strike Group 10, U.S. Navy; Brian Merrett, CEO of the 1812 Legacy Council; Alan Taylor, Professor of History, University of California; Davis Nicole Eustace, Associate Professor of History, New York University; Adam Jortner, Assistant Professor of History, Auburn University; and Bill C. Malone, country music historian, radio host, and Professor Emeritus at Tulane University. Visit the Backstory Web site for more information about their programs: http://backstoryradio.org.

Segment 2 | Archival Audio Segment: "A LibriVox Reading of Theodore Roosevelt's 1902 Classic, THE NAVAL WAR OF 1812." (2012).

Download: MP3

In keeping with our main segment's theme, we turn to an reading of a selection from a 1881 classic by Theodore Roosevelt, The Naval War of 1812. The reading comes to use from LibriVox (www.librivox.org), Roosevelt had been fascinated by all things military -- and especially naval -- for quite some time and decided to write an undergraudate thesis on the War of 1812 emphasizing the naval aspects of the war. This was in 1879. That work became the basis of his book. Roosevelt, many years after the book was published was appointed Assistant Secretary of the Navy by President McKinley. McKinley later selected him as his running mate in 1900 for his second term. He was soon elevated to President after Pres. McKinley's assassination. For more information on Roosevelt's book on the War of 1812, see: http://www.ijnhonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/pdf_crawford.pdf.

Segment 3 | From the Archives: "Ray Bradbury Remembered ~ 1964 and 1973 Speeches from the Pacifica Radio Archives (From the Vault)

Download: MP3

Pacifica Radio's From the Vault pays homage to recently deceased sci-fi writer Ray Bradbury (died June 5, 2012): "We present two classic recordings from Pacifica Radio Archives. Our first featured recording, The World of Ray Bradbury (1964), Bradbury is interviewed by Francis Roberts, and traces the evolution of his unique writing style – from his childhood to then-present day. The second recording is a speech Bradbury delivered at the International Colloquium on Mars in December 1973; here, Bradbury reflects on the literary and visionary masters before him that inspired him as a child to dream, and calls on humanity to momentarily ignore the influence of popular culture and focus on personal dreams."

June 14, 2012
Segment 1 | "Backstory: Weathering the Storm" (2012).

Download: MP3

This week Backstory explores the history of severe wearther events and responses to them: "In 1815, a volcanic eruption in Indonesia sent enough ash into the sky to disrupt the world's weather for the next year. In New England, 1816 became known as 'The Year Without a Summer.' Snow fell in June and July. Crops and animals died. Tens of thousands of people picked up and left; their search for greener pastures became an early chapter in a larger story of westward expansion. This story and more are a part of this week's exploration of extreme weather in America. Guests Include: Gareth Davies, Lecturer in American History at St. Ann's College, University of Oxford and Aaron Beebe, Director of the Coney Island Museum." Visit the Backstory Web site for more information about their programs: http://backstoryradio.org.

Segment 2 | Archival Audio Segment: "The Great New England Hurricane of 1938" (WPA file soundtrack; 1939).

Download: MP3

From the Prelinger Archives and archive.org, we bring you the sound track from the WPA documentary, "Shock Troops of Disaster: The Story of the New England Hurricane" (1938). The film focuses on the extensive damage caused by the worst Hurricane to ever hit New England, one that took nearly 800 lives and destroyed tens of thousands of homes. The film focuses on the mobilization of WPA workers in response to the disaster. Producer: U.S. Work Projects Administration.

NOTE: Beginning in June 2012, we will no longer be regularly posting RealMedia versions of our programs. We will only be providing MP3 playback or downloads (a download option will only be provided where the contributing producer has not restricted it).

June 7, 2012
Segment 1 | "Backstory: In the Beginning: Science and Religion in America" (2012).

Download: MP3

From the American History Guys & Backstory: "In 1925, Tennessee high school teacher John Scopes was charged with violating a state law banning the teaching of evolution. Back then, many people believed the Scopes 'Monkey Trial' would be the last gasp of the anti-evolution movement. But 85 years later, about the same percentage of Americans believe in creationism as believe in evolution. On this episode of BackStory, the History Guys explore the ways Americans have attempted to grapple with the biggest question of them all: 'Where did we come from?' Together, they trace the ups and downs in the relationship between science and religion. Are there times when the two have not been at odds? How did the Founders conceive of "creation," and why did the idea of extinction pose such a challenge to their worldview? How were Darwin's ideas received in the U.S., and why did it take six decades before public school systems started challenging the teaching of his theories? What lessons does history offer those interested in charting a peaceful relationship between science and religion in the future? Guests Include: Ronald Numbers - Professor of the History of Science and Medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Joe Wilkey - Head of the Department of Science at Rhea County High School, Evensville, TN." Visit the Backstory Web site for more information about their programs: http://backstoryradio.org.

