Roundup

The Gores and “Gray Divorce” [Audio, 45 minutes 47 seconds]

Al and Tipper Gore celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary last month, then sent an e-mail out to friends: “We’re announcing today,” they wrote, “that after a great deal of thought and discussion, we’ve decided to separate.” It was a slow-rolling bombshell when it hit the media. Al and Tipper? The Ozzie and Harriet unbreakable couple of the political world, the famous big kissers –divorcing? After forty years? Why? And if their marriage wasn’t safe, wh

Interview from the Lincoln Bedroom with Harold Holzer [video 47 minutes 4 seconds]

Historian Harold Holzer believes that"there is no place more important to the Lincoln story than this room." Here, in the Lincoln Bedroom, President Lincoln and his ministers decided to reinforce Ft. Sumter and thereby resist secession. Holzer recounts the story of the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation in this room on January 1, 1863.

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The American History Guys: Teed Off: The Tea Party, Then and Now [audio, 25 minutes 52 seconds]

The founding fathers have never really gone out of style. But there are times when their popularity surges. Times like now, when conservative protesters routinely take to the streets with three-cornered hats and “Don’t Tread on Me” flags. In this podcast, the History Guys take a closer look at the Tea Party Movement, and ask what, if anything, 2010 has in common with 1773. They also consider what the history of American populism portends for the Tea Party’s future. * Guest

Ariz. Ban On Ethnic Studies Divides Educators [audio, 30 minutes 20 seconds]

Gov. Jan Brewer (R-Ariz.) signed into law a ban on classes that are designed primarily for students of a particular ethnicity. The law targets any ethnic studies classes in the state's public school system that "advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals."

Bethany Moreton: To Serve God and Walmart [7 minutes 57 seconds]

Bethany Moreton, author of To Serve God and Walmart: The Making of Christian Free Enterprise on how Walmart has effectively married capitalism and Christianity.

Q&A: Historians Richard Norton Smith & Douglas Brinkley [video 60 minutes 26 seconds]

Historians Richard Norton Smith & Douglas Brinkley discuss their professions and their experiences with teaching history through tours of historic sites. C-SPAN Program from Sunday, April 25, 2010.

Lectureship in History, La Trobe University, Melbourne

A full-time, continuing position is available in the School of Historical and European Studies at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia for a Level B Lecturer in History.The History Program’s present profile is substantially focused on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, especially the latter, and there is a desire to extend the chronological range of offerings and to introduce for students the study of periods where treatment of sources requires different skills

Graham Hodges and Eric Foner: New York City Underground Railroad [video 57 minutes and 27 seconds]

David Ruggles was a 19th century abolitionist who helped fugitive slaves in the Underground Railroad of New York City. The New York Historical Society presented a program about the conductor.

San Francisco before and after the 1906 earthquake [video 5 minutes 7 seconds]

In 1905, an unknown cameraman filmed a streetcar trip along San Francisco's Market Street. The following year, the Great Earthquake struck, and he filmed the trip again. This is a five-minute silent film that edits together excerpts of his two films. Footage from the Prelinger Archives, edited by Matt Lake

Rick Perlstein: "Whatever Happened to Hope: Why Barack Obama Cannot Become a Transformational President" [video 91 minutes and 36 seconds]

Rick Perlstein, an author and political journalist who has written extensively about the history of conservatism in modern America, spoke at Vanderbilt University on March 22, 2010. His books include Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus (2001) and Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America (2008). His lecture at Vanderbilt was drawn from a third historical volume he is writing that focuses on the rise of Ronald Reagan.

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MLK speaking on the future of integration at Bethel College in Kansas, Jan. 1960 [audio 69 minutes and 3 seconds]

Climate Control: A History of Heating & Cooling [audio 54 minutes and 55 seconds]

Well into the 19th century, Americans relied on fireplaces to warm their homes in winter. But that method wasn’t simply inefficient — it was ineffective, too. Travel a few feet from the fireplace, and you might start shivering again. In this episode, the History Guys look at what happened when stoves became widely available in the mid-19th century, and how that technology altered Americans’ way of life. They also consider the advent of air conditioning a century later, and explore i

How Smithsonian Selects, Rejects Donations [audio 4 minutes and 3 seconds]

The Smithsonian Institution announced this week it won't accept a donation of the suit worn by O.J. Simpson on the day of his murder acquittal. Lonnie G. Bunch, director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture, discusses how proposed donated objects are sorted though for acceptance and rejection at the institution.

Rare Tintin drawings to be auctioned [video 1 min 27 secs]

Rare drawings and sketches of the Belgian cartoon character Tintin are to be auctioned later this year in Paris.

I Have Not Yet Begun to Rot [audio 7 minutes and 5 seconds]

John Paul Jones' was the creator of the American navy and one of the greatest patriots of the American War of Independence; but 15 years afterward no one seemed to remember the man. He died, alone, in Paris and was buried without ceremony or fanfare. A hundred years later, US Ambassador Horace Porter, recovered and had Jones' remains interred back in America.

Love Me Did: A History of Courtship [audio 54 minutes and 56 seconds]

Considering the stereotypes about Puritan New England, you might be surprised to learn that sweethearts in the 18th century were not only allowed to sleep together before marriage – they were encouraged to! The catch? They had to do it within the parents’ home. It was known as “bundling,” and although sex was theoretically not involved, the practice coincided with a huge increase in premarital pregnancy. By the end of the century, 1/3 of all brides were pregnant by the time they reached the alta

WWII bomb causes a scare in France [video 1 min 9 secs]

About 20,000 people were evacuated from their homes in Caen after an unexploded WWII bomb was discovered during building works. Specialist teams in Normandy, northern France, later made safe the device.

Nelson Mandela's 1990 release marked in South Africa [video 1 min 18 secs]

In Cape Town, prominent figures took part in a commemorative walk at the prison where he spent the final months of his 27-year imprisonment. Mr Mandela, 91, was cheered when he came to parliament to hear a speech by current President Jacob Zuma. Mr Zuma said South Africa continued to follow its first black leader's vision. Mr Mandela spent most of his sentence in Robben Island prison, off the coast of Cape Town, and later in Pollsmoor Prison on the mainl