For a longer piece. It is an extraordinary watershed, historical moment. I think we are living through a third american reconstruction effort to reconstruct democracy so that it is multiracial, multicultural. Our first efforts were after the civil war. 1865 to 1877. We did achieve some racial progress. We had black elected officials. 1500 we had a freedmens bureau. We had the creation of black churches and Public Schools, but we also institutionalized racial segregation rather quickly by the 1880s and 1890s. And we did it through racial violence and public policy. Our second reconstruction is the Civil Rights Movement between 1954 and 1965. When we think about Public School desegregation and the Voting Rights act and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. There was again racial progress, but that was really quickly closed off when we think about 1968. The assassination of Martin Luther king jr. , the assassination of Bobby Kennedy, the assassination of malcolm x. Now, we have another effort. In
Susan dr. Peniel joseph, you and i planned this interview three months back, but we got sideways with the covid lockdown. As a historian, how are you processing this time this country is going through . Prof. Joseph i have been writing a lot, both opeds in for a longer piece. It is extraordinary watershed moment. I think we are living through a third american reconstruction effort to reconstruct democracy so that it is multiracial, multicultural. Our first efforts were after the civil war. 1865 to 1877. We did achieve some racial progress. We had 15 black elected officials. We had a freedmens bureau. We had the creation of black churches and Public Schools, but we also institutionalized racial segregation rather quickly by the 1880s and 1890s. We did it through racial violence and public policy. Our second reconstruction is the Civil Rights Movement between 1954 and 1965. When we think about Public School desegregation and the Voting Rights act and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Bute wa
Theyre really quite intelligent, very intelligent, but are trained in a way that theyve been trained differently from the way we have so that they are interested in, you know, the impact visually and what people hear. And the overarching story or theme or thesis they want to put forward. And so whenever they come to historians, its not as theyre writing the work. It is usually after theyve already worked out in their mind what the opening scene is going to look like and the rest of it. And the story holds together well for them, for what they like to portray in one way. And then on the other side of it is working with the producers to find out whether theyll finance so you have to take into consideration what the producers want to see in this film, too. So they kind of are very collaborative and were only one piece, a small piece of the collaboration because they do come in with this. And its interesting because i want to know whether or not Steve Mcqueen actually shot the opening sequ
For example in january 1865, ab maryland has abolished slavery. Bn. The confederates are talking about offering limited emancipation in order for talk service in the army. Things have changed. This was not a debate they woult have in the cabinet in the way that Tony Horowitz or steven in spielberg portrayed. Such its such a wonderful thing to see, a film addressing such a fm complicated issues, but the timing is all wrong. Timi ecti from ave dramatic perspective, frostbite an Artistic License perspective is totally understandable. They need to create drama and tension. This is act i, right . S screenwriting 101, you set up tension and then you resolve itw i give them all the license they of this conflict between the tw conservatives and the radicals,o they have to introduce something that doesnt actually appear inc the book thats the basis for the film. tats t so the film is supposedly built around the team of rivals, doris kern goodmans book. But in the team of rivals, socalled seward
Lets go to the movies. For more than half a century, these words have meant an invitation to magic. The magic of moving pictures. The spinning of dreams in a darkened theater. For three decades, the dreams were silent ones. The magic of movement alone. Then suddenly, on a night in october 1927, a voice was heard from the screen. Proclaiming a fabulous era in hollywood. The night the movies became the talkies with the premiere of a jazz singer and the voice of al jolson. Its interesting the first sound Motion Picture was a musical in which al jolson only sang and the reason for that is they said, well, who wants to hear actors talk. Most of the running time its a silent film using titles with an orchestra score. Every once in a while the orchestra stops and jolson pops up and starts singing. Wonderful tales are always hard to find some folks have one some folks have none jolson always talked to his audience. He was known for his patter. And specifically, his catch phrase which hed been