Segment 2 | "H.L. Mencken on The Scopes Trial: 'The Hills of Zion'"

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Henry Louis Mencken, the American satirist, journalist, and magazine editor reported on the Scopes Trial. This is a recent reading of one of his accounts, "The Hills of Zion," originally composed in July of 1925. Mencken recalled: "I wrote [it] on a roaring hot Sunday afternoon in a Chattanooga hotel room, naked above the waist and with only a pair of BVDs below." Source: http://www.storyspieler.net/?p=1663. For more on Mencken's visit to Dayton, see: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/monkeytrial/peopleevents/p_mencken.html.

May 31, 2012
Segment 1 and 3: "Backstory: Monumental Disagreements" (2012).
Real Media. MP3 Time: 31:34.
Real Media. MP3 Time: 19:02.
The History Guys come back this week to look at how we remember the past in stone, steel, and bronze: "This is a country awash in monuments. They are the centerpieces of traffic circles, street corners and, of course, the National Mall. We have erected them to Rosie the Riveter and Confederate generals. Yet our ambivalence towards these monuments is as old as our enthusiasm for them. Case in point: The Washington Monument. Ever wonder why there isn't actually a image of Washington on it? In this Memorial Day episode of BackStory, we take on national remembrance. By looking at some of our country's most iconic monuments, the Guys ask what—and whom—Americans choose to remember. They discover that memorials often tell us more about their creators than what or whom they memorialize. Guests Include: Kirk Savage – Professor of Art and Architecture at the University of Pittsburgh; Kristin Szakos – City Council Member in Charlottesville, Virginia; and Teresa Bergman–Professor of Communications and Film Studies at the University of the Pacific." Visit the Backstory Web site for more information about their programs: http://backstoryradio.org.

Segment 2: "FDR on Westward Expansion and the Northwest Ordinance" (1938).
Real Media. MP3. Time: 22:53.
On July 8, 1938, FDR delivered this talk during the inauguration of the Start Westward Monument in Marietta, Ohio. The monument was carved by Gutzon Borglum, the sculptor of Mt. Rushmore, to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the passage of the Northwest Ordinance and the establishment of the Northwest Territory; Marietta was the first settlement in the Territory, established in 1788 and Ohio was the first state to be carved out from the territory, in 1803. The event provided another opportunity for Franklin Roosevelt to argue for an activist role for government.

Additional Segment (aired 8-9 AM, EST): "Howard Zinn on 'Virtual Optimism' ~ The Other Side of American History" (1992).
PART 1: Real Media. MP3. Time: 35:06.
PART 2: Real Media. MP3. Time: 23:16.
From the Pacifica Radio Archives and From the Vault, we present this talk by Howard Zinn, delivered in Berkeley, California in November 1992 -- titled, "Virtual Optimism: The Other Side of American History.' "In this recording, Zinn shares how his personal view of history changed following his experiences during the Vietnam War, and explains his interests in the cause of war, the nature of "enemy" soldiers, the laborers who built the railroad, factory laborers, the poor, and the unrepresented."  

May 24, 2012
Segment 1 and 3: "Backstory: Home, Bittersweet Home ~ A History of Homeownership" (2012).
Real Media. MP3 Time: 25:54.
Real Media. MP3 Time: 25:02.
We continue wiith our Backstory spring/summer marathon with this program, focusing on home ownership in American history: "In 1931, Herbert Hoover called the idea of owning one's own home "a sentiment deep in the heart of our race and of American life." In this episode, the History Guys search for the roots of that sentiment, and consider how it has played out over time. The image of a deed to a home with a yard and picket fence is at the core of the American Dream, but for many, the housing reality has looked more like a pile of rent receipts and back mortgage payments. Why has the ideal of home ownership been so difficult for so many generations of Americans to attain? Was there ever a Golden Age of home ownership, anyway? Guests Include: Loren Moulds -- Historian, University of Virginia Richard White � Professor of History, Stanford University David Edelstein -- Film critic, New York Magazine." Visit the Backstory Web site for more information about their programs: http://backstoryradio.org.

Segment 2: "Hull House and Jane Addams" (LibriVox reading; orig. document: 1962).
Real Media. MP3. Time: 8:25.
Here's a selection from Jane Addams' Twenty Years at Hull House (1910) -- describing her quest for a Chicago house that would serve as the center for her settlement work activities. It comes from chapter 5 ("First Days at Hull House") of her book. For the full reading of this Progressive Era classic, go to: http://librivox.org/twenty-years-at-hull-house-by-jane-addams/. You'll find a link there as well to the full on-line text as well as links to biographical information on Addams.

