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Aural History Productions
The Radio Archive ~ July-December 2012
December 27, 2012
Talking History is taking a break for the holidays. While we are away, we invite you to browse past showson Talking History, by date or subject, by using the search function on the left. You can find additional programs from some of our regular contributing producers at Backstory with the American History Guys; Hindsight from the Austrailian Broadcasting Corporation Radio National; and Against the Grain.These sites have many audio pieces available that have not aired on Talking History.
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December 19, 2012
Segment 1 | "Apocalypse Then and Now: A History of End Times"
December 21st, 2012 marks the end of the “Mayan Long Count” calendar, and this approaching date has triggered another round of prophesies about the end of the world. From Backstory, " On this episode: moments when we thought the game was about to be all over. From Indian prophets to bunker builders, the History Guys try to figure out why apocalyptic visions gain traction when they do, and ask what they tell us about American hopes and fears through the centuries." Follow the Backstory link for additional background information on this segment.
Segment 2 | Archival Audio: "Mary Shelley: The Last Man"
Mary Shelley is well-known for her many notable associations—her mother, early feminist and author of A Vindication of the Rights of Women, Mary Wollstonecraft; her father, political philospher William Godwin; and the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, her husband— as well as her own writing, particularly Frankenstein. Lesser known, and mostly forgotten until a resurgence of interest in her work, and that of other women writers, emerged in the late 20th century, is The Last Man, published in 1826, one of the earliest works of modern apaocalyptic fiction. Here, an audio excerpt from Librivox, from The Last Man. The full text is available at Archive.org.
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December 27, 2012
Talking History is taking a break for the holidays. While we are away, we invite you to browse past showson Talking History, by date or subject, by using the search function on the left. You can find additional programs from some of our regular contributing producers at Backstory with the American History Guys; Hindsight from the Austrailian Broadcasting Corporation Radio National; and Against the Grain.These sites have many audio pieces available that have not aired on Talking History.
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December 19, 2012
Segment 1 | "Apocalypse Then and Now: A History of End Times"
December 21st, 2012 marks the end of the “Mayan Long Count” calendar, and this approaching date has triggered another round of prophesies about the end of the world. From Backstory, " On this episode: moments when we thought the game was about to be all over. From Indian prophets to bunker builders, the History Guys try to figure out why apocalyptic visions gain traction when they do, and ask what they tell us about American hopes and fears through the centuries." Follow the Backstory link for additional background information on this segment.
Segment 2 | Archival Audio: "Mary Shelley: The Last Man"
Mary Shelley is well-known for her many notable associations—her mother, early feminist and author of A Vindication of the Rights of Women, Mary Wollstonecraft; her father, political philospher William Godwin; and the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, her husband— as well as her own writing, particularly Frankenstein. Lesser known, and mostly forgotten until a resurgence of interest in her work, and that of other women writers, emerged in the late 20th century, is The Last Man, published in 1826, one of the earliest works of modern apaocalyptic fiction. Here, an audio excerpt from Librivox, from The Last Man. The full text is available at Archive.org.
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December 13, 2012
Segment 1 | "East Timor's Lost Generation."
From Hindsight and Australia's Radio National, we bring you this documentary about a rarely examined aspect of the Indonesian occupation of East Timor from 1975 to 1999: "One of the legacies of Indonesia’s occupation of East Timor is the children who were taken from their families by Indonesians. Many of them grew up never knowing they were East Timorese. Now they are learning the truth about their past and beginning to return to find their families and to connect with their missing heritage. But the scars of forced removal remain for these young people and their parents. In this moving program four of them tell their stories." For more information about this segment see: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/hindsight/timor27s-lost-generation/4371398.
Segment 2 | Archival Audio: "Ayn Rand and Objectivism (1959)"
This short selection is drawn from a 1959 interview that appeared on Mike Wallace's Gallery of Colorful People series on CBS. In it, author and philospher Ayn Rand offers her views on conventional morality, rational self-interest, and altruism -- and summarizes her philosophy of "objectivism." For more information on objectivism and Rand, see: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ayn-rand/ ; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objectivism_%28Ayn_Rand%29; and http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=about_ayn_rand_aynrand_biography.
