Roundup

Great English Gardens: Capability Brown's Stowe [audio 13min]

The magnificent landscaped gardens at Stowe were built in the early 1700s by Lord Cobham, a wealthy Whig MP who developed them into a showcase for his wealth and taste acquired from studying the classics. Together with his head gardener Capability Brown, Cobham set about creating a natural landscape but with a formalised approach. In the next in our series on great English gardens, Andrea Wulf explains to Maggie Ayre how the gardens at Stowe have contributed to garden design. This Other Eden:

Ben Barnes and the Inside Story of American Politics [audio 15min]

Ben Barnes was once a rising star in Texas politics, serving as speaker of the state House and lieutenant governor by the age of 30. He also was a protege of President Lyndon Johnson, who once declared that Barnes would be the next president of the United States. But the fallout from a bribery scandal, which he says was trumped up by Richard Nixon, cut short his thriving political career. He has since become a lobbyist and fundraiser. Barnes, 68, has released a memoir called Barn Burning Barn

Catholic Church Revises English Translation of the Mass [audio 5min]

The Catholic Church has revised their English translation of the mass, making the wording closer to the Latin. Some priests and parishioners are unhappy with the changes. Liane Hansen speaks with Rev. Thomas Reese, of the Woodstock Theological center at Georgetown University.

Pazo de Oca [audio 15min]

A series celebrating visionary gardens of the world. 4/5. The palace gardens of Pazo de Oca in Galicia, restored to former glory by Spain's 'gardener Duke', perfectly combine baroque stonework, lush vegetation, an abundance of water and a working farm. Susan Marling investigates.

Texas POWs [audio 4min]

In the 1940s, 150,000 German prisoners were taken from the battlefields in North Africa, all the way to Texas. Weekend America's Bill Radke talks with Carol Brincefield, a teacher and a historian with the Lavaca County Historical Committee, about a section of the Geneva Convention that led to Texas becoming the country's biggest repository for German prisoners of war.

Tiger Force: A True Story of Men and War [video 60min]

Pulitzer-Prize winners Michael Sallah and Mitch Weiss discuss their book Tiger Force (Little, Brown and Co.), an investigation into a reconnaissance platoon, created in 1965 to report air strikes and to kill the enemy in Vietnam. The authors tell stories of the killings that took place at the hands of the Tiger Force soldiers during the Vietnam War. According to the authors, this was the longest series of atrocities committed during the war. These events did not become public knowledge un

Kingfish: The Reign of Huey P. Long [video 55min]

Richard White, Jr., chronicles the life of Louisiana politician Huey Long. White clarifies some of the confusion of Louisiana's most iconic figure in the 1930s. Huey Long was the governor of Louisiana from 1928 to 1932 and a U.S. Senator from 1932 to 1935. He was assassinated September 10, 1935, at the Louisiana State Capitol in Baton Rouge as he was mounting a presidential bid against then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt. White wrote Kingfish (Random House) to clear up some of the myths

Union of Words: A History of Presidential Eloquence [video 60min]

Wayne Fields sat down in 1996 to discuss how American presidents use acceptance speeches, inaugurals and State of the Union speeches to define their administration's agenda. In Union of Words he examines what influence a president's choice of words and use of colorful language has on promoting unity across the country. Fields is professor of English and director of American Culture Studies at Washington University in St. Louis, and the author of What the River Knows: An Angler in Midst

Mark Bowden on Militant Islam, the Colombian Drug Trade and His Other Investigations [video 3hr]

The latest book by Mark Bowden, national correspondent for the Atlantic Monthly, is Guests of the Ayatollah: The First Battle in America's War with Militant Islam, about the 444-day Iran hostage crisis that began in November 1979. His 1999 book, Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War, the story of the downing of a Black Hawk helicopter in Somalia in 1993, was made into a movie directed by Ridley Scott. Another of his books, Killing Pablo (2001), which covered the life and de

The Russells [audio 15min]

The Russells were a political family that also produced a great social reformer, Lord John Russell, whose achievements are still felt today; as well as one of the 20th century's greatest philosophers, Bertrand Russell. "This Sceptred Isle: Dynasties" is a narrative history charting over a thousand years of influence wielded by the power brokers of Britain and Ireland, told in 10 programmes written by historian Christopher Lee and narrated by actor Anna Massey, with readings by actor Ro

Three Mile Island [audio 60min]