May 17, 2012
Segment 1 and 3: "Backstory: Born in the USA" (2012).
Real Media. MP3 Time: 31:25.
Real Media. MP3 Time: 18:46.
"The History Guys set out to explore the earliest stages of life in America. They begin with a few of the basic assumptions we have about birth in America today, and spend the hour exploring how those assumptions came into being. How is it that hospital doctors moved in on what had been midwife’s exclusive territory? Why did Puritans think their newborns were damned from the outset? When did courts start ruling that fetuses had legal rights? Why have generations of Americans resisted the notion of birthright citizenship?" This week's guests include: Laura Wattenberg, founder of BabyNameWizard.com, Peggy Bendroth of the Congregational Christian Historical Society, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Professor of History, Harvard University and author of A Midwife's Tale), Jessica Waters, Professor of Law, American University. For more information about this program and about Backstory, go to: http://backstoryradio.org/born-in-the-usa/.

Segment 2: "Psychoanalyzing Babies: Benjamin Spock" (1962).
Real Media. MP3. Time: 3:16.
Here's a selection from a 1962 interview with one of the most influential baby doctors of 20th century America. You can watch the full interview at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GF20rgdd0RI. A lengthy biography appeared in the New York Times' obituary of March 17, 1998: http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0502.html.

May 10, 2012
Segment 1: "Making of the War of the Worlds" (1988).
Real Media. MP3 Time: 29:28.
In 1938, the Mercury Theater broadcast one of the most controversial and famous dramatic radio theatrical production of all time -- Orson Welles' The War of the Worlds. This 1988 documentary by award-winning radio producer and voice actor Joe Bevilacqua "looks at how the landmark broadcast came about and examines its impact on broadcast history. The half-hour program includes rare interviews with Mercury Theater producer John Houseman and writer Howard Koch, actor Arthur Anderson and the people of Grover's Mill, NJ who lived through the 'Martian Invasion.' )."

Segment 2: "Blithedale Romance and Brook Farm" (1959).
Real Media. MP3. Time: 27:53.
From a 14-part 1959/1960 Pacifica series titled The American Woman, we offer this segment, a dramatic adaptation of a section of one of Nathaniel Hawthorne's novels,The Blithedale Romance (1852). The novel was partially based on Hawthorne's 1841 experiences at the utopian community of Brook Farm and his encounter with several prominent individuals who shared those experiences with him -- especially Margaret Fuller (most likely represented by the character Zenobia in the novel). For information about Hawthorne and The Blithdale Romance, see: http://www.eldritchpress.org/nh/hawthorne.html For information on Fuller, see: http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/fuller/.

May 3, 2012
Segment 1 and 3: "Enclosure, Luddism, and Magna Carta" (from Against the Grain, 2012).
PART 1: Real Media. MP3 Time: 26:36.
PART 2: Real Media. MP3.Time: 21:23.
Peter Linebaugh talks to Against the Grain host C.S. Soong about early instances of 19th century worker resistance to assaults on "the commons" and their ancestral roots in the Magna Carta: "Once there was a lot of land that anyone could access and from which anyone could take what they needed to survive. When that land, and other common resources, was enclosed, people, including machine-breakers called Luddites, rose up." Linebaugh is the author of Ned Ludd & Queen Mab: Machine-Breaking, Romanticism, and the Several Commons of 1811-12 (PM Press, 2012) and The Magna Carta Manifesto: Liberties and Commons for All (UC Press, 2008) and recently wrote the introduction to the re-issue of E.P. Thompson, William Morris: Romantic to Revolutionary (PM Press, 2011).

Segment 2: "Thomas More's Utopia" (1952).
Real Media. MP3. Time: 4:14.
Here is a short selection from a reading of Thomas More's Utopia, one of the earliest fictional explorations of an idealized society and, like later utopian literature, an ironic exploration of 16tth century society and political economy. For information on More and Utopia, see: http://thomasmorestudies.org/. For the full reading of More's Utopia, go to Learn Out Loud at: http://www.learnoutloud.com/Podcast-Directory/Philosophy/Ancient-and-Medieval-Philosophy/Utopia-Podcast/23673.