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December 6, 2012
Segment 1 | "Under the Radar: Cancer and the Cold War"
From Against the Grain: "In the mid-20th century, the US government and private companies joined together to develop medical applications from the byproducts of the nuclear industry. Ellen Leopold talks about the rise of radiotherapy, experiments on unwitting patients in US hospitals, and the pioneering lawsuit of a Kansas housewife called Irma Natanson, as well as the legacy of the Cold War on cancer detection and treatment today." Among other works, Ellen Leopold is the author of Under the Radar: Cancer and the Cold War, Rutgers University Press, 2009.
Segment 2 | Archival Audio: "The Eisenhower Doctrine: January 5, l957"
This speech to Congress by President Dwight D. Eisenhower marks a major episode in the Cold War and enunciates the policy that became known as the Eisenhower Doctrine. Prompted, in part, by the Suez Crisis of 1956, which Eisenhower believed opened the door to increasing Soviet influence in the Middle East, the Doctrine authorized the commitment of US forces "to secure and protect the territorial integrity and political independence of such nations, requesting such aid against overt armed aggression from any nation controlled by international communism." (http://history.state.gov/milestones/1953-1960/EisenhowerDoctrine.)
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November 28, 2012
Segment 1 | "Straight Shot: Guns in America "
This week we explore how guns, and attitudes toward them, has changed over time. From Backstory: "The US has the highest rate of civilian gun ownership in the world. How did this come to be? Was America’s “gun culture” present from the very beginning?
On this episode, the History Guys look at who has had access to guns in the U.S., and what those guns have meant to the people who have owned them. They also consider the importance of guns at the time the Second Amendment was drafted, and explore the central role government has played in the dissemination of firearms to citizens."
Segment 2 | Archival Audio: " The Rifleman"
This audio clip, with the signature gunshots in the opening credits, is from the video of the "Rifleman," found at Archive.org: "The Rifleman was an American Western television program that ran on ABC, from September 30th, 1958 to April 8th, 1963. It was a production of Four Star Television.
Chuck Connors starred as The Rifleman, named Lucas McCain, a widower and a Union veteran of the Civil War (lieutenant in the 19th Indiana Volunteer Infantry Regiment), and a homesteader. McCain and his son, Mark (Johnny Crawford) lived on a ranch outside the fictitious town of North Fork, New Mexico Territory. The series was set in the 1880's and the various episodes promoted fair play toward one's opponents, neighborliness, equal rights and the need to use violence in a highly controlled manner."
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November 22, 2012
All of us at Talking History are away for the Thanksgiving holiday. Once again, in place of this week's broadcast, we invite you to browse past shows on Talking History by using the search function on the left or find additional programs from some of our regular contributing producers at Backstory with the American History Guys; Hindsight from the Austrailian Broadcasting Corporation Radio National; and Against the Grain.
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November 15, 2012
Segment 1 | "Theodore Roosevelt's 1912 Third Party Bid to be President "
"The 100th Anniversary of Theodore Roosevelt's 1912 Third Party Bid to be President" is a joint production of Prairie Public Broadcasting of North Dakota and the Theodore Roosevelt Center at Dickinson State University. Program Description: "2012 marks the 100th anniversary of Theodore Roosevelt's 1912 Bull Moose bid to be president. This program looks back at Roosevelt's career and how the issues he raised in the 1912 presidential campaign are still at the center of today's political debates. Roosevelt scholar Clay Jenkinson (known to some for "The Thomas Jefferson Hour") is featured as are excerpts from 4 audio pieces recorded 1912 campaign speeches."
Segment 2 | "A FAIR CHANCE: Stories from Montana's History of Homesteading."
