Print things and publish things. It is not a freedom for what we now refer to institutionally as the press. Lectures in history on American History tv on cspan3. Every saturday at 8 00 p. M. Eastern. Lecture s in history is always available as podcast. Find it where you listen to podcasts. This week on q a, president ial historian Richard Norton smith discusses his book, an uncommon man, the triumph of Herbert Hoover. Richard smith, why kdid you call your book you wrote 35 years ago, uncommon man . Its taken from the title of a relatively famous hoover speech about the uncommon man. You remember Vice President henry wallace, who was the second of fdrs Vice President s, gave a famous speech in 1942, maybe 43, about the common man. And wallace, from the left of center, perspective, was projecting in effect the goals and am birgss of the generation that was fighting world war ii. It wasnt enough to simply beat the nadzis, but to create at home, a true democracy. A place where the common m
Captioning performed by vitac its a spy story, its a humanitarian story, its a political and diplomatic story. Hoover was not very diplomatic by nature. The interesting thing is lou said later on that he was never the same after belgium. What he saw particularly the children. Remember, he was an orphan. All his life, there was something about hoover, he was not naturally gifted in social interaction. But with children, there was a different person. And belgium stamped him, for better or worse. The other remarkable thing again, building on what we said earlier, it was all voluntary. He appealed to the American People. He said, again, the American People, if you tell them what you need, they will give you their shirt off their backs. And there is a you go to west branch, the records are there. It is its a remarkable story there was one group, i think there was a kansas club of new york, who were going to build a clubhouse. And instead of building the clubhouse, they gave hoover the 500,0
Candidate, eugene debs. This is a class at columbia university, of course i called the american radical tradition, and we started with the American Revolution and have been going through the Abolitionist Movement, early feminism, the civil war reconstruction, labor conflict and the gilded age, the populist movement, and now we are sort of entering into the 20th century and in the next couple of weeks, we will look at the progressive era, a period of, a lot of labor unrest, Industrial Workers of the world, the Womens Suffrage Movement coming to the four. Municipal reform, many other things, but today our subject is, the socialist party, the rise of socialism as a key element of american radicalism in new early 20th century. On our reading list, the chapter by michael kaizen gives a good quick summary on the various kinds of socialism at the time. From 1860 onward, there had been some kind of socialist presence in the United States, but largely confined to immigrants from europe, particu
Richard norton smith, why did you call your book that you wrote 35 years ago uncommon man . Well, its taken, actually, from the title of a relatively famous hoover speech about the uncommon man. Remember, Vice President henry wallace, who was the second of fdrs Vice President s, gave a famous speech in 1942, i believe, maybe43, about the century of the common man. And wallace, from a left of center perspective, was projecting, in effect, the goals and ambitions of the generation that was fighting world war ii. And it wasnt enough simply to defeat the nazis, but to create at home a true democracy. A place where the common man would finally come into his own. And hoover approached this from a different place on the political spectrum. He was, in effect, making the case for what we might call a meritocracy. But something to say, that i shouldnt paraphrase it, but, you know, when you get sick, you want an uncommonly skillful doctor. When we go to war, we want an uncommonly able general. Yo
As we face a president ial Election Year and prepare for it, it will be an insight all of us can benefit from. The second is the speaker umwelf, our esteemed Professor Emeritus of history william b. Crawley william b. Crawley , he has just completed 50 years on the faculty of university of the Mary Washington he has compete he has contributed in numerous ways. Our Historic Preservation program in the creation of this great life series among them. It is for his excellence in teaching his perhaps best known. And to thousands of our students who have come through our halls. He has received our institution highest honors in teaching from his colleagues and his students. Many of whom through the years have voted him as the faculty member who has made the greatest impact upon their lives. Dr. Crawley through these years has become a true icon of this community. So, it is with great pleasure that i introduce Professor William b crawley, who, drawing upon his 50 years of teaching political his