Viniculture
Just in time for the celebration of New Year, join us as Talking History’s host, Bryan Le Beau, explores the history of wine making with Patrick McGovern, author of Ancient Wine: The Scientific Search for the Origins of Viniculture.
Airdate: December 29, 2003
Run Time: 29 Minutes
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Ira Chernus joins us again, this time to share his thoughts on Korea: Forgotten War: Tragic Peace.
Mel Gibson’s The Passion
Listen to Talking History’s host, Bryan Le Beau, and his guest, Paula Fredriksen, as they discuss the controversy surrounding Mel Gibson’s new film, The Passion. Paula Fredriksen is William Goodwin Aurelio Professor of the Appreciation of Scripture at Boston University’s School of Theology.
Airdate: December 22, 2003
Run Time: 29 Minutes
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Truman Scholar, Alonzo Hamby, will offer final words on the debate following the discovery of Harry S. Truman’s 1947 Diary and its contents.
The Wright Brothers
This week, Talking History’s Fred Nielsen, discusses the story of the Wright Brothers–Orville and Wilbur–with his guest, James Tobin. Their story, and that of their competitors, is told by guest James Tobin in his new book, To Conquer the Air: The Wright Brothers and the Great Race for Flight.
Airdate: December 15, 2003
Run Time: 29 Minutes
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Thomas Fleming joins again to share his thoughts on propaganda.
History’s Disquiet
Talking History’s Drew Bergerson will discuss modernologies–the history of modernity, with Harry Harootunian, professor of history, and director of East Asian Studies at New York University. Professor Harootunian is author of History’s Disquiet: Modernity, Cultural Practice, and the Question of Everyday Life.
Airdate: December 8, 2003
Run Time: 29 Minutes
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Our commentary is given by Ann Hulbert who reflects on the history of parenting.
The Louisiana Purchase
Talking History’s host, Bryan Le Beau, discusses how the reality of the Louisiana Purchase compares to Thomas Jefferson’s vision of the United States as a land of cultivators of the earth and of slavery with Roger Kennedy, author of Mr. Jefferson’s Lost Cause: Land, Farmers, Slavery and the Louisiana Purchase.
Airdate: December 1, 2003
Run Time: 29 Minutes
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James Banner joins us to add his thoughts on the Louisiana Purchase.
Gettysburg
This week we take a look at Gettysburg with Talking History’s Jim Madison, who discusses its changing role in public memory with Jim Weeks, author of Gettysburg: Memory, Market and an American Shrine.
Airdate: November 24, 2003
Run Time: 29 Minutes
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Alan Weisberg joins us to comment on Pocahontas.
John F. Kennedy
Talking History’s host, Bryan Le Beau, will discuss the life of John F. Kennedy with Robert Dallek, author of John F. Kennedy: An Unfinished Life.
Airdate: November 17, 2003
Run Time: 29 Minutes
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Joyce Appleby joins us to comment on the history of poverty in America.
World War II Soldiers
Talking History’s Jim Madison will discuss the experiences of American soldiers in Asia and the Pacific during WWII with Peter Schrijvers, author of The GI War Against Japan.
Airdate: November 10, 2003
Run Time: 29 Minutes
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Harvey Shapiro will comment on the poetry of WWII. Harvey Shapiro is the editor of a recent anthology, Poets of World War II.
Caligula
Anthony Barrett and Eileen Dugan continue their exploration of Ancient Rome as they discuss the notorious emperor Caligula.
Airdate: November 3, 2003
Run Time: 29 Minutes
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Edward Linenthal will comment on the Holocaust.
Agrippina
Eileen Dugan returns in conversation with Anthony Barrett–and the person under discussion is Agrippina, mother of Nero.
Airdate: October 27, 2003
Run Time: 29 Minutes
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Stephen Allen offers us his thoughts on gay rights.
Livia
Talking History takes a look at Ancient Rome in a three week series with Eileen Dugan. This week Dugan discusses Livia – wife of the emperor Augustus, with Anthony Barrett- author of Livia: First Imperial Lady of Rome. Anthony Barrett is Professor of History at the University of British Columbia.
Airdate: October 20, 2003
Run Time: 29 Minutes
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And to mark the end of Daylight Savings -Clark Blaise a historian of time, will comment on its history.
How Wars Are Won
Bevin Alexander author of How Wars Are Won: The 13 Rules of War From Ancient Greece to the War on Terror, discusses the history and rules of war with Talking History’s Drew Bergerson.