"A Fair Chance," produced by Clay Scott, is a 'special half-hour edition of the weekly radio series Mountain West Voices that examines the remarkable legacy of homesteading in Montana. Abraham Lincoln,prior to the passage of the Homestead Act in 1862, argued that government should serve 'to elevate the condition of men, to lift artificial burdens from all shoulders, and to give everyone an unfettered start and a fair chance in the race of life.' 150 years later, "A Fair Chance" takes a look at what the homestead movement meant for Montana. From homesteaders and their descendants listeners will hear stories of hardship and unbearable loneliness, as well as pride, perseverance, and the exhilaration that comes with a fresh start in life. Author Ivan Doig shares his memories of the Meagher County homesteads of his childhood. "A Fair Chance" also introduces listeners to the extraordinary history of the tens of thousands of single women homesteaders who shaped the history of our state."
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November 8, 2012
Segment 1 | "Small Island, Big Shadow: Cuba and the US "
In October of 1962, a U.S. military jet photographed strategic military missles deployed in Cuba, by the Soviets. The next 13 days marked a major crisis in the Presidency of John F. Kennedy and in Cold War history. Backstory explores this episode and earlier milestones in Cuba-US history: "In this episode, we consider the outsized influence that Cuba has had throughout American history. Over the course of the hour, the History Guys consider several major episodes in US-Cuba relations, including the filibustering expeditions of the 19th century, the Spanish-American War of 1898, the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, and the Mariel Boatlift of 1980. In each case, they learn that the episode's standard storyline gets a whole lot more interesting if you dial its starting point back in time."
Segment 2 | Archival Audio: "Jimmy Carter on Afghanistan."
There were many flash points during the Cold War before the Berlin Wall fell and the Cold War ended. In this January 4, 1980 speech Jimmy Carter outlined the threat to regional stability presented by the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and set forth the economic and political sanctions he was putting in place against the Soviet Union. The full text of the published speech is at the Miller Center, University of Virginia and a video excerpt on You Tube, courtesy of the
Miller Center and the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library.
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November 1, 2012
Segment 1 | "Thenceforward and Forever Free: The Emancipation Proclamation"
From Backstory: "150 years ago this month, (September) President Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. In it, he announced that on January 1, all slaves in rebellious states would be "then, thenceforward, and forever free." Today, Lincoln is remembered as "The Great Emancipator," but the story is much more complicated.
On this episode, the History Guys set out to understand the way Americans thought about emancipation in 1862, and reflect on the ways its meanings have shifted since then. Along the way, they make stops at the Emancipation Memorial in Washington D.C., the Civil War centennial commemorations in the height of the Civil Rights Era, and the former capital of the Confederacy. And they hear the voices of former slaves themselves, remembering their first experiences of freedom."
Segment 2 | Archival Audio: "Marian Anderson at the Lincoln Memorial, 1939"
This audio, from the National Archives, is from the 1939 NBC broadcast ofnoted singer Marian Anderson's Easter Sunday concert from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on April 9th. Anderson, who had performed in concert in major venues in the US and Europe, was scheduled to perform in Washington DC in Constitution Hall. The Daughters of the American Revolution, after learning that the audience would be integrated, refused permission for Anderson to perform. Several references at the Library of Congress offer more details, including Eleanor Roosevelt's resignation from the DAR and the involvement of the NAACP. Additional images at University of Pennsylvania Library exhibitions and in this brief You Tube video clip,http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XF9Quk0QhSE, from the UCLA Film and Television Archive's "Hearst Metrotone News Collection."
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October 25, 2012
There was no live Talking HIstory broadcast this week. We invite you to explore additional programs from some of our regular contributing producers at Backstory with the American History Guys; Hindsight from the Austrailian Broadcasting Corporation Radio National; and Against the Grain or browse past shows on Talking History by using the search function on the left.
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From the six-hour Worlds of Difference series from Homeland Productions: "Between 1954 and 1996, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sponsored a program for American Indian children. The Indian Student Placement Program had two aims: to provide Native children with an education and to help the Church fulfill one of its central prophecies. According to Mormon teachings, American Indians are descendants of the ancient House of Israel and Church members have a responsibility to help bring them back to the Kingdom of God. More than 20,000 children from more than 60 tribes were baptized and enrolled in the placement program. For some, it was a chance to overcome the stresses of reservation life. For others, it was a repudiation of their identity. For everyone, it was a life-changing experience. Producer Kate Davidson spent a year talking with people involved in Placement. The story that emerged is a complicated one -- about culture, power, identity and belief."