April 26, 2012
Segment 1 and 3: RE-BROADCAST / "Rose Tattoo: Tramps, Wobblies, and Rail Songs."
PART 1: Real Media. MP3. Time: 23:16.
PART 2: Real Media. MP3. Time: 22:08.
Rose Tattoo (NOT the Australian rock and roll band) is a fluid group of singers and musicians who specialize in songs that focus on labor, railroad work, hoboes, and Wobblies. The group includes (or included on and off over the years) Mark Ross, U. Utah Phillips, Bob Suckiel, Diana Suckiel, Kuddie, Bruce Brackney, Rik Palierim, and Larry Penn. Back in June of 2002, a few of the members of the group came by the WRPI studios in Troy, NY, and graciously performed some of their repertoir of songs for Talking History. We are now rebroadcasting their performance in anticipation of May Day 2012 (and because our transmitter was down this morning and we were only broadcasting over the Internet).
Our thanks to Rose Tatoo and to Greg Giorgio, who arranged their appearance at the station. Recorded on June 27, 2002.

April 19, 2012
Segment 1: "Germany After World War II" (With Good Reason, 2010).
Real Media. | MP3 Unavailable by request of producers. Time: 28:21.
From With Good Reason, we present this examination of educational and cultural transformations in Germany after World War II -- how Germans came to terms with the rise of Nazism and the Holocaust: "New research examines how postwar German history textbooks addressed the traumatic events of the Second World War. Brian Puaca (Christopher Newport University) explores how the textbooks first depicted Germans as victims and how these books gradually incorporated a frank and honest account of National Socialism and Nazi atrocities. He challenges those who have argued that the Germans have long repressed their memories of the Second World War – both in terms of their own suffering and the crimes committed in their name. Also: It is generally thought that German intellectuals did not start examining the Nazi period until the 1960s, some twenty years after World War II. However, Mark Clark (University of Virginia's College at Wise) identifies four German intellectuals—Thomas Mann, Karl Jaspers, Friedrich Meinecke, and Bertolt Brecht—whose work directly confronted the disastrous rule of the Third Reich immediately after the war."

Segment 2: "From the Archives: Jean-Paul Sartre Huis Clos." (1962)
Real Media. MP3. Time: 22:04.
No Exit is a 1944 play by French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic Jean-Paul Sartre. The original French title of the play was Huis Clos (English translations have also been performed under the titles In Camera, No Way Out, and Dead End). First performed in May of 1944, Huis Clos was an existential play that explored morality and moral responsibility in a Godless world -- focusing on three characters placed in a room after their deaths to ponder their lives and choices and to mentaly torture one another. In the context of its time, the play has been interpreted as a metaphor and commentary on WWII-era inhumanity -- but various other interpretations have been suggested as well. Sartre was awarded the 1964 Nobel Prize in Literature but refused it, saying that he always declined official honours and that, "a writer should not allow himself to be turned into an institution."

Segment 3: "Joe Richman and the Use of Historical Archival Tape: The Plane the Flew Into The Empire State Building." (How Sound/PRX, 2011)
Real Media. MP3. Time: 22:30.
From the PRX (Public Radio Exchange) series, How Sound, we offer this profile of Joe Richman's approach to producing historical documentaries. Here's a more detailed description from How Sound: "The 20th century was captured in sound. Why aren't there more radio stories featuring archive audio — oral histories, news reels, odd bits of audio flotsam? It seems like an obvious source of content and story ideas, doesn't it? Fortunately, producer Joe Richman understands the power and pleasure of storytelling with archive tape. On this edition of HowSound, we feature Joe's radio story about the historic crash of a B-52 bomber into the Empire State Building — the video alchemized for radio. Joe's not alone, of course, but the field of producers using archive tape isn't crowded. American Radio Works comes to mind. So, too, does Lost and Found Sound by the Kitchen Sisters. And, there's Talking History, a radio program produced at the State University of New York at Albany. Anybody I've missed? Now, you producers, go mine those archives!"

April 12, 2012
Segment 1 and 3: "New York Sings: Musicologist Rena Kosersky and Folklorist/Musician George Ward Explore New York’s Rich Musical Heritage (2012).
PART 1: Real Media. MP3 Time: 31:31.
PART 2: Real Media. MP3.Time: 23:03.
This is a recording of Capital Repertory Theatre's (Albany, NY) presentation of New York Sings!, a lecture and performance with Rena Kosersky and George Ward held on March 24, 2012. New York Sings! explored New York's rich musical traditions, focusing on Rena Kosersky's research into the 19th and early 20th century folk and popular songs of NY's Schoharie County as collected by Ida Finkell (whose "songster" or ballad book was kept from 1879-83) and Emelyn Elizabeth Gardner (Folklore from The Schohairie Hills New York, 1937). The presentation was funded by a grant from the New York Council for the Humanities, with additional support from the University at Albany’s Department of History and Documentary Studies Program, and by the Researching New York Conference.
RENA KOSERSKY is a renowned musicologist whose research and music supervisor credits include the PBS programs The Great Depression, Woody Guthrie and Eyes on the Prize. A resident of Schoharie County and NYC, Kosersky has expertise in the Lomax archive and in the 19th and early 20th century songs of Schoharie County, including the collections and writings of Ida Finkel, Emelyn E. Gardner, and others. GEORGE WARD, a folklorist by academic training, has spent more than 30 years collecting and performing traditional songs and drawing on the rural singing tradition of the American Northeast. A frequent performer at concerts, festivals, and educational series, his CDs include Oh! That Low Bridge!: Songs of the Erie Canal and All Our Brave Tars: Songs of the Age of the Fighting Sail. For more information on Ward, see his Web site: www.mulesong.com.