Airdate: October 13, 2003
Run Time: 29 Minutes
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Dr. Michael Radu, Senior Fellow at the Center on Terrorism and Counterterrorism will look at the history of American relations with Liberia.
The Crash of ’29
In October 1929 what many people thought would be an unending period of prosperity in America came to an end. A decade of unbridled optimism gave way to the collapse of the stock market and its devastating effect on the national economy. Our guest this week, Maury Klein, has written a new book on the Crash.
Airdate: October 6, 2003
Run Time: 29 Minutes
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Lewis Gould will join us to point out what he believes is wrong with the American presidency and how we might fix it.
Globe Mutiny
Talking History’s Eileen Dugan discusses the mutiny on The Globe with Gregory Gibson author of Demon of the Waters: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Whaleship Globe. The mutiny is known as a notorious, gory episode in American maritime history.
Airdate: September 29, 2003
Run Time: 29 Minutes
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David Ellwood of the University of Bologna, Italy will comment on the history of Anti-Americanism.
Kinsey Report
Talking History’s Jim Madison will discuss the historical importance of the Kinsey report with John Bancroft, Director of the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction at Indiana University, Bloomington.
Airdate: September 22, 2003
Run Time: 29 Minutes
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Alan Gallay, Professor of History at Western Washington University will comment on the Indian Slave Trade.
Women’s History
Talking History’s Fred Nielsen will discuss the history of women’s rights with Linda Kerber. Linda Kerber is professor of history at the University of Iowa and a former president of the Organization of American Historians.
Airdate: September 15, 2003
Run Time: 29 Minutes
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Henry Butterfield Ryan will comment on the challenges of building a democracy in Iraq.
Ken Burns
This week we explore the work of Ken Burns in presenting our history on film. Our guest is Gary Edgerton.
Airdate: September 8, 2003
Run Time: 29 Minutes
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Paul Buhle offers us his thoughts on why comics should be taken more seriously.
The Case of Nancy Cruzan
The case of Nancy Cruzan focused the nation on the question of defining life and death in physiological, legal, and ethical terms. Our guest this week, William Colby, places the case into the historical context of our struggle with this challenging and often perplexing issue.
Airdate: September 1, 2003
Run Time: 29 Minutes
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Charles Richard gives us some history on our learning to “dance with the French.”
Homespun
In 1851, the American reformer Horace Bushnell declared that the nation’s greatness did not result from the deeds of famous men, but from the heroic work of women at their spinning wheels. Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, author of “The Age of Homespun: Objects and Stories in the Creation of an American Myth” explores the making and meaning of stockings, rugs, tablecloths and baskets with Talking History’s Fred Nielsen. Ulrich’s previous book, A Midwife’s Tale, received the Pulitzer Prize for history in 1991.
Airdate: August 25, 2003
Run Time: 29 Minutes
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William Lambers will comment on “A Danger Shared By All.”
Cathars
In the southwest of France, the Medieval Cathars embraced free-love, gender equality and tolerance. Stephen O’Shea author of “The Perfect Heresy: The Revolutionary Life and Death of the Medieval Cathars,” talks with Eileen Dugan about the consequences of their creed.
Airdate: August 18, 2003
Run Time: 29 Minutes
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Thomas Fleming will share his thoughts on “Bush’s Wilson Problem.”
Michelangelo
The painting of the Sistine Chapel ranks as one of the greatest human achievements — its creator, Michelangelo, one of the world’s great artists. They are the subject of this week’s interview with Ross King.
Airdate: August 11, 2003
Run Time: 29 Minutes
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Omer Bartov joins us to discuss the recent history of reactions to violence – terrorism, ethnic cleansing, and more – in the scholarly community.
America’s First Serial Killer
Not long after Jack the Ripper haunted the streets of London, H. H. Holmes dispatched between 27 and 200 people, mostly single young women, in Chicago. Many of the killings occurred during, and exploited, the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893. Our guest this week, Erik Larson, discusses the relationship between the two.
Airdate: August 4, 2003
Run Time: 29 Minutes
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Richard Crepeau offers us a brief history of the sometimes troubled relationship between American sports and the singing of the National anthem.
