Civil rights movement (continued)

For seminar 9, the lecture I suggested is : Clayborn Carson's lecture on Stokeley Carmichael

on youtube

or downloadable from i-tunes ( Stanford : The modern freedom struggle, lecture number 13 on Stokeley Carmichael).

All of his lectures can be watched on youtube. He is a very engaging speaker and I've found his lectures informative and thoughtful. He has also invited activists from the civil rights movement to speak about their experiences.

For more songs and different versions from the ones we've heard in class :

http://tiny.cc/selma

And it's all perfectly legal !

You'll notice that these recordings are even more authentic (the sound isn't perfect).

'If you miss me from the back of the bus' is the original version referring to the desegregation of buses.

There are a few good examples of medleys, where you can hear the singers switching to another song midway through, prompted by the song leader, an early version of mixing?

SEMINAR 8

Listen to the sermon of Reverend Campbell to fill in the gaps in the text :

http://dl.free.fr/getfile.pl?file=/Ni8xfgP2





Download the file onto your computer. Contact me if you're having trouble :
audedemezerac@gmail.com

FDR and the New Deal

First as promised :

You can read the text and hear the inauguration speech of Franklin D. Roosevelt and get an idea of his oratory.

There are more audio documents of speeches and fireside chats by President Roosevelt available for free.

Finally, I was listening to a podcast from NPR ( Shuffle, November 18, 2009) when I heard a story about the assessement of the number of jobs created or saved by the stimulus spending of the federal governement. This reminded me of what I told you about the difficulties in assessing the New Deal. It's very difficult for historians to identify the benefits of each ND programmes.

The Obama adminstration has created a website that allows the public to find out how and where the stimulus dollars are being spent: visit www.recovery.org to see it for yourself.

To read or listen to this five minute report, click here.

This piece was triggered by the criticism of the stimulus package by its opponents who consider that the massive spending (add additional debt) incurred by the governement is certainly not as efficient as the administration claims it to be.

Vice President Joe Biden was on Jon Stewart's Daily Show to defend the impact of the stimulus on employment. You'll hear a few allusions to the New Deal and some of the wasteful spending that occurred under FDR.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Joe Biden Pt. 1
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

Songs and History : Sacco and Vanzetti

A very interesting post on a French blog on the song by Joan Baez on the Sacco & Vanzetti cause célèbre.

The same blog offers a selection of songs and an analysis of their historical context. I strongly reccommend visiting it.

To the students of the Oral expression class:

As promised, I've put the song We shall overcome on the google group. It is here sung by the original Freedom Singers ( CD2 : Voices of the Civil Rights Movement, Balck American Freddom SOngs 1960-1966).

Nobel Prize

The reactions to Obama's Nobel Prize are mixed. It seems to have excited the criticism from right-wing conservative commentators such as Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity.

The liberal branch of the Democratic party see the prize as a recognition of the symbolic significance of Obama's election and the promises that it holds for the future of America.

The NYTimes summarizes these reactions along with the humble acceptance by Obama of the prize as an encouragement to pursue his policy of nuclear disarmement and his role as a facilitator of the peace process in the Middle East.

i-pods, music and war

I've missed the blog although I felt too busy to keep posting. By way of return of ASY2, here's a short contribution.

I've just read an interesting article of the use of music and MP3 players by soldiers in the Irak war. There are a few good tidbits to listen to as well as a downloadable podcast. Some of the most listened to artists are Eminem and Metallica which seem to simultaneously numb and galvanise the soldiers and sustain them on their perillous missions. The famous scene of Apocalypse now is also revived by a unit: the sound system they had fixed on their vehicle blared out the Walkyrie's march when they were on the job.