Segment 2: From the Archives: "Mary Godwin Shelley and Frankenstein -- the Short Story" (1952).
Real Media. MP3. Time: 4:00.
There have been many radio productions of Mary (Wollstoncraft) Godwin Shelley's Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. Here is a short selection from one of them, aired as an episode of the series NBC Presents: Short Story, broadcast in 1952. You can find the full version -- as well as other broadcasts of this classic here: http://archive.org/details/FrankensteinOldTimeRadioClassics. Frankenstein is, in many ways, a modern, transfigured version of older Germanic and Eastern European folktales about human-made creatures (such as the Golem, a monster created to protect Jews against gentile persecution and physical attacks). While the specific events that led to Mary Shelley's short story and later novel are well covered in numerous texts, less well-known are the imbedded folktale motifs imbedded in that work. For more information on Mary Shelley, see: http://www.rc.umd.edu/reference/chronologies/mschronology/mws.html and the well-documented Wikipedia article on her: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Shelley. There are many on-line editions of Frankensein available on line. The Project Gutenberg e-text version is available here: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/84/84-h/84-h.htm.

April 5, 2012
Segment 1: "Slave Rebellion of 1811" (2012).
Real Media. MP3 Time: 32:36.
In this Against the Grain interview, Daniel Rasmussen tells the story of the largest slave revolt in US history, which took place in 1811 in and around New Orleans. Rasmussen is the author of American Uprising: The Untold Story of America's Largest Slave Revolt (Harper, 2012); his book originated as an undergraduate history thesis at Harvard. From Rasmussen's Web site http://www.danrasmussen.net/, here is summary of the narrative of the book: "In January 1811, a group of around 500 enslaved men, dressed in military uniforms and armed with guns, cane knives, and axes, rose up from the slave plantations around New Orleans and set out to conquer the city. They decided that they would die before they would work another day of back—breaking labor in the hot Louisiana sun. Ethnically diverse, politically astute, and highly organized, this slave army challenged not only the economic system of plantation agriculture but also American expansion. Their march represented the largest act of armed resistance against slavery in the history of the United States—and one of the defining moments in the history of New Orleans and the nation. American Uprising is the riveting and long—neglected story of this elaborate plot, the rebel army's dramatic march on the city and its shocking conclusion. No North American slave revolt—not Gabriel Prosser, not Denmark Vesey, not Nat Turner—has rivaled the scale of this rebellion either in terms of the number of the slaves involved or in terms of the number who were killed. Over 100 slaves were slaughtered by federal troops and French planters, who then sought to write the event out of history and prevent the spread of the slaves' revolutionary philosophy. With the Haitian Revolution a recent memory and the War of 1812 looming on the horizon, the revolt had epic consequences for America."

Segment 2: "Prisons in America: DeToqueville on Sing Sing and Auburn." (1962)
Real Media. MP3. Time: 28:37.
In 1962 the Division of General Education of New York University in conjunction with the Fund for Adult Educationhis Democracy in America produced a series of fourteen 30-minute dramatizations of Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America, a book originally published in 1835 and 1840 (in two volumes). The series followed the travels of Tocqueville and his companion, Gustave de Beuamont, through their French government sponsored nine-month visit to the U.S. in 1831. Sent here to examine U.S. penal institutions, the two travelers ended up studying a broad spectrum of U.S. social, political, and cultural institutions. But they did not neglect their charge and visited a number of prisons. Here we present an excerpt from the radio series focusing on the Tocqueville and Beuamont's visit to New York's Sing Sing and Aubrun prisons (chapter 10" "The Heavenly Prison").
The radio series was a collaboration between American and Canadian producers. It was directed by historian George Probst and produced by Andrew Allan at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation studios. It was aired in the U.S. on NBC and in Canada on CBC. For the whole series, see: http://archive.org/details/DemocracyinAmericaOTR.

