Dear students and readers,

Happy New Year to all of you. I hope you enjoyed the break.

As promised two weeks ago:
1. The first television commercial for an electoral campaign created by Roy Disney for candidate Dwight Eisenhower in 1952. His stature as a war hero and his appeal to both parties ( remember that the Democrats had asked him to run as President as well) and the well managed electoral campaign indeed got him in the White House. Note the three donkeys representing the Democratic party ( the donkey had become the symbol of the party under the Presidency of Grant).




2. The emotionally potent ad issued by the Johnson campaign for President in 1964. Although the ad was only aired once on television, it sent a shockwave through the country. It became a news item and was thus aired by the media as such, offering free air time to the Democratic ticket. This clip is famous for its suggestion that Barry Goldwater was not fit to be president because he was trigger happy and too likely to use nuclear weapons on foreign theaters of operation. However, when you listen carefully to the short speech that follows the explosion, I believe that the issues it raises are not germane to foreign policy tactics. Watch:



The terms "a world in which all God's children can live together"; "we must either love each other or die" suggests an allusion to something other than the Cold War and the nuclear threat. What do you think it might refer to?
(hint: consider why Barry Goldwater was gaining momentum at the time and who was supporting him)

For more ads of the 1964 campaign :

Lyndon B. Johnson : on nuclear testing, and on poverty. Note how the causes of poverty are reassessed in this ad, breaking away from the American tradition of portraying the poor as irresponsible and lazy). Finally, see how the legacy of JFK was used to bolster Johnson's Great Society platform. The tone of the campaing could turn quite sour and negative ads were aired.

Barry Goldwater ads : against Big Governement, on graft in Washington and integrity, and a response to Kruschev, on the no-win war in Vietnam.

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.