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Aural History Productions
Talking History, based at the University at Albany, State University of New York, is a production, distribution, and instructional center for all forms of "aural" history. Our mission is to provide teachers, students, researchers and the general public with as broad and outstanding a collection of audio documentaries, speeches, debates, oral histories, conference sessions, commentaries, archival audio sources, and other aural history resources as is available anywhere. We hope to expand our understanding of history by exploring the audio dimensions of our past, and we hope to enlarge the tools and venues of historical research and publication by promoting production of radio documentaries and other forms of aural history. In addition to our weekly radio program, we are engaged in numerous educational efforts, from running and sponsoring workshops to offering full-semester courses on radio production and oral history. Some of the most talented radio producers and engineers currently working in public and non-commercial radio now contribute to Talking History—both to our programming and to our educational efforts through production workshops. Here, you'll also find digital archives of their enormously creative and captivating works. Our weekly broadcast/internet radio program, Talking History, focuses on all aspects of history. Follow the link to the left, "The Radio Show," for more information on the program and to access the live WWW broadcast. Below you will find our latest archived shows; use the drop-down menu to the left to access to our full radio archive.
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May 16, 2013
Segment 1 | "Judy Juanita on the Black Panthers" (2013).
At a time when the world was changing, the Black Panther Party in Oakland came along to transform the US civil rights movement. How has the world changed (or not) since? What lessons can we learn from the Panthers' radical perspective on US society? Judy Juanita, a member of the party in its early days, describes in her debut novel those times and the people she knew. Juanita is the author of Virgin Soul (Viking, 2013) and "Five Comrades in the Black Panther Party, 1967-1970," in Black Bird Press News & Review.
Segment 2 | "Bobby Seale on Black Power."
"Bobby" [Robert George] Seale was a co-founder of the Black Panther Party in Oakland and the 8th defendent in the famous "Chicago 7" [8] Trial. Here we present a segment of a speech he made (probably back in the late1960s). For more information on his life and career, see the brief biography at: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAseale.htm. For information on the "Chicago 7" [8] Trial, see: http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/chicago7/chicago7.html For more audio (and video) selections on the Black Panthers -- including more from Bobby Seale, go to: http://www.negroartist.com/black%20panthers/black%20panthers.htm.
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May 9, 2013
Segment 1 | "Searching for Answers: The Searchers" (2013).
From the Virginia Foundation For the Humanities and Backstory (backstoryradio.org)-- we bring you this look at how wars end: "On May 1st, 2003, President George W. Bush stood on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln and declared an end to major US combat operations in Iraq. Yet the war would drag on for almost a decade after “Mission Accomplished,” with the majority of casualties occurring after that famous pronouncement.
But have America’s other wars had neat or definitive endings? In this episode, BackStory casts its gaze over prominent conflicts of the last three centuries, and explores what it takes to end a war — both in legal terms, and in the popular imagination.
From military and diplomatic maneuvers, to courtroom battles and ongoing cultural conflict, the Guys and their guests explore whether wars ever really end. Guests include: Colin Calloway, Dartmouth College;
Amy Greenberg, Pennsylvania State University;
Michael Gorman, historian and consultant for the film Lincoln;
Elizabeth Varon, University of Virginia;
Gideon Rose, editor of Foreign Affairs;
Mary Dudziak, Emory University School of Law.
Segment 2 | Douglas McCarthur Addresses Congress (1951).
President Harry S. Truman, on April 11th,1951, relieved General of the Army Douglas MacArthur--commander of the United Nations forces fighting in Korea--of his command. He did so because of dfifferences on strategies in waging the war but more specifically because McCarthur took his disagreements into the public realm -- making public statements that contradicted Truman's positions. MacArthur's popularity made this an exceptionally controversial action on the part of Truman and McCarthur was soon invited by Congress to address that body. He did so in his famous "Farewell Speech," delivered on April 19th, 1951. Here we present part of what he said. You can SEE MacArthur delivering the speech on YouTube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tuagi9kZe8A. For the full TEXT of his speech, see: http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/koreanwar/documents/index.php?documentdate=1951-04-19&documentid=ma-2-18&pagenumber=1.
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March 21, 2013
Segment 1 | "Backstory: Real to Reel ~ History at the Movies" (2013).
Backstory's back! This time, the History Guys are looking at the movies: "Six of this year’s nine nominees for Best Picture at the Oscars are films based in history. That may seem like a lot, but for the past 40 years, the majority of Best Picture winners have had an historical bent. On this episode we ask what makes history such a popular subject for American filmmakers.