Winner of the 2006 Edward R. Murrow award for best news documentary.
Segment 2 | "Dean Urdahl and the 1862 Dakota War"
In this piece from the St. Cloud Area Arts & Culture Collage, Dean Urdahl, Minnesota State Representative, retired teacher and author, discusses the 1862 Dakota War and Its Aftermath: "Urdahl not only has a family history directly tied to this conflict, considered to be a dark period in our state’s history that still resonates today, but he has also published two historical-fiction books based on his 30 years of researching and documenting the subject. In this interview excerpt, Jo McMullen of KVSC discusses his life-long research and historical writing with Dean Urdahl."
Segment 3 | Archival Audio: "Thomas Jefferson's Second Inaugural Address"
In this reading of Thomas Jefferson’s 1805 2nd inaugural address, Jefferson outlines his views on how to best deal with "North America’s aboriginal tribes," noting that "The aboriginal inhabitants of these countries I have regarded with the commiseration their history inspires."
Acknowledging that they were "...occupying a country which left them no desire but to be undisturbed," Jefferson continues, "...humanity enjoins us to teach them agriculture and the domestic arts; to encourage them to that industry which alone can enable them to maintain their place in existence, and to prepare them in time for that state of society, which to bodily comforts adds the improvement of the mind and morals."
The complete transcript is available at http://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/132/presidential-addresses-and-messages/5165/second-inaugural-address-washington-dc-march-4-1805.
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From Against the Grain: "Archie Green may be best known for almost singlehandedly pressuring the government to create the American Folklife Center, but Sean Burns argues he was one of this country's foremost intellectuals on the left. Burns has written the definitive study of the labor historian and folklorist and discusses his political formation on San Francisco's docks and his contributions to our understandings of work and culture." Burns is the author of Archie Green: The Making of a Working-Class Hero, University of Illinois Press, 2011.
Segment 2 | Archival Audio: "The Ballad of Spring Hill"
Archie Green’s 2009 book, "Only a Miner: Studies in Recorded Coal-Mining Song, University of Illinois Press, is the result of a 2-decade long compilation begun by Green when he was a worker on the San Francisco docks. In that spirit we present "The Ballad of Springhill" a song about Canandian coal miners, composed by Peggy Seeger and Ewan McColl and based on the 1958 disaster in Cumberland County, Nova Scotia (another mining accident took place in 1956). There is also a version by Seeger and McColl on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxEwTxQ6e3g
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October 18, 2012
Segment 1 | "Saints and Indians"
October 11, 2012
This week we're away. We invite you to browse past shows on Talking History by using the search function on the left or find additional programs from some of our regular contributing producers at Backstory with the American History Guys; Hindsight from the Austrailian Broadcasting Corporation Radio National; and Against the Grain.
October 4, 2012
Segment 1 | "Archie Green: Folklorist, Labor Historian, and Activist"
September 27, 2012
Segment 1 | "A Short History of Torture "
From Hindsight and the Austrailian Broadcasting Corporation Radio National: "There are those who want to make it legal when information could save lives. Others say this would put us on a slippery slope to hell. So are we being softened up towards acceptance and complicity? Is it coincidence that so many movies and TV shows feature regular torture scenes? With the help of torture victims, theologians, historians, anthropologists, psychologists and pop culture observers, Tony Barrell investigates the disturbing trend to make torture both entertaining and respectable. Additional details and background at Hindsight .
Segment 2 | Archival Audio: " Galileo Galilei and The Spanish Inquisition."