The Best of Talking History Part IV — Christine Jorgensen
In the last week of our best of Talking History series-in which we offer the most popular shows of the past year based on listener responses and visits to our website archives, we rebroadcast our program from the week of November 18th, 2002. The program includes an interview with Joanne Meyerowitz who discusses an important event in the history of transsexuality in the United States- the operation by which George Jorgensen became Christine Jorgensen and made national headlines. For our commentary historian Robert Brent Toplin provides some historical perspective on the recent problems of dishonesty on Wall Street and in the nation’s corporate boardrooms.
Airdate: July 28, 2003.
Run Time: 29 Minutes
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The Best of Talking History Part III — Strike Songs
This week we continue our best of Talking History series-offering the most popular shows of the past year based on listener responses and visits to our website archives. This week we rebroadcast our program from the week of December 16, 2002. It includes an interview with Timothy Lynch, focusing on the history of protest in music and song. And for our commentary -Benjamin Filene pays tribute to one of Americas great musicologists and collectors of folk music and folklore, Alan Lomax, who died earlier this year at the age of 87.
Airdate: July 21, 2003
Run Time: 29 Minutes
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The Best of Talking History Part II — Witch Hunting
This week we continue our best of Talking History series — offering the most popular shows of the past year based on listener response and visits to our website archives. This week we rebroadcast our program from the week of October 28, 2002. It features an interview with Mary Beth Norton on the Salem witch trials and a commentary by Ellen Dubois on a petition by professional historians to Congress on what was then a proposed preemptive strike by the US against Iraq.
Airdate: July 14, 2003
Run Time: 29 Minutes
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The Best of Talking History Part I — Sex in Advertising
For the next four weeks we will be offering you the best of Talking History — the most popular shows of the past year based on listener response and visits to our website archives. This week we rebroadcast our program from the week of October 7, 2002. It includes an interview with Charles Sable of the Eisner Museum of Advertising and Design on the history of women and sex in advertising and a commentary by Dr. America on the Mall of America’s 10th anniversary.
Airdate: July 7, 2003
Run Time: 29 Minutes
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An Eleven Year Old Boy’s History Project Changes History
It is hard to believe that an eleven-year-old boy could change history. But that is just what happened when Hunter Scott — now sixteen — started researching the sinking of the USS Indianapolis. Scott tells his story to Talking History’s Fred Nielsen.
Airdate: June 30, 2003
Run Time: 29 Minutes
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Virginia Wexman examines Edwin S. Porter’s film The Great Train Robbery, whose 100th anniversary we celebrate this year.
America’s God
As a nation we pride ourselves on our religious freedom and constitutional separation of church and state. Nevertheless, religion has played a major role in our history. Our guest this week, Mark Noll, explains.
Airdate: June 23, 2003
Run Time: 29 Minutes
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Cushing Strout offers us his thoughts on the relationship between historical novels and history, and what fictionalized accounts have to offer us as students of the past.
Ben Franklin
Talking History’s Fred Nielsen and Edmund Morgan, Sterling Professor of History Emeritus at Yale University will discuss Morgan’s latest book- a biography of Benjamin Franklin.
Airdate: June 16, 2003
Run Time: 29 Minutes
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Ron Blumer, script writer for the PBS series on Benjamin Franklin will offer his thoughts on the how to make a history documentary.
Hoaxes
This week Alex Boese, creator of “The Museum of Hoaxes,” website and author of the book of the same name, discusses the history of hoaxes with Talking History‘s Bryan Le Beau.
Airdate: June 9, 2003
Run Time: 29 Minutes
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Jonathan Coopersmith Associate Professor of History at Texas A&M University will comment on the space program.
Racial Borders
When the Civil War ended, hundreds of African Americans enlisted in the army. They were stationed along the Texas-Mexico border, where they protected white communities, forced Native Americans onto reservations, and broke up labor disputes. Our guest this week, James Leiker, tells their story.
Airdate: June 2, 2003
Run Time: 29 Minutes
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Eric Monkkonen, author of Murder in New York City, weighs in on the debate over the causes of violence in America.
Rollercoasters
Summer will soon be here and many Americans will take on one of the great pastimes of the past century – riding roller coasters. This week we explore the history of these giant amusement park rides with David Lindsay.
Airdate: May 26, 2003
Run Time: 29 Minutes
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Tyler Anbinder looks at the historical accuracy of the motion picture, The Gangs of New York.
Jesse James
Eileen Dugan returns in conversation with T.J. Stiles author of Jesse James The Last Rebel of The Civil War.