It's 27 years since America's worst nuclear accident at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania. Now archive interviews of community members responding to the crisis have been made available to the public for the first time. Martin Bell, who reported from Three Mile Island during the crisis, revisits the story - speaking to those who were at the middle of the nuclear storm, including Richard Thornburgh, the then Governor of Pennsylvania; and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Harold Denton, who was c

Soweto 1976: An Audio History [audio 13min]

Thirty years ago, the uprising of a group of schoolchildren changed South Africa forever. For decades, the whites-only government of South Africa had brutally enforced a policy of racial segregation known as apartheid -- and just as ruthlessly crushed any opposition. By the 1970s, an entire generation of anti-apartheid fighters had been silenced. Many were killed. Others, like Nelson Mandela, were in prison or in exile. But on June 16, 1976, students in Soweto township outside Johannesburg decid

Reviving Shanghai's Jewish History [audio 5min]

A new Jewish center has just opened in Shanghai, the first of its kind in China in 50 years. During World War II, the city saved an estimated 30,000 Jewish lives by welcoming refugees fleeing the Nazis. But Shanghai's Jewish history has been all but forgotten there. Now, some are struggling to bring this chapter of the city's story back to life. Louisa Lim reports.

The Berkeleys [audio 15min]

One of Britain's longest-surviving families, great landowners in the middle ages, who were famously involved in the grisly murder of a king "This Sceptred Isle: Dynasties" is a narrative history charting over a thousand years of influence wielded by the power brokers of Britain and Ireland, told in 10 programmes written by historian Christopher Lee and narrated by actor Anna Massey, with readings by actor Robert Powell.

After Empire: What Happened Next? [audio 15min]

"Empire" 90th of 90: The dismantling of empire went on until the 1970s and 80s. Not all went. Britain still has (sometimes reluctantly) crown colonies. WWII changed the strategic shape and politics of the globe. The invention of long-range aircraft and nuclear bombs changed the rules of deterrence. Yet some still believed in a greater Britain, a third empire and that the answer to Britain's economic woes had to be in Africa. The basic objectives in Africa were large-scale self-governin

Global Politics of Oil [audio 51min]

Some energy analysts predict far reaching political and economic changes as oil rich developing countries gain global market leverage. We talk about possible shifts ahead and their political implications. Guests: Chip Cummins, reporter, Wall Street Journal; Robert Lieber, professor of government and international affairs, Georgetown University, and author of books including The Oil Decade and The American Era: Power and Strategy for the 21st Century; Charles Doran, professor

Immigration Rhetoric: 'Untied States of America' [audio 5min]

President Bush recently warned against the"harsh, ugly rhetoric" in the debate over immigration. Author Juan Enriquez says the brutal language being used in that debate threatens to tear the country apart. Enriquez writes about those divisive factors in his book The Untied States of America: Polarization, Fracturing, and Our Future."Countries are actually very fragile entities," Enriquez says."Three-quarters of the flags, borders and anthems in the world did not exist 50 years ago. It's a

Kentucky Schools Reverse Decision on Eliminating 'BC' [audio 1min]

Kentucky's state school board approved a plan to teach a secular alternative to the calendar abbreviations BC and AD In April, the board adopted "Before Common Era" as part of the curriculum. Some religious conservatives complained that BCE did not mention Christ. When the board members' terms expired, the governor appointed new members, who have voted unanimously to undo the policy.

Eric Zuesse: Why History Matters (About Hitler's Failure to Distinguish Between History & Myth)

[Eric Zuesse, winner of the Mencken Award for investigative reporting, is the author most recently of Iraq War, from Delphic Press, and the e-book, WHY the Holocaust Happened: Its Religious Cause & Scholarly Cover-Up, from www.SuperiorBooks.com. Dell Publishing Co., Crown Publishing Co., The New York Times, Reason magazine, and others have published his earlier works.] In my (2000) book WHY the Holocaust Happened, I argued that the Holo

The Churchills [audio 15min]

The Churchills produced two of the greatest leaders in British history. They achieved prominence during the Restoration but rose to another zenith in the 19th and 20 centuries. "This Sceptred Isle: Dynasties" is a narrative history charting over a thousand years of influence wielded by the power brokers of Britain and Ireland, told in 10 programmes written by historian Christopher Lee and narrated by actor Anna Massey, with readings by actor Robert Powell.