“The Spanish Inquisition, which sought to police and insure the preservation of orthodox Catholic religious dogma, was established in 1478 by Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. It lasted till 1834. Its methods have been studied and debated ever since; much of the debate pertains to the Church’s use of torture to punish and discipline. The Inquisition utilized three degrees of torture: the first degree involved a verbal threat of torture; the second, viewing the instruments of torture; and the third was actual physical torture. One of the many victims of the Inquisition was the mathematician and astronomer Galileo Galilei, who was tried and convicted in 1633 for the crime of heresy (though several scholars suggest that it was something other than heresy for which he was really punished. Also under debate has been the role of physical use of torture in Galileo. The consensus of opinion, based on a close reading of early accounts, is that he was merely shown the instruments of torture but they were never used on him. For more information about the trial of Galileo, see: http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/galileo/galileo.html.
Here we present a LibriVox (www.librivox.org) reading of The Sentence of the Inquisition on Galileo Galilei.”
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hSeptember 20, 2012
Segment 1 | "Fear Tactics: A History of Domestic Terrorism".
Backstory investigates "the origins of domestic terrorism in the United States, and explores the question of what kinds of people and movements have been identified as "terrorists." J.P. Morgan & Co. The Wall Street attack remained the deadliest terrorist bombing in the U.S. until Oklahoma City in 1995. But at the time, people saw it as just one more bombing in a long string of anarchist attacks that historian Beverly Gage calls America's "First Age of Terror." ....and explore the question of what kinds of people and movements have been identified as "terrorists." Along the way, they trace the relationship between "terror" and the state, consider lynching as a tactic of terrorism, and take a look at a little-known and unfinished Jack London novel, in which the author grapples with that ultimate question: When, if ever, is terrorism justified?"
Segment 2 | Archival Audio: " An Episode Under the Terror."
From the French novelist and playwright, Honore de Balzac (1799-1850, a Librivox reading of this fictional tale recalling the Reign of Terror (September 1793-July 94) during the French Revolution. The complete text is available at http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1456/1456-h/1456-h.htm. Balzac is best known for the collected work La Comedie Humaine, a detailed and very closely observed multi-part look at French society. He brings these powers of observation, and raises questions of consciene and morality in "An Episode Under the Terror."
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September 13, 2012
Segment 1 | "From the Vault: The Attica Prison Rebellion"
September 9th - 13th marks the 41st anniversary of the Attica Prison Uprising. This documentary, produced in 2008 by From the Vault Radio, with extensive archival audio drawn from the Pacifica Radio Archives examines this event, described as "the bloodiest prison confrontation in American history. ...Nearly 1500 prisoners revolted and held 40 guards hostage, while the world awaited the reason for this uprising. Prisoner L.D. Barkley would break the silence, by reading from a manifesto the inmates had created, which issued demands for improvements on inhumane living conditions as well as establishing educational and training opportunities. Four days of negotiations ended and New York State Police and National Guard troops assaulted the rebel prison block. When the smoke cleared the death toll stood at 43 souls, including 10 hostages. ...In this episode, we will feature archival recordings of an exceptionally rare and comprehensive nature: interviews with prisoners leading the revolt, like L.D. Barkley and Donald Noble; comments by New York State Assembly member Arthur Eve, representing the 143rd district of Buffalo; statements by various prison guards held hostage in the uprising; reflections from radical lawyer and civil rights activist William Kunstler; and the sharp wit of comedian Richard Pryor (edited for language, of course!). These Attica Prison rebellion recordings from the Pacifica Radio Archives provide a unique look back at a seminal event in United States history, largely ignored by the conventional media in 1971... "From the Vault is presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project.
Segment 2 | Archival Audio: Michel Foucault - Punishment & Disciplinary Society
Michel Foucault (1926-1984 was a French philosopher, social critic, and intellectual historian whose may published works include Madness and Civilization (1961), The Birth of the Clinic (1963), The Order of Things(1966), The Archaeology of Knowledge (1969), Discipline and Punish (1977) and The History of Sexuality, a planned 6 volume work, of which only 3 were published after his death. Power-- how it works, how it affects social control was a major theme running through much of his work as he examined major institutions in society. Foucault lectured widely, both in France and abroad, including in the United States at the University at Buffalo and the Universty of California, Berkeley. In this audio excerpt (from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhHauu-t_g0 ) Foucault discusses key ideas from Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. .
