Episode 479: The Jewish Confederate Posted on December 3, 1989 by smweiss Eli Evans discusses the life of Judah P. Benjamin, the second Jewish man to be elected to the United States Senate and first to be offered a seat on the Supreme Court. During the Civil War he was considered to be the brains of the Confederacy and one of Jefferson Davis’s closest advisors. Evans describes him as the most important Jewish figure in politics in the nineteenth century United States. At the time of this interview, Eli Evans was the president of the Charles H. Revson Foundation. This edition of Soundings was conducted by Wayne J. Pond.
Episode 492: James Applewhite and Richard Wilbur read from their work and discuss poetry and values. Applewhite’s recent books include River Writing and Lessons in Soaring. Wilbur’s New and Collected Poems won the Pulitzer Prize in 1989.
Episode 860: Paul Hunter [NHC Fellow 1985-86, 1995-96] describes the heroic couplet and ”its rhyme, its reason, its artistic and ideological functions in English literature.” Ulrich Knoepflmacher [NHC Fellow 1995-96] talks about children’s literature and ‘cross-writing’--a device by which authors who write for children create a dialog between past and present selves.
As part of a continuing series of discussions on the history of information technology produced in collaboration with the Computerworld Smithsonian Awards Program, Soundings features innovator Brewster Kahle, founder of the Internet Archive, a large-scale digital information repository. Among the Archive’s goals is keeping track of the technical innovations that are changing our understanding and use of digital information.
Episode 853: Nell Irvin Painter discusses her new book, Sojourner Truth — a Life, a Symbol. John Sekora discusses his new book, Frederick Douglass.
Can computers think? According to cyberspace expert James Bailey, the power of intellectual development is in transition and computers will soon no longer be merely our tools but our intellectual companions. Bailey was invited to talk about his book "After Thought: The Computer Challenge to Human Intelligence" as a part of the series of discussions on the history, culture, and ethics of information technology, with the cooperation of the Computerworld Smithsonian Awards Program.
In a continuing series of programs produced in collaboration with the Computerworld Smithsonian Awards Program and devoted to the history, culture, and ethics of information technology, Jay David Bolter, a classics scholar and cyberspace expert, is featured. His book "Writing Space" is an account of how computers are reshaping conventional notions about books, the nature of writing, and textual and visual literacy.
Robert Kahn reflects on his role in the history and social implications of information technology. Kahn is the founder of the Internet and his influence on the growth of information technology is widely known in industry and government. He was the 1996 recipient of the Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) Information Technology Leadership Award for Global Integration, presented at the Computerworld Smithsonian Awards Program in Washington.
Episode 836: In the October 1996 Congressional recognition of Roosevelt History Month, the first to be named for a President, historian William Leuchtenburg talks about the meaning of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s life and legacy. At the time of this interview, Leuchtenburg had been a Fellow of the National Humanities Center (1978-1981) and Trustee there, and he was professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. This edition of Soundings was conducted by Wayne J. Pond.
West Virginia Governor Gaston Caperton was the 1996 winner of the Zenith Data Systems Information Technology Leadership Award for Education, presented in ceremonies in Washington at the Computerworld Smithsonian Awards Program. Governor Caperton talks about a highly successful model for computer technology training in West Virginia’s schools, a program that resulted in the installation of nearly 16,000 computer workstations in classrooms throughout the state from kindergarten through grade four and in the training of more than 10,000 educators through intensive, hands-on experience.
Episode 833: Pete Seeger enjoys legendary status for millions of Americans. But he said in an interview with Soundings that, over the years, the motives for his music and his activism remained true to the local wellsprings of concern for children, care for the environment, and individual responsibility. Michael Honey joins Seeger as they speak and sing about Seeger’s life and artistry. At the time of this interview, Seeger was visiting the Research Triangle, N.C., area; Honey, a Fellow at the National Humanities Center (1995-96), was professor of history at the University of Washington, Tacoma. This edition of Soundings was conducted by Wayne J. Pond.
Music historian Carol Oja leads a discussion of the music of two important American composers, George Gershwin and William Grant Still, both of whom helped to shape contemporary ideas about highbrow and lowbrow artistry.
In part four of a series funded by the Computerworld Smithsonian Awards Program, technology policy expert David Lytel discusses the internet and its implications for democracy in the long-term and for the 1996 presidential race. Lytel developed the White House Internet web site and served on the National Information Infrastructure initiative.
Episode 813: To some critics in the mid-1990s, the humanities and social sciences were in eclipse in American education. Three prominent commentators–historian and former Williams College president Francis Oakley, anthropologist Nancy Scheper-Hughes [at 12:30] of the University of California at Berkeley, and classicist W. Robert Connor [at 22:00], Director of the National Humanities Center at the time –respond to the charges. At the time of these interviews, Frank Oakley was a Trustee at the National Humanities Center and a former Fellow (1990-91); Nancy Scheper-Hughes was a former Fellow (1989-90). This edition of Soundings was conducted by Wayne J. Pond.
The Computerworld Smithsonian Awards Program and Soundings collaborate to present cyberspace pioneer Robert Metcalfe. Inventor of the Ethernet and executive correspondent for InfoWorld Magazine. Metcalfe talks about the history, evolution, and culture of the Internet and the World Wide Web.
William Warfield, the distinguished performer and teacher of music and one of the most important contributors to 20th-century African American culture, talks with music historian and critic Mark Tucker (NHC Fellow 1991-92) of Columbia University.
Episode 787: Literary scholar Andrew Delbanco [NHC Fellow 1990-91, 2002-03] discusses his book,The Death of Satan: How Americans Have Lost the Sense of Evil. Delbanco explains the ways Americans have conceptualized and described evil in political, cultural, and literary terms from the 16th to the 20th centuries and concludes by discussing the future of the devil in American culture. At this time of this interview, Delbanco was professor of literature at Columbia University. This edition of Soundings was conducted by Wayne J. Pond.
Warren Nord, author of "Religion and American Education: Rethinking a National Dilemma," discusses the intersections between religion, the state, and public school systems. Nord makes the case for religious education within public education, stating that while public schools should not actively promote religion, administrators should still consider the philosophical, moral, and political reasons for young people to study religion. At the time of this interview Warren Nord was director of the Program in Humanities and Human Values at the University of North Carolina.
Part of the series of discussions on the history, culture, and ethics of information technology with the cooperation of the Computerworld Smithsonian Awards Program.
Episode 746: Louis Menand discusses of the risks and rewards of multiculturalism in American culture as viewed from the mid-1990s. At the time of this interview, Menand was professor at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and later was a Trustee of the National Humanities Center. This edition of Soundings was conducted by Wayne J. Pond.