From the early days of film — when people thought movies would replace textbooks in the classroom — to the Cold War — when the government and Hollywood thought they could control behavior through film — the History Guys look at the impact of history on celluloid culture, and at how movies have made and remade history. They also debate the merits of current Oscar nominees (Lincoln, Zero Dark Thirty, and Django Unchained) and consider the ways those movies reflect contemporary thinking about history." For more information on Backstory and this segment, go to their Web site at: http://backstoryradio.org/on-the-clock-a-brief-history-of-time/,
Segment 2 | "Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator (1940; final speech / audio track selection)."
This is the final speech from the film The Great Dictator, written, produced and starring Charlie Chaplin. It is one of the most eloquent statements of the filmmaker's humanitarian philosophy. It was one of the more commecially successful of his films. Released in 1940, the film an obvious condemnation of Hitler and Mussolini. For more informaton on The Great Dictator, see: http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/157939%7C0/The-Great-Dictator-The-Essentials.html
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March 14, 2013
Segment 1 | "Backstory: On the Clock: A (Brief ) History of Time." (2013).
In 1883, the a coalition of railroad officials carved the continental U.S. into five time zones, introducing Americans to the idea of “standard time.” Twenty five years later, the revolutionary idea was codified into law, with the 1918 Standard Time Act" In this episode, Backstory and the American History Guys take a look at "the impact of those powerful Gilded Age railroads, and look at the role of economic forces in shaping America’s relationship with the clock: . . . . how people have experienced the rhythm of night and day — and why the advent of electric lighting changed that rhythm forever." For more information on Backstory and this segment, go to their Web site at: http://backstoryradio.org/on-the-clock-a-brief-history-of-time/,
Segment 2 | "T. S. Elliot's The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (published 1915; recitation circa 1940s)."
The poet and critic T. S. Eliot (1888-1965) was one of the most accomplished practioners of modernist poetry. Here we present one of Elliot's earlier forays into interior dialogic writing, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," completed around 1910 and published in 1915. In its rumination about time, mortality, sexuality, regret, and the most mundane aspect of the human condition, Elliot anticipated a whole generation's exploration of the tragic and neurotic aspects of modern life,
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March 7, 2013
Segment 1 | "Culture Shock, 1913" (2013).
| MP3 unavailable by request of producers. |
"Culture Shock 1913" explores a seminal year in development of cultural modernism. It comes to us from WNYC: "What a year was 1913! Many have called it the true beginning of 20th century culture. From New York, where the first large-scale show of modern art alarmed viewers, to Vienna and Paris, where music by Schoenberg and Stravinsky sparked audience riots --- it was a year of artistic upset and audience apoplexy! A hundred years later, WNYC's Sara Fishko and guests tell the story of this Mad Modernist moment of sweeping change, and the ways in which it mirrors our own uncertain age. Producd by WNYC, New York Public Radio. Producer/Host Sara Fishko Guests: Museum of Modern Art's Ann Temkin; author Philipp Blom; pianist Jeremy Denk; Neuroscientist and Nobel Laureate Dr. Eric Kandel; The New Yorker's Joan Acocella and Alex Ross; author Frederic Morton; Conductor and educator Leon Botstein; and others."
Segment 2 | "John Reed in Mexica, 1913"
1913 was also an important political year. The Mexican Revolution was heating up and drawing the attention of the American press. In that year, young reporter John Reed (1887-1920) was sent to Mexico by the Metropolitan Magazine to report on that revolution. Joining Pancho Villa's army for four months, the "embedded" reporter sent out regular reports on what he observed. Here is a reading of a selection of one of Reed's dispatches -- later compiled and published in Insurgent Mexico. You can listen to the rest of the readings at http://archive.org/details/insurgent_mexico_1207_librivox and www.librivox.org. For more information on Reed and his career (he later wrote a seminal work on the Russian Revolution, Ten Days That Shook The World), go to: http://www.marxists.org/archive/reed/index.htm.
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February 28, 2013
Segment 1 | "Inside Robbers Cave" (2013).
Today we bring you a documentary from Radio National/Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Hindsight -- about a series of sociological experiments in intergroup hostility that took place in the 1950s: "In 1954 at a small national park in rural Oklahoma, Turkish-American psychologist Muzafer Sherif brought two groups of 11-year-old boys to a summer camp. The boys, from Oklahoma city, arrived at the camp excited at the prospect of three weeks outdoors. What they didn't know and what they were never told was that their behaviour over the next three weeks would be studied, analysed, discussed and used in theories about war, interracial conflict and prejudice for generations to come. Almost 60 years since it was conducted, it's still cited in psychology textbooks today. But what's less well known is that the Robbers Cave was Sherif's third attempt to generate peace between warring groups. The earlier studies were the 1949 'Happy Valley Camp' study in Connecticut, and the second was his 1953 'Camp Talualac' study. 'Inside the Robbers Cave' tells the story of two of the three studies. Producer Gina Perry's research unearths a tale of drama, failure, mutiny and intrigue that has been overlooked in official accounts of Sherif's research. The program features original archival audio from recordings made during 1953 and 1954."