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September 6, 2012
Segment 1 | "A History of the American Physique" ( 2012).
On this episode of Backstory the History Guys "look at how body ideals have changed through the centuries, and explore some of the ways Americans have attempted to perfect their physiques. They take on the 19th century science of "nasology" - which held that the shape of a person's nose was the key to understanding their character - and ask why this theory emerged when it did. They also examine the reasons why skinniness became desireable for middle-class men long before it was valued by women. And they consider the Cold War roots of that bane of school children everywhere: the Presidential Physical Fitness Test."
Segment 2 | Archival Audio: Jack LaLanne: "Exercise for the Hips"
The intersections of consumer culture and the promotion of physical fitness are longstanding. In 1951 Jack Lalanne was among the first to use television and other mass media to bring his message promoting physical fitness, and associated products, to a mass audience. His career spanned over 60 years and continued until his death in 1914. This audio excerpt is from a 1959 album that also promoted the "Glamour Stretcher," a resistance band device. Among the many video excerpts availabe on-line, this You Tube clip presents Lalanne's debut "Trimtastics" show from 1951.
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August 30, 2012
Segment 1 | "Conventional Wisdom: A History of American Political Conventions" ( 2012).
Today's political conventions feature well-managed stagecraft to show off a party's chosen candidates to best advantage. However, as this piece from Backstory, http://backstoryradio.org explores: "American political conventions haven’t always been so predictable. Before becoming scripted for television, conventions were often where pressing issues of the day got hashed out and careers were made or ruined. Over the course of the hour, the History Guys consider the radical roots of the convention ritual itself and explore the ways that ritual was mainstreamed while hearing the voices of anti-corruption crusaders in the 1820s, women’s rights activists at Seneca Falls,, and civil rights workers in 1964, all of whom turned to conventions as venues for change.
Segment 2 | Archival Audio: Hubert Humphrey at the 1948 Democratic Convention.
While Hubert Humphrey is better remembered as a United States Senator from Minnesota, Lyndon Johnson's Vice-President, and a presidential candidate in 1968, having been nominated at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, his strong stand in support of civil rights was evident much earlier in his career. In this speech at the 1948 Convention he delivered the minority report taking a strong stand on civil rights, marking the begining of the realignment of the Democratic Party and particularly the erosion of support for the party by white southern democrats. The audio comes from the Minnesota Historical Society Website: http://www.mnhs.org/library/tips/history_topics/42humphreyspeech/transcript.htm.
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August 23, 2012
This week Talking History is taking a brief summer break. We invite you to browse past shows by using the search function on the left.
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August 16, 2012
Segment 1 | "City On a Hill: American Exceptionalism" (2012).
Backstory notes that "Almost two centuries after Alexis de Tocqueville said that the U.S. was an exceptional case in the history of modern nations, the idea of "American Exceptionalism" is alive and well. Almost every GOP candidate for president in 2012 invoked the notion, each suggesting that President Obama doesn't sufficiently embrace it. And so you might be surprised that, 90 years ago, it was American communists who were Exceptionalism's biggest fans. From the Puritan vision of a "city upon a hill" to the 19th century concept of manifest destiny; from Woodrow Wilson's vision of the U.S. as a worldwide model to Ronald Reagan's invocation of the Puritans; this episode looks at the changing meanings of Exceptionalism, and explores some of the ways Americans have invoked history to justify their sense of superiority in the world." More details on this and all Backstory programs at http://backstoryradio.org.
Segment 2 | Archival Audio: "Frederick Jackson Turner's Frontier Thesis"
Audio excerpt from http://listentogenius.com/author.php/302. Debates about American exceptionalism were very much in evidence during the 1893 American Historical Association meeting in Chicago in 1893 when an American historian from the University of Wisconsin, Frederick Jackson Turner delivered his soon-to-be seminal essay, "The Significance of the Frontier in American History.” Arguing that the America’s frontier– which continually shifted westward over the 18th and 19th centuries, was the defining element in the forging of America’s political and social character. The frontier, Turner argued, forged a unique egalitarian, democratic, and innovative spirit, that differentiated America from its European progenitors. The essay was the foundation of what came to be known as the “Frontier Thesis.” Turner also argued that America’s frontier heritage was coming to an end in the 1890s as the peopling of the continent was rapidly eliminating existing national frontiers.