Segment 3: "Women and the World Antislavery Convention." (1959)
Real Media. MP3. Time: 20:01.
Here we present an excerpt from Pacifica Radio's 1959 three-part series called The American Woman in Fact and Fiction. This segment, from Part 2 of the series, focuses on the floor debate at the 1840 World Anti Slavery Convention to decide if women delegates from the United States would be seated. The events helped stimulate an activist agenda for women's rights in the 1840s, culminating in the 1848 Seneca Falls Women's Rights Convention. For a detailed account of the London Anti-Slavery meeting see: http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/history/dubois/classes/995/98F/doc4.html.

March 29, 2012
Segment 1 and 3: "Margaret Sanger: Woman Rebel" (2012).
PART 1: Real Media. Time: 34:46 | MP3 unavailable by producer request.
PART 2: Real Media. Time: 18:38 | MP3 unavailable by producer request.
From New Mexico KUNM's Radio Theater, we offer this dramatic interpretation of Margaret Sanger's life and work. "Margaret Sanger - Woman Rebel," was written and performed by Ann Beyke. It's an "an adaptation of a Chautauqua presentation that portrays the life and work of the noted birth control activist. It seems almost unbelievable that contraception has again become a hot political topic in the year 2012. So it's a good time to take a look at the life and work of the woman who coined the term birth control, opened the first birth control clinic in the United States, and established Planned Parenthood." The broadcast includes an interview by Linda Lopez McAlister of Ann Beyke and political commentator Martha Burk focusing on Sanger's legacy and contemporary political controversies over birth control and family planning.

Segment 2: From the Archives: "Biography in Sound: Grandma Moses" (1956).
Real Media. MP3. Time: 3:16.
Here is a short, edited selection from a a 1956 radio biography on Anna Mary Robertson Moses (September 7, 1860 – December 13, 1961), better known as "Grandma Moses." For the full audio biography (originally broadcast in December of 1956 as part of the CBS Biography in Sound series), see: http://www.myoldradio.com/old-radio-episodes/biography-in-sound-grandma-moses-ep-72/9. There are numerous on line sites devoted to the life and work of Moses. The Dec. 14, 1961 obituary that appeared in the The New York Times contains a good summary of her achievements and the major benchmarks of her life: "Grandma Moses, the spry, indomitable "genuine American primitive" who became one of the country's most famous painters in her late seventies, died here today at the age of 101. She died at the Hoosick Falls Health Center, where she had been a patient since August, after a fall at her home in nearby Eagle Bridge. . . . The simple realism, nostalgic atmosphere and luminous color with which Grandma Moses portrayed homely farm life and rural countryside won her a wide following. She was able to capture the excitement of winter's first snow, Thanksgiving preparations and the new, young green of oncoming spring. . . " For the rest of the obituary, go to this New York Times Web site: http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0907.html.

March 22, 2012
Segment 1 and 3: "With Good Reason: Three Stories ~ Sisters of Mercy, Guest Workers, Equal Time" (2012).
PART 1: Real Media. MP3 Time: 27:57.
PART 2: Real Media. MP3.Time: 14:54.
Here are three historical segments from the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities series, With Good Reason:
1) "The contributions that Irish nuns made to help destitute immigrant Catholic children in New York City were instrumental in developing modern American social institutions like foster care and welfare. Before the nuns aided these children, they were being sent to live with Protestant families, often never seeing their parents again. Maureen Fitzgerald (College of William and Mary) speaks about what lessons can be learnt from the Irish immigrant experience." Produced 2008.
2) "Cindy Hahamovitch compares the history and experience of guest workers in the United States to other countries." Produced 2008.
3) "Aniko Bodroghkozy (University of Virginia) is the author of the new book Equal Time: Television and the Civil Rights Movement which explores how the newly created evening news shows shaped attitudes about race relations during the Civil Rights Movement. She investigates the network news treatment of events including the 1965 Selma voting rights campaign, integration riots at the University of Mississippi, and the March on Washington." Produced 2012. For more information about With Good Reason, go to: http://withgoodreasonradio.org/.