Segment 2 | "William Golding's Lord of the Flies (1954).
Here is a short reading from a classic 1950s work on inter-group hostility. Published in 1954, William Goldng's allegorical Lord of the Flies has since become required reading for many students around the world. The book offers a commentary on post WWII "civilization" and reflects the concern of many post-War writers about human nature in light of the murderous era they had just witnessed.
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February 21, 2013
Segment 1 | "Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times" (2013).
Today we bring you a discussion from ACTION SPEAKS! focusing on Charlie Chaplin's 1936 classic film, Modern Times: "Chaplin previews a world beyond the factory and unionism where one's identity is as fragile as one's last pay check and where even a walk into the sunset leads to nowhere in particular.
In our discussion, we will look at the many ways that for Chaplin, Modern Times was a film living 'in the between,' with its meanings similarly situated. Debuting in 1936, almost ten years after the advent of sound, this film marked the first time Chaplin quite reluctantly left the pantomime style of the silent film and drifted hesitantly into allowing the public to hear the sound of his voice. From a political point of view, shot in the midst of the great depression, Modern Times was both a skeptical look at the depersonalization of the industrial world, and an unclear vision of the alternative. At once terrified of the inhumane qualities of the assembly line and modern surveillance techniques, Chaplin in this film seems to also view unionism with reluctance. The Tramp, now showing his wear and age, fits nowhere. He lives in an imagined past without strong connection to a realized future." The discussion features: Charles Musser, Professor of American Studies, Film Studies, and Theater Studies at Yale University where he teaches courses on silent cinema and documentary. His books include The Emergence of Cinema: The American Screen to 1907 (1990). He recently completed the documentary Errol Morris: A Lightning Sketch (2012) with Carina Tautu.
Maureen Reddy, Professor and Chair of the English Department a Rhode Island College. Her books include Crossing the Color Line: Race, Parenting, and Culture, Evteryday Acts Against Racism, and Traces, Codes, and Clues: Reading Race in Crime Fiction. Her current project focuses on race in Irish popular culture, 1988-present.
Philip Rosen is a Professor of Modern Culture and Media at Brown University. He works in the fields of film theory and history, with special attention to questions of culture and ideology, and to historiography and temporality in the contexts of a variety of national cinemas. Rosen's most recent book, Change Mummified: Cinema, Historicity, Theory, relates problems in contemporary film and cultural theory to theories of history, arguing for a special relationship between onceptions of film and conceptions of history.
Segment 2 | "Desk Set (film soundtrack selection; 1957)
Machines and their potential threat to human labor (in this case, intellectual labor) was a theme in this romantic comedy from 1957, Desk Set, featuring Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn. Here we offer you a short, edited audio excerpt from the film.
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February 14, 2013
Segment 1 | "Rules of Engagement: Ethics in Warfare" (2013).
Backstory looks at warfare and ethics in this week's segment of Talking History: "America’s use of targeted drone strikes in Pakistan and elsewhere raise questions about what is—and is not—an appropriate means of waging war. In this episode, the American History Guys look at how previous generations have answered these sorts of questions. They explore the shockingly violent battle tactics of Europeans in comparison to original Indian ways of war. And, at a time when many fear that chemical weapons may be deployed in Syria, the History Guys consider what made the use of chemical weapons taboo in the first place."
Segment 2 | "Clausewitz On War."
Here's a LibriVox reading selection from German-Prussian soldier and military theorist Carl Philipp Gottfried von Clausewitz's classic treatise on military strategy, Vom Kriege (On War), published posthumously in 1832. For more information on Clausewitz and On War, see: http://www.clausewitz.com/index.htm.
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February 7, 2013
Segment 1 | "Justice Denied."
Segment 2 | "The Narrative of Sojourner Truth" (from LibriVox).
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Segment 2 | Samuel Coleridge's "Kubla Khan" (from LibriVox).
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m_golding_lord_of_the_flies(selection)
From Backstory and the American History Guys: "As the rest of Washington looks forward to the next four years, BackStory is looking back — at the last 224 years of presidential transitions. On today's show, the History Guys focus in on several of the most high-stakes presidential inaugurations, and ask what these moments tell us about the social and political forces at work around them.