For more information on Turner and the Frontier Thesis, see the following: http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/s_z/turner.htm; John Mack Faragher, Rereading Frederick Jackson Turner: The Significance of the Frontier in American History, and Other Essays (New York, N.Y.: H. Holt, 1994); Allan G. Bogue, Frederick Jackson Turner: Strange Roads Going Down (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1998); Martin Ridge, Frederick Jackson Turner: Wisconsin's Historian of the Frontier (Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1986); Ray Allen Billington, The Genesis of the Frontier Thesis: A Study in Historical Creativity (San Marino, Calif.: Huntington Library, 1971); Ray Allen Billington, Frederick Jackson Turner: Historian, Scholar, Teacher (New York: Oxford University Press, 1973); Wilbur R. Jacobs, The Historical World of Frederick Jackson Turner, with Selections from his Correspondence (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1968); Richard Hofstadter, The Progressive Historians: Turner, Beard, Parrington (New York: Knopf, 1968); Wilbur R. Jacobs, Turner, Bolton, and Webb: Three Historians of the American Frontier (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1965); George Rogers Taylor, The Turner Thesis (Boston: Heath, 1949); Dixon Ryan Fox, Sources of Culture in the Middle West: Backgrounds Versus Frontier (New York: Russell & Russell, 1964); Ronald H Carpenter, The Eloquence of Frederick Jackson Turner (San Marino, Calif.: Huntington Library, 1983); James D. Bennett, Frederick Jackson Turner (Boston : Twayne Publishers, 1975).
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August 9, 2012
Segment 1 | "Parricide: A Murder Close to Home " (2012).
This story of murder, family strife, and domestice violence in Upstate New York comes to us from Hindsight and the Austrailian Broadcasting Corporation: "In 1873, 19-year-old Frank Walworth shot his violent father Mansfield dead in a Manhattan hotel. This was no murder mystery: the youth claimed he had acted chivalrously to save his mother, Ellen, from his father's vicious, homicidal threats. The Walworths of Saratoga Springs, New York, were a family more accustomed to setting moral standards than to facing moral judgment—they might have commanded respect in 19th century America, but they could do little to stem the interest of the press and the public in the domestic tragedy.... Domestic violence is a recently coined term that describes a problem with historic roots. Nineteenth century feminists petitioned successfully for women’s right to divorce, but legal remedies do not guarantee safe outcomes, as Ellen Walworth and her son—and Mansfield Walworth—discovered." Additional details and background at Hindsight and The Walworth Memorial Museum, Saratoga Springs History Museum .
Segment 2 | Archival Audio Segment: "An American Tragedy"
Our featured piece includes selections from an audiobook http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcovKsjvVgM&feature=related of Theodore Dreiser's classic 1925 novel, An American Tragedy and an audio excerpt http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxCcek5eUT4 from the 1931 film by Joseph Sternberg, based on the novel. A fitting companion to this week's main selection, Dreiser's work was inspired by newspaper accounts of a 1906 murder in the Adirondack mountains of New York State. A later 1951 film, A Place in the Sun, was also based on the novel. It was nominated for and won several Academy Awards and selected for inclusion in the National Film Registry of the LIbrary of Congress. Much more on Dreiser and his work is at the C-Span: American Writers http://www.americanwriters.org/writers/dreiser.asp and The Library of America http://www.loa.org/volume.jsp?RequestID=189 Web sites.
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August 2, 2012
Segment 1 | "Committed: Marriage In America" (
2012).
