In this program from our 1999 "American Presidents: Life Portraits" series we focused on Rutherford B. Hayes' life and career. Author Ari Hoogenboom and the director of the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center, Roger Bridges, talked about President Hayes as a lawyer, soldier, and politician during the contested election of 1876 in which Congress appointed Hayes president despite his loss to Samuel Tilden in the national election. The guests also explored the grounds of the Hayes Presidential Center, highlighting the various landmarks there. 

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In this program, Georgetown University professor Michael Kazin teaches a class on 1920s culture and society. He discusses Prohibition and the exploits of the gangster Al Capone, who eventually went to prison on tax evasion charges. Professor Kazin also talks about the motion picture industry and the new production codes that sought to tamp down on sexuality in films. In addition, he addresses the 1925 Scopes Trial, in which a high school teacher faced charges of unlawfully teaching evolution in a state-funded school. Georgetown University is in Washington, DC.

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David Coleman, Director of the Presidential Recordings Program at the University of Virginia's Miller Center, talks about audio recordings made of President John F. Kennedy in 1963, his last year in office. We recorded the interview at the annual meeting of the Organization of American Historians in San Francisco.

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On March 25th, 1911, a fire at New York City’s Triangle Shirtwaist Factory took the lives of 146 garment workers, most of them young immigrant women. The tragedy led to many changes in New York’s labor laws and building regulations. From New York’s Lower East Side Tenement Museum, journalist & novelist Kevin Baker talks with four relatives of Triangle Shirtwaist garment workers about how their ancestors died or survived, and about efforts to memorialize the victims. This program was co-hosted by the Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition.

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Matthew Wasniewski, U.S. House of Representatives Historian, talks about the book he edited, “Black Americans in Congress, 1870-2007.”  It examines the role African Americans played in Congress after Reconstruction and during the 1960s Civil Rights Movement.  The book includes comprehensive biographies of members including Joseph Rainey, Oscar De Priest, Adam Clayton Powell, and Shirley Chisholm.  This program was recorded in the Rayburn House Office Building.

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Economics professor Christina Romer talks about the Great Depression and what it can teach us about economic policy today. Romer is on the faculty at the University of California, Berkeley and served as President Obama’s Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers in 2009 and 2010. She was one of several professors featured at a “Teach-In” hosted by the University of Oklahoma. The theme of the day was the Great Depression and World War II.

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In this event from Capitol Hill, history professors give an overview of the evolution of America’s immigration policies, from the pre-Civil War period to the present, and discuss how those laws have shaped the American landscape. This briefing by the American Historical Association's National History Center aimed to give Congressional staffers, members and the public a historical perspective on U.S. immigration laws, as the debate to overhaul the nation’s immigration system continues in Washington.

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Western History professor David Wrobel of the University of Oklahoma argues that John Steinbeck’s literature reveals a great deal about American History. Wrobel was one of several professors featured at an all-day “Teach-In” hosted by the University of Oklahoma. The theme of the day was the Great Depression and World War II. University President David Boren, who has served as Oklahoma’s Governor as well as in the U.S. Senate, does the introduction.

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We continue our series of interviews from the Eisenhower Legacy Collection with unedited excerpts from a 1995 conversation with former CIA chief Soviet analyst Ray Cline. He details the growth of the Central Intelligence Agency under President Eisenhower – and describes Ike as a “man devoted to the facts” who valued intelligence as a wartime leader and as the nation’s chief executive. Topics include U.S. covert actions in the 1950s, Soviet relations, the Korean War, CIA involvement in Iran, Sputnik and the so-called “missile crisis.”

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In this program from our 1999 "American Presidents: Life Portraits" series we focused on Ulysses S. Grant's life and career. Editor of the Grant Papers, John Simon, and history professor Allen Ballard talked about his military career, early life and political career. Park Ranger Zionjah Wilson and Grant's great-great grandson, Ulysses Grant Dietz explored the president's tomb and the National Historic Site in Manhattan.

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