American Revolution: March to Massacre II August 7, 2020PermalinkNancy WaldoToday's AMITAmerican History, Revolutionary War Lead: In the 1700s the United States broke from England. No colony in history had done that before. This series examines America’s Revolution. Intro: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts Content: In late February 1770, the situation in Boston reached critical mass. The poisonous relationship between British soldiers and the townspeople was amplified by the death of 11-year old Christopher Seider, killed by a supporter of the Crown. His death illustrated the deteriorating circumstances in a town animated by hatred of Parliamentary import taxes, colonial attempts to strike at those taxes through non-importation of British goods, and the presence of an occupying standing army, something hated by Brits on both sides of the dispute, which led to fatal conflict and massacre. Download [81.44 KB]
American Revolution: March to Massacre I August 6, 2020PermalinkNancy WaldoToday's AMITAmerican History, Revolutionary War Lead: In the 1700s the United States broke from England. No colony in history had done that before. This series examines America’s Revolution. Intro: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts Content: Throughout the fall and winter of 1769-1770 the tension mounted to poisonous levels in Boston between the townspeople and the troops sent to garrison the city. Two issues continued to arouse the passions of unrest: non-importation and the irritating presence of British troops sent by the London government to help collect the infamous import taxes imposed by Parliament and to keep order in a municipality that was increasingly unresponsive to royal authority. These two issues led ultimately to one of the important events in the run up to Revolution and war, the so-called Boston Massacre. Download [80.84 KB]
1968: U.S. Cities Burn II August 2, 2020PermalinkMetasebia TessemaToday's AMIT1968, African American History, American History Introduction: A Moment in Time, 1968: A special series on the 40th anniversary of a year of upheaval, in a world seemingly out of control. Content: In the wake of the legal triumphs of the civil rights movement, many African Americans recognized that fundamental change was many years away. Some radicals in the black community were not shy about manipulating these frustrated expectations into violent acts of protest and destruction Download [103.46 KB]
1968: U.S. Cities Burn I August 1, 2020PermalinkMetasebia TessemaToday's AMIT1968, African American History, American History Introduction: A Moment in Time, 1968: A special series on the 40th anniversary of a year of upheaval, in a world seemingly out of control. Content: As a part of the social and political turmoil of the era that seemed to come to a climax in 1968, urban rioting, particular racial rioting, reached fever pitch in the aftermath of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in April. For many blacks the hard reality of American racial polarization was breaking through the euphoria. Despite the legal triumphs of federal and state civil rights legislation, it was dawning on African Americans that real racial progress would take years, perhaps even generations. Download [100.85 KB]
First Ladies: Barbara Pierce Bush July 28, 2020PermalinkNancy WaldoToday's AMITAmerican History, American Politics, Women in History Lead: Only one other in American history was the wife and mother of Presidents of the United States. In the august company of Abigail Adams is Barbara Pierce Bush. Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts. Content: She met her husband at a Christmas dance when she was sixteen. Both were children of privilege and were educated among the Eastern elite. They were married during George’s service in World War II, and after his graduation from Yale, they struck out for the west Texas oil patch and began to build a business and a family. The future President’s financial success led him into a prodigious political career and an unequaled resume. Six children and twenty-nine homes later, they moved into the White House. Download [115.12 KB]
American Revolution: Mr. Seldon’s Penny II July 27, 2020PermalinkNancy WaldoToday's AMITAmerican History, American Revolution, British History Lead: In the 1700s the United States broke from England. No colony in history had done that before. This series examines America’s Revolution. Intro: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts Content: In the Revolutionary Era, Americans were followers of John Locke. They believed with Locke that their property represented more than just material possessions, rather property symbolized and secured their lives, liberties, estates, and freedom. In all the colonies, property also bestowed on the owners the rights of a political man. In order to vote one had to possess real property, land. And leaders were those who owned lots of land or were engaged in profitable commercial enterprise. They received this idea from the ancient establishment of Parliament as representative and protector of those who owned property. Download [81.02 KB]
American Revolution: Mr. Seldon’s Penny I July 26, 2020PermalinkNancy WaldoToday's AMITAmerican History, American Revolution, British History Lead: In the 1700s the United States broke from England. No colony in history had done that before. This series examines America’s Revolution. Intro: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts Content: In the 1760s and 1770s British colonists in North America struggled to justify or even to describe the foundation of their increasing discontent with their relationship with Britain. Eventually a full-blown constitutional argument or justification for liberation would find expression in the writings of Thomas Paine and in Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence, but in the wake of the Stamp Act Crisis of 1765 and 1766 colonial advocates were trying to find the ideas that might give respectability to their determination to protect their property from Parliamentary tax schemes. For colonial theorists, protection of property was not an idle exercise, not some exercise in selfish acquisition. Property for Americans represented the heart and soul of liberty. The very purpose of civil society was the “preservation and regulation of property. Download [81.69 KB]
Windmills July 23, 2020PermalinkNancy WaldoToday's AMITAmerican History, Technology Lead: Evoking visions of the charming Dutch countryside, the tilting object of slightly confused Spanish knights, and fights between green power and wealthy islanders, one of things that modernized rural America was the windmill. Intro: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts Content: In 1854, Daniel Halladay, a New England inventor, submitted a patent application for a self-regulating windmill, an ingenious device that automatically closed its blades during high winds so as to protect itself from damage. According to essayist Stuart Leuthner, this inaugurated the era of the American windmill. Download [69.70 KB]