Segment 2: "Boatman's Cure" by George Ward."
Real Media. MP3. Time: 5:51.
This is a preview of a production we are currently working on -- a look back at some of the folksongs associated with Upstate New York and the hills and valleys of Northern Appalachia. In this selection, Albany folklorist George Ward, who has spent more than 30 years collecting and performing traditional songs and drawing on the rural singing tradition of the American Northeast, offers one of his own tributes to the boatmen who manned the flat-bottomed boats -- the batteau -- of the Mohawk River in the late 18th century, although this song was inspired but a specific event. This is what Ward had to say about the song on his Web site (http://www.mulesong.com/): "This song was originally published on George Ward's album 'Pea Soup and Port: A Batteau Salute' recorded to celebrate the launching of a replica of Gen. Philip Schuyler's 1792 batteau. On Tuesday, August 21, 1792, General Philip Schuyler and two other Albany, NY businessmen [Goldsbrow Banyar, a banker and Elkanah Watson, a 'business venturer'] began a westward journey by batteau to survey the Mohawk River – Wood Creek water route as far west as Rome, NY. The objective was to propose improvements to the route, to be constructed by the recently chartered Western Inland Lock Navigation Company. With them in the batteau traveled a surveyor [Moses DeWitt], a carpenter [Abraham Lighthall] and a millwright [Archibald Nisbet]. Canal engineers did not yet exist in the new republic. A crew of three batteaumen [William Culbertson, Andrew Bearup and John House] completed the party. The entire expedition consumed all of two weeks. Yet because the improvement projects to which it led reflected the first measurable stirrings of that great ambition that would shortly lead to the building of the Erie Canal, its consequences for New York and for the nation were enormous. [Bateaux had been ferrying cargo and passengers along this ancient water route for well over a hundred years before the Schuyler expedition. Many were built in Schenectady, the western terminus of the overland route from Albany that bypassed the great Cohoes Falls at the mouth of the Mohawk River]. "

March 15, 2012
Segment 1 and 3: "The Tashkent Arc" (2012).
PART 1: Real Media. MP3 Time: 28:43.
PART 2: Real Media. MP3.Time: 23:20.
From Australian Broadcasting Corporation / Radio National's Hindsight: "In the summer of 1941, almost two years after the German invasion of Poland triggered the start of the Second World War, Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union. This invasion in turn prompted the Soviet authorities to initiate an evacuation of their civilian population. Over the course of the months which followed, Soviet authorities transported people away from the western war fronts into the relative safety of their eastern lands. The Urals, Siberia, the Middle Volga, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan together received 16 million evacuees, with Tashkent a favoured destination. It remains the largest organised movement of a civilian population in history. Those evacuated included the country's intellectual and artistic elite: doctors, scientists, economists, playwrights, poets, actors, film directors, composers were evacuated, often in their professional guilds, along with their supporting infrastructure. The nation's administrative and industrial capacity was also shipped eastwards, with entire government departments and factories sent piecemeal, along with essential staff. But the bulk of the evacuees were ordinary citizens who were facing imminent danger from the Nazi invasion. For most it was a difficult, sometimes fatal, passage in their lives, one of hunger, danger, illness and deprivation. Yet many evacuees owed their survival to their time in the east. In this feature we hear from historians and from those who were evacuated as children, and who are now resident in Australia." Guests include: Professor Rebecca Manley, Queens University, Kingston, Ontario,  Canada; Maria Tumarkin, Historian and writer; and Professor Anna Sternshis, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Segment 2: "Song About Stalingrad" (1943).
Real Media. MP3. Time: 5:07.
The "Song About Stalingrad," performed here by the chorus of the Bolshoi Theater, commemorates one of the bloodiest and most important battles of World War II. The music was written by B. Mokrousov, with words by V.. Lebedev-Kumach. The Battle of Stalingrad halted the advance of Nazi forces into southwestern Russia -- then the "Eastern Front." Taking place between Aug. 23, 1942 and Feb. 2, 1943, the battle cost the lives of more than 2 million soldiers and civilians (it is still considered one of the bloodiest battles in military history). The heroic defense of Stalingrad by Soviet troops (and civilians) and their success in bleeding the German army -- at considerable Russian sacrifice -- transformed the battle into a major turning point in the war, one from which the Nazi military could not fully recover.

March 8, 2012
Segment 1 and 3: "Betty Friedan and the Making of The Feminine Mystique." [Re-broadcast; originally aired on Dec 9, 1999]
PART 1: Real Media. MP3 Time: 29:43.
PART 2: Real Media. MP3.Time: 27:16.
Prof. Lisa Kannenberg of the College of St. Rose joined us on Talking History to interview Smith College Professor Daniel Horowitz about his book, Betty Friedan and the Making of The Feminine Mystique. Kannenberg and Horowitz explored the personal, political, and intellectual origins of Betty Friedan's feminist ideas. Friedan is the author of The Feminist Mystique, the 1963 book that explored the roots of the discontent of housewives—"the problem that has no name"—and in the process helped launch modern feminism. The Feminine Mystique, along with the organization Friedan co-founded, the National Organization for Women (NOW), radically changed every sphere of modern American public and private life—from politics, to family dynamics, to daycare. Horowitz challenges the notion that feminism emerged in the 1960s without any connection to prior organized attempts to improve women's political, social, and economic status. Contrary to the concept of a "sharp historical break between 1960s feminism and what went on before," Horowitz asserts that Friedan and other feminists, "were quite aware of women's issues and women's movements in the period before the 1960s." His book argues that part of modern feminism's origins are to be found in left-wing labor union culture and activism in the 1940s and 1950s. Daniel Horowitz is currently Mary Huggins Gamble Professor of American Studies at Smith College. At the time of the interview, he was also the Director of the American Studies program at Smith. For more information about Horowitz, go to: http://www.smith.edu/history/faculty_dhorowitz.php.