Marriage - and who can or should be allowed to marry has been much in the news in recent years. Backstory provides long view as they consider the history of the institution and its shifting defintions noting "When President Obama became the first American president to publicly support same-sex marriage, he acknowledged a trend in American culture: that marriage - the laws, as well as social conventions and expectations surrounding it - have long been subject to change." The History Guys ask "who’s been allowed to marry whom, and consider what has been at stake when couples break the rules. More than that, why have some disagreements about marriage melted away as others have become more contentious? And how have the rules we make about marriage changed the shapes of our families and influenced our society?" Visit the Backstory Web site for more information about this and all of their programs, http://backstoryradio.org.
Segment 2 | Archival Audio Segment: "Ought I to Marry?"
As our featured piece notes, changing ideas and expectations about marriage can be traced in the pages of women's magazines as well as other published sources. Here, we hear a LibriVox recording of chapter 3, "Ought I to Marry?" by Dr. Ellsworth Huntington, in The Good Housekeeping Marriage Book, published in 1938 and edited by William F. Bigelow. This collection is drawn from articles offering advice on courtship, child rearing, and marriage that appeared in the magazine. Similar topics were covered by other women's magazines and through them one can see the evolution of attitudes towards love, marriage, children, and more. Good Housekeeping made its debut in 1885 and is still published today.
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July 25, 2012
Segment 1 | "You've Got Mail: The History of the Post Office" (2012).
In this segement Backstory looks at the history of the U.S. Post Office and its once central role in American life noting that "... for the more than two hundred years the U.S. Post Office played a central role in American life. It was not only the institution that allowed us to communicate with each other across state lines and beyond, but it played a vital part in our country's political organization and hierarchies. In this episode, the History Guys explore the rise - and fall - of our postal system. We consider the how the Post Office stitched together a disparate country in the nation's early days and look at the ways the USPS has been on the cutting edge of technology. We also poke some holes in the myth of the Pony Express." Visit the Backstory Web site for more information about this and all of their programs, http://backstoryradio.org.
Segment 2 | Archival Audio Segment: "Excerpt from "Night Mail"
This audio segment from is taken from the classic documentary film "Night Mail" produced in 1936, to celebrate the British postal service and produced by the film unit of the General Post Office (GPO), http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/530415/. This lyrical selection features the poetry of W.H. Auden set to a score by Benjamin Britten. See a detailed synopsis and production details of the film at the British Film Institute Web site http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/530415/
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July 19, 2012
Segment 1 | "Native American Remains: Robbing and Repatriation" (2012).
This audio segment combines a 2 part Against the Graininterview from with Tony Platt, author of Grave Matters: Excavating California’s Buried Past. It explores how "Native American remains were routinely dug up and collected over a period of almost two centuries; by some estimates, one million skeletons were looted. How could this happen? And what role did museums, as well as academics based at places like UC Berkeley, play in these large-scale desecrations? Ad what efforts are being made to repatriate Native American remains that were excavated over a period of almost two hundred years. has written an expose.
Segment 2 | Archival Audio: "The Premature Burial"
Produced by KUER Radio West and Salt Lake City's Plan B Theatre Company for a 10/31/200 Halloween broadcast on Edgar Allan Poe. From a short story by Poe.
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July 12, 2012
Segment 1 | "Mexico's Revolutionary Tradition" (2012).
From Against the Grain, C.S. Soong notes that: "Mexico has a grand revolutionary tradition, a radical lineage that James Cockcroft argues lives on in current-day struggles both within Mexico and among US-based immigrants. Cockcroft discusses the radical visions of the revolutionaries of 1910-1917; the ideological roots of waves of resistance to Mexican and US elites; and the elections-related turmoil that's periodically plagued Mexico."
Segment 2 | Archival Audio: "The National Recovery Act: Promotion & Repeal"
This audio includes 2 segments related to the National Recovery Act of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, including original audio and video from the Internet Archive, http://archive.org/details/National1933. The second segment is a newsreel announcing the Supreme Court Decision to overturn the National Recovery Act.
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July 5, 2012
This week Talking History is taking a break for the July 4th holiday, but the folks at Backstory revisited their examination of just how and when (1938) the fourth of July became a "paid day off." Visit Backstory to listen to "Independence Daze: A History of July Fourth." http://backstoryradio.org/july42012.