Airdate: May 19, 2003
Run Time: 29 Minutes
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Joyce Malcolm author of Guns and Violence: The English Experience will comment on the topic.
Seabiscuit
Talking History’s Eileen Dugan will discuss the story of the race horse, Seabiscuit, who became a cultural icon, with Lauren Hillenbrand author of Seabiscuit: An American Legend.
Airdate: May 12, 2003
Run Time: 29 Minutes
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Alan Winkler will discuss the budget deficit.
Role of Wives in History
Even the role of the wife has a history. The very concept has changed over time, not only around the world, but even in the cultural confines of the West. Eileen Dugan explores that history with her guest, Marilyn Yalom, author of The History of the Wife.
Airdate May: 5, 2003
Run Time: 29 Minutes
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Martin Malia gives us his thoughts on the question: Which was the greater scourge, Nazism or Communism?
The Louisiana Purchase
Two hundred years ago, the United States doubled in size, following one of the great land deals in history — the Louisiana Purchase. That is the subject of our interview this week with Jon Kukla, author of A Wilderness So Immense.
Airdate: April 28, 2003
Run Time: 29 Minutes
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Robert Higgs provides some history on how American Presidents occasionally lie — or so he believes — in order to make war.
W.E.B. DuBois
This month marks the 100th anniversary of publication of Souls of Black Folk by W. E. B. DuBois. Our guest this week, David Levering Lewis, a DuBois biographer, tells us about the man and his famous book.
Airdate: April 21, 2003
Run Time: 29 Minutes
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Anita Wills gives us some historical perspective on racial profiling.
“We the People” — An Interview NEH’S Bruce Cole
This past September, President George Bush announced a new project — “We the People” — intended to increase Americans’ knowledge of their history. Bruce Cole, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, has been charged with implementing that project. Cole is our guest this week, and he will report on how it is going.
Airdate: April 14, 2003
Run Time: 29 Minutes
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In addition, we will be hearing from Timothy Furnish on how the media has represented the history of Muslim-Christian conflict.
175th Anniversary of Webster’s Dictionary
This month marks the 175th anniversary of publication of Webster’s Dictionary of the American Language. In celebration we have invited Jill Le Pore, author of A is for American: Letters and Other Characters in the Newly United States, to offer us some history of the publication and to comment on its importance.
Airdate: April 7, 2003
Run Time: 29 Minutes
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Stacy Haldi joins us to talk about the recent proposal to reintroduce the draft in the United States.
Einstein Files
Our image of Albert Einstein is of a rumpled but brilliant and endearing character that dramatically reshaped science in the 20th century. But we now know that the FBI kept a file on him. In this week’s show Fred Jerome tell us why, and what the agency discovered.
Airdate: March 31, 2003
Run Time: 29 Minutes
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We will also be hearing from Don Kates about conspiracy theories and what makes them so appealing.
Lies in History Part 2
This week we continue our two part interview with James Loewen, author of Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong and Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong. Last week Loewen talked about the myths and errors in our textbooks. This week he takes a look at our historic sites.
Airdate: March 24, 2003
Run Time: 29 Minutes
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David Greenberg joins us to provide some historical perspective on the controversy surrounding Judge Alfred Goodwin’s recent ruling that recitation of the phrase “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance in the public schools in unconstitutional.
Lies in History Part 1
John Brown wasn’t a lunatic, who heard voices from God. Christopher Columbus did nothing to deserve a national holiday, and the pilgrims weren’t actually referred to as pilgrims until the 1870s. At least that is what James Loewen tells us in Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong and Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong. Loewen will be our guest this week and next to talk about both of these books.
Airdate: March 17, 2003
Run Time: 29 Minutes
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Michael Nelson, Rhodes College professor, examines the recent controversies involving several best-selling historical writers, from which he draws conclusions on how academic historians may have gotten off track.
Mass Consumption
As a people we are inseparably linked to– and often defined as a nation of– mass consumption. But what does that mean, and when did mass consumption become part of the American economy and culture? That is the subject of this week’s interview with Lizabeth Cohen.
Airdate: March 10, 2003
Run Time: 29 Minutes
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In this week’s commentary, David Greenberg examines the widely held belief that the United States has never started a war.
