Arlen Specter died Sunday, October 14th, 2012, at the age of 82. Specter left the United States Senate in 2011 after a 30-year career. Soon afterwards, he sat down for a series of extended oral history interviews with the Pennsylvania Cable Network. Specter reflects on events that take him from his Russian immigrant roots to his involvement in some of this country's most momentous events, from his work on the Warren Commission investigating President Kennedy's assassination to the Senate impeachment trial of President Clinton. In the first excerpt from these interviews, Specter recounts his family's arrival in the U.S. and his formative years during the Great Depression and World War II, and how his personal experiences later informed his politics.

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Arlen Specter died Sunday, October 14th at the age of 82. He served 30 years in the U.S. Senate. Shortly after he left the Senate in 2011, he sat down for a series of extended oral history interviews with the Pennsylvania Cable Network. In this segment, he reflects on his work on the Warren Commission investigating President Kennedy's assassination.

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Arlen Specter died Sunday, October 14th, 2012, at the age of 82. Specter left the United States Senate in 2011 after a 30-year career. Soon afterwards, he sat down for a series of extended oral history interviews with the Pennsylvania Cable Network. Specter reflects on events that take him from his Russian immigrant roots to his involvement in some of this country's most momentous events, from his work on the Warren Commission investigating President Kennedy's assassination to the Senate impeachment trial of President Clinton. In this excerpt, Specter recounts his arrival in the U.S. Senate just as President Reagan began his first term and he describes the culture of the institution he would call home for three decades.

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Arlen Specter died Sunday, October 14th, 2012, at the age of 82. In his 30 years representing Pennsylvania in the U.S. Senate, Specter participated in the confirmation hearings of 14 U.S. Supreme Court nominees. Soon after leaving the Senate in 2011, Specter sat down for a series of oral history interviews with the Pennsylvania Cable Network. In this interview, he recounts his experience as a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee as it considered the nominations of Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas.

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Arlen Specter died Sunday, October 14th, 2012, at the age of 82. Specter left the United States Senate in 2011 after a 30 year career. Soon afterwards, he sat down for a series of extended oral history interviews with the Pennsylvania Cable Network. Specter reflects on events that take him from his Russian immigrant roots to his involvement in some of this country’s most momentous events – from his work on the Warren Commission investigating President Kennedy’s assassination to the Senate impeachment trial of President Clinton. We’re airing a selection of these interviews here on American History TV. In this excerpt, Specter talks about the 2008 financial crisis, the health care debate, his cancer diagnosis and his decision to switch political parties.

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At the direction of Congress, the voices and experiences from the Civil Rights Movement of the mid-20^th century are being documented in an oral history project. This effort is a collaboration of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture, the Library of Congress and the Southern Oral History Program at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

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We continue our series of interviews from the Eisenhower Legacy Collection with unedited excerpts from a 1992 conversation with former U.S. Attorney General Herbert Brownell. Mr. Brownell was Dwight D. Eisenhower’s senior campaign strategist in 1952, became Attorney General in 1953 and served in that capacity until after the Little Rock integration crisis in 1957. In this oral history, Mr. Brownell talks about his relationship with Ike, the election, U.S. involvement in Korea, and the Warren Court.

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These are unedited excerpts from a 1995 conversation with journalist James Reston. He was the New York Times Washington Bureau Chief during Dwight D. Eisenhower’s presidency, and he offers his observations about Ike’s foreign policies, his relations with the GOP’s conservative wing, and the influence of Secretary of State John Foster Dulles. He also explains why the downing of an American U2 spy plane led Eisenhower to consider resigning the presidency.

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From the Eisenhower Legacy Collection, unedited excerpts from a 1992 conversation with former staff secretary and defense liaison officer to President Eisenhower, Gen. Andrew Goodpaster. After World War II, Goodpaster served with Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe in the late 1950s. In this interview, Goodpaster explains Ike’s views of the military industrial complex, his ideas on military spending, and working with Congress. Independent producer George Colburn conducted this interview for a series of documentaries on Dwight D. Eisenhower’s military and political career – a period covering from 1941 to 1961. C-SPAN 3’s American History TV is airing a selection of interviews that Mr. Colburn has conducted over the last two decades with the people closest to Ike during the war years and his presidency. 

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This year marks the 50th anniversary of several key events from the civil rights movement, including the Birmingham Campaign and the March on Washington. Lonnie Bunch, the director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, is joined by curator Elaine Nichols to introduce the museum’s Civil Rights Oral History Project, which was conducted in conjunction with the Library of Congress and the Southern Oral History Program at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. We’ll then see an oral history interview from that collection with Rev. Joseph Lowery who, along with Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and others, founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

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