Why was Washington's voice trembling when he took the Oath of Office? Why did Lincoln's contemporaries greet his now-famous second inaugural… with a shrug? What incoming president in the 1870s feared the specter of a rival inauguration by armed opponents? And in the larger scheme of things, why do inaugurations really matter, anyway?
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Guests Include:
Joanne Freeman, Yale University, on the incredibly high stakes of the nation's first U.S. presidential inauguration.
Tim McBride, former personal aide to George H.W. Bush, on how to project the right inaugural image.
William J. Cooper, Louisiana State University, on the three inaugurations of Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
George Rable, University of Alabama, on Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural address, an extraordinary speech that garnered a collective shrug in its own time.
Greg Downs, City College of New York, on the specter of a two dueling inaugurations after the hotly disputed election of 1876.
Segment 2 | "John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Speech" (January 20, 1961).
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For this audio segment, please use "RealMedia" link, rather than embedded player. "From the founding of the Ku Klux Klan by ex-Confederate officers, through the defeat of Reconstruction: How history is made and remade, with historical myths, including how the Klan ‘saved the South’ from carpetbagger incompetence and corruption and Freedmen’s brutality, considered and debated in the light of rare recorded testimony by ex-slaves and others. Told in the words of actual eyewitnesses and engaged historians, and with rare field recordings (oral histories and music both) from the period." This is the first installment of the award-winning Between Civil War and Civil Rights series, produced by Listening Between the Lines. For more information on other series segments, contact producer Alan Lipke at listeningbetweenthelines.org@verizon.net.
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From the Action Speaks Fall 2012 season, Private Rights and Public Fights: "In 1908, a young teacher and photographer, Lewis Hine, was hired by the National Child Labor Committee to document evidence of child labor primarily on the East Coast and in the South. Hine had previously photographed arriving immigrants at Ellis Island and even then, his photos showed an extraordinary sensibility, one filled with respect, dignity, and equality. Hine's work helped introduce America to the issues of child labor at a time when the glories of Industrialization were filling the coffers of the rich, while beginning ever so slightly, to offer promises of economic advancement for those of the working class. Hine's pictures were worth more than a thousand words as he established the camera as an actor in social change. His heirs are many: the Photo League, Sebastian Salgado and perhaps even social documentary filmmakers like Michael Moore. Today artists continue to bear witness to perceived injustices, while at the same time prompting post-modern questions about the "objectivity" of the photograph and its makers."
Segment 2 | Archival Audio: "Booker T. Washington: Character Building"
This audio excerpt is Chapter 19, The Gospel of Service from a a talk given by Booker T. Washinton. From Librivox and Archive.Org: "Character Building is a compilation of speeches, given by Mr. Booker T. Washington, to the students and staff of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute (now known as Tuskegee University). Booker T. Washington was one of the most prominent leaders in advancing African-American civil rights. Born into slavery and freed as a young boy, he rose through the ranks of education to eventually earn his position as principal of Tuskegee. Under his guidance, the school was built, by students and for students, to give them a deeply meaningful education. Mr. Washington stressed the importance of developing oneself for life-long success. He strived to imbue in his students the highest personal standards, and these speeches represent the core messages he gave. (Originally published by Doubleday, Page & Co., NY, in 1902.). The reading and sound recording is from LibriVox.
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Backstory explores the history of college sports: "From Taylor Branch’s controversial article about college sports for The Atlantic to the tragic scandal uncovered at Penn State, the relationship between higher education and college athletics has provided some of the most heated controversies of the year. But why do sports even exist at colleges and universities? .... The American History Guys unpack the origins of college sports, and the ways universities have justified athletics on campus. Peter, Ed, and Brian take us to Amherst College in the 19th century, where the first collegiate Phys. Ed. program blossomed. They also recount a little-known story about the integration of the University of Alabama’s football team."