Segment 2: "Excerpts from Sylvia Plath interview session with Peter Orr" (1962).
Real Media. MP3. Time: 14:12.
Sylvia Plath (1932-1963) was born in Boston (Jamaica Plain), Massachusetts in the early years of the Gr eat Depression. Like Betty Friedan (see above), she attended Smith College, Massachusetts, and graduated summa cum laude in 1955, going on to graduate work at Cambridge.While at Cambridge, she married the English Poet Ted Hughes, with whom she had two children. Plath came back to Smith to serve as a lecturer in English after the completion of her graduate work, but soon returned to live in England. Her life in England was short and tragic; she committed suicide in 1963. Plath's work has had a profound influence on many modern poets and writers, especialy feminist writers. Plath's first collection of poems, The Colossus, was published in 1961 and her novel, The Bell Jar, perhaps her most familiar and acclaimed work, was published under a pseudonym in January, 1963. A later collection of poems, Ariel, was published postumously in 1965. There aren't many recorded interviews with poet Sylvia Plath. Here we offer an excerpt from an interview conducted with Plath by Peter Orr on October 30, 1962. Plath committed suicide a year later. You can find a transcription of the interview here: http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/m_r/plath/orrinterview.htm. You can find links to books, arricles, and on-line sources on Plath at: http://www.sylviaplath.de/plath/intro.html.
About this recording: BBC producers Peter Orr and Jack Sweeney collaborated on the Poet Speaks a series of taped conversations and readings by poets. It was aired on BBC in the 1960s. Most were recorded at the BBC's offices at Albion House, 55 New Oxford Street, London. Sylvia Plath was one of the many poets interviewed (on October 30, 1962). Only Orr conducted the interview with Plath. Selected recordings were later released on long playing records. The recording of Plath was accompanied by recordings of Thom Gunn, Ted Hughes, and Peter Redgrove. Plath also read the following poems during her session (not included here due to copyright restrictions: "Daddy", "Lady Lazarus", "Fever 103", and "Ariel").

March 1, 2012
Segment 1 and 3: "The Last Tutor (from Hindsight; 2010).
PART 1: Real Media. MP3 Time: 25:10.
PART 2: Real Media. MP3.Time: 27:25.
Hindsight (Radio National, Australian Broadcasting Corporation) offers us another gem, the "remarkable life story of Reginald Fleming Johnston, one of the few foreigners to make his way into the inner court of the Qing Dynasty.In 1919, in the final turbulent years of British Colonial rule, after the 1911 revolution which saw the abdication of the monarchy, Johnston was appointed tutor to the last Emperor of China, 13-year-old Pu Yi, who was virtually a captive, inside the Forbidden City. Johnston's record of his time as tutor, and of the curious friendship which developed between teacher and pupil, offers an illuminating insight into one of the most dramatic periods in modern Chinese history."

Segment 2: "The Last Emperor (1987; film excerpt, audio track).
Real Media. MP3. Time: 2:41.
Here is a short audio segment from the sound track of Bernardo Bertolucci's 1987 film, The Last Emperor -- focusing on the life of the last Emperor of China, Aisin-Gioro Pu Yi. The film won nine Academy Awards (including Best Picture and Best Director). The excerpt -- slightl edited -- comes from the scene that introduces Peter O'Toole (playing the role of Reginald Fleming Johnston -- see above) to Pu Yi. For more information on the film, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Emperor.

February 23, 2012
Segment 1 and 3: "Hurricane Carter (from Humankind)" (2011).
PART 1: Real Media. Time: 27:10 | MP3 unavailable by request of producers.
PART 2: Real Media. Time: 27:25 | MP3 unavailable by request of producers.
From the series Humankind, we bring you this account of the story of the boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter: "Memorialized in a Bob Dylan song and an Academy Award nominated Denzel Washington film, Rubin “Hurricane” Carter was a successful prize fighter, who was falsely accused of murder. After nearly two decades in prison, Carter was exonerated by a federal judge (also heard in our documentary) in a ruling later affirmed by the US Supreme Court. Now in his 70s and an outspoken advocate for others wrongly convicted, Carter recently published a spiritual memoir on how he emerged not only from physical incarceration, but from the emotional prison of hatred and bitterness."