Renaissance Cuisine
Most of us think that the idea of “eating right” is a comparatively recent one–that it is an idea born of better education and scientific discoveries concerning diet and health. As our guest this week, Ken Albala, has found, this is not the case. People were concerned with diet during the Renaissance.
Airdate: March 3, 2003
Run Time: 29 Minutes
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Ira Chernus provides some interesting comparisons between President Dwight Eisenhower’s approach to the Cold War and President George Bush’s War on Terrrorism.
Truman’s Farewell Address
As he prepared to leave the White House – 50 year ago – President Harry Truman’s approval rating bottomed out at 23 percent. His own Democratic party avoided him in the campaign of 1952, and when Dwight Eisenhower’s limousine picked him up for the 1953 inauguration, Eisenhower did not even get out of the car to greet him. All of that began to change when Truman gave his farewell address. And that is the subject of our interview, this week, with Truman Scholar Richard Kirkendall.
Airdate: February 24, 2003
Run Time: 29 Minutes
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The show includes excerpts from Truman’s Farewell Address.
The Lincoln Memorial
Most Americans are familiar with the Lincoln Memorial. It is one of the nation’s most popular tourist attractions. But why is it so important to us? What does the monument to the slain leader mean to us? And has that meaning changed over the years? We pose these and other questions about the Lincoln Memorial to our guest, this week, Christopher Thomas.
Airdate: February 17, 2003
Run Time: 29 Minutes
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In our Commentary of the Week, Allan Winkler, professor of history at Miami University of Ohio, considers how various modern American presidents have exercised the power of their office to lead the nation.
The Great Plains
We often romanticize it — but what was it really like growing up in small town America in the first half of the 20th century. That is the subject of a new book by Dorothy Hubbard Schwieder, who is our guest this week.
Airdate: February 10, 2003
Run Time: 29 Minutes
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Shawn-Marie Garrett, of Barnard College of Columbia University, comments on the revival of minstrelsy in America, and the challenges it poses to our sensibilities.
Cleopatra
This week we examine the life of one of history’s best known, romantic, and tragic figures — Cleopatra. Susan Walker, from the British Museum in London, joins us to discuss the last queen of Egypt.
Airdate: February 3, 2003
Run Time: 29 Minutes
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Barbara Rosenwein, of Loyola University in Chicago, shares with us her thoughts on emotions in history.
Vietnam
Program # 4: Commemorating War
Our interview with Nicholas Capasso, Curator, DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, looks at the impact of the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial and the state/local memorials built to commemorate the conflict.
Airdate: January 27, 2003
Run Time: 29 Minutes
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Our commentator is Vietnam Veteran, former lawyer, and doctoral student at Rutgers, Michael K. Heaney, who will comment on his work in the 1990’s to bring together American veterans of the Vietnam War with Russian veterans of Afghanistan.
Vietnam
Program #3: The Lingering Dead and the Wounded Veteran
The legacy of the M.I.A. movement from the 1970’s -1990’s is the topic of Fred Nielsen’s interview with Michael J. Allen. They will discuss the cultural significance of this movement as well as its impact on shaping American relations with the Vietnamese Government.
Airdate: January 20, 2003
Run Time: 29 Minutes
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B.G. Burkett, author of Stolen Valor, comments on the trend that emerged in the late 1970’s of the Vietnam veteran imposter and how it distorted images of the war.
Vietnam
Program #2: Lesson Learned: Media and Politics
Our interview this week, will feature William Hammond, U.S Army in Vietnam: Public Affairs: The Military and Media, 1962-68, who will examine the myths that have developed over how the Vietnam War was covered by the media. He will discuss how these myths have shaped military policies toward the media in later wars.
Airdate: January 13, 2003
Run Time: 29 Minutes
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We have invited Lewis Carlson, author of Remembered Prisoners of a Forgotten War: An Oral History of Korean War POWs, to comment on the impact of media coverage on the Vietnam War, and its effect on the coverage of subsequent wars.
Vietnam
Program #1: Lesson Learned: The Military
Talking History will interview Mark Clodfelter, author of The Limits of Air Power: The American Bombing of North Vietnam and explore how the Vietnam War influenced the developments in American military strategy and operational doctrines in the 1980s and 1990s, especially with regard to the use of air power.
Airdate: January 6, 2003
Run Time: 29 Minutes
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For our commentary, H.R. McMaster author of Dereliction of Duty: Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies That Led to Vietnam, will reflect on the evolution of civil military relations from 1975-1995.