Segment 2 | Archival Audio: "President Eisenhower Proclaims Hawiian Statehood"
After a long and contested struggle, Hawaii become the 50th and most recent state admitted to the Union. In this audio clip from August 21, 1959, President Dwight D. Eishenhower proclaims Hawaii's statehood. See the National Archives site, http://www.archives.gov/legislative/features/hawaii/ for additional
documents ranging from Queen Liliuokalani's December 19, 1898 letter
to the U.S. House of Representatives protesting U.S. assertion of ownership of Hawaii, to the
Certificate of Election for Representative Daniel K. Inouyeon August 21, 1959, as Hawaii's first voting member of the U.S. House of Representatives. One perspective on Hawaiian statehood is found in Gerald Horne's book, Fighting in Paradise: Labor Unions, Racism, and Communists in the Making of Modern Hawaii, University of Hawaii Press 2011. http://www.uhpress.hawaii.edu/p-8554-9780824835026.aspx. ~ ~ ~ ~
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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
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Segment 2 | Archival Audio: "Ayn Rand and Objectivism (1959)"
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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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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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"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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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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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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This one-hour documentary comes to us from Humankind. It ' examines the fascinating historical role played by U.S. federal courts in enforcing slavery. Produced in association with WGBH/Boston. . . . We revisit how a Boston judge's decision to order a runaway slave returned to his Virginia owner provoked the largest abolitionist protest the nation had ever seen. Then an in-depth look at the Supreme Court's famous Dred Scott ruling -- adamantly opposed by Abraham Lincoln -- that blacks "have no rights a white man is bound to respect". To what extent did these and other cases inflame tensions leading to the Civil War and damage the reputation of the federal judiciary? Featuring Pulitzer Prize-winning Lincoln historian Eric Foner, Museum of African-American History director Beverly Morgan-Welch, Duke Univ. law professor Paul Finkelman as well as dramatic readings from Frederick Douglass and others."
Here is a LibriVox reading of a selection from The Narrative of Sojourner Truth, "the gripping autobiographical account of Sojourner Truth's life as a slave in pre-Civil War New York State, and her eventual escape to Freedom. Since Sojourner could neither read or write, she dictated her story to Olive Gilbert after they met at a Women’s Rights rally. The Narrative was first published in 1850, and was widely distributed by the Abolitionist Movement. It was one of the catalysts for the rise of anti-slavery public opinion in the years leading up to the Civil War. Though Olive Gilbert's writing about Sojourner takes on a patronizing tone at times (a weakness of some Abolitionists), The Narrative of Sojourner Truth remains a moving and historic document, chronicling the struggles of African-Americans under slavery and the life of a truly remarkable woman." [Marc Kockinos] For the full reading, go to Librivox.org.January 31, 2013
Segment 1 | "All Hooped Up: Drugs in America" (2013).
Here's another informative piece from Backstory and the American History Guys: December, recreational marijuana use became legal in Washington and Colorado. But back in the early 20th century, both states were among the first to ban the drug. If that seems like a radical change, well – it’s hardly the first time a drug has undergone a major image overhaul in America. This week, we trace the changing face of drugs – and drug users – in the U.S.
We start in the 19th century, when opium and cocaine were perfectly legal, and heroin was touted as for cure for morphine addiction. And we bring the story right on up through the 1970s, when Vietnam vets and suburban housewives triggered two very different drug panics. Throughout, we’ll look trace the story of the criminalization – and in the case of pot, decriminalization — of those substances. Along the way, we explore the influence of the medical establishment, as well as the role of popular culture, in shaping American attitudes about drugs."
Written after taking a dose of laudanum -- essentially opium -- used as a medicine in the 19th century. Coleridge fell into a deep sleep and dreamt about a Mongol emperor named Kubla Khan. He dreamt he was writing a poem about Khan and when he awoke, he indeed began to write the poem about the emperor. "Kubla Khan" was the result. The poem became a classic and one of the most recognizable of Coleridge's poetry. Here we present a Librivox recording of a reading of the Poem (one of 19 different recordings of the poem). For more information and for other readings of the poem, go to: http://librivox.org/kubla-khan-by-samuel-taylor-coleridge/.January 24, 2013
Segment 1 | "Presidential Inaugurations" (2008
After a night of heavy snow which almost led to the cancellation of inaugural ceremonies, John F. Kennedy went on to deliver his inaugural address on January 20, 1961. He offered an estimation of the domestic and foreign policy challenges that the nation faced (and would continue to face) as a new decade dawned. The oath of office was administered by Chief Justice Earl Warren and Robert Frost read one of his poems at the ceremony. Here we offer you Kennedy's full address.
January 17, 2013
Segment 1 | "1865-1876: How the South (or White Supremacy) Won the Civil War"
January 10, 2013
Segment 1 | "1908: Lewis Hine Documents Child Labor"
January 3, 2013
Segment 1 | "Turf Wars: A History of College Sports"
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.December 20, 2012
Segment 1 | "Apocalypse Then and Now: A History of End Times"
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.
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.
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.
November 28, 2012
Segment 1 | "Straight Shot: Guns in America "
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.
November 15, 2012
Segment 1 | "Theodore Roosevelt's 1912 Third Party Bid to be President "
November 8, 2012
Segment 1 | "Small Island, Big Shadow: Cuba and the US "
November 1, 2012
Segment 1 | "Thenceforward and Forever Free: The Emancipation Proclamation"