ASHP Podcast

Herbert Sloan, Barnard CollegeA Living ConstitutionDecember 13, 2010Legal historian Herbert Sloan argues against the theory of originalism in making the case for a “Living Constitution.” Sloan cites the lack of evidence from the Constitutional framers themselves to explain the difficulty of determining with any certainty their “original intent.”  He also documents the belief of at least some framers that the Constitution would have to change and grow to accommodate new challenges and circumstances.  Sloan follows up with a discussion of landmark Supreme Court cases that illustrate the need for a Living Constitution and explains why Thomas Jefferson, who was in France during the Constitutional Convention of 1787, believed that the Constitution should be rewritten every nineteen years.

Mae Ngai, Columbia UniversityRemembering the Triangle Fire – Labor and Immigration PolicyThe Graduate Center, CUNYMarch 24, 2011Historian Mae Ngai spoke on a panel as part of the 100th anniversary remembrance of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. She provides a historical perspective on the often contentious relationship between organized labor and immigrant activism. This fifteen-minute talk spans U.S. history from the racialized arguments of Samuel Gompers, to the more inclusive rhetoric of the 1960s’ “children of the triangle generation,” and through to the present. Professor Ngai argues that organized labor poses the wrong question when it asks: Are immigrants good or bad for us?

Janice R. Fine, Rutgers UniversityRemembering the Triangle Fire – Immigrant Workers Then and NowThe Graduate Center, CUNYMarch 24, 2011Political scientist and labor studies professor Janice Fine spoke on a panel as part of the 100th anniversary remembrance of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. She contrasts the situation of immigrant workers in at the turn of the twentieth century with low-wage immigrant workers today. This nineteen-minute talk covers the issues of migration and the role of migrants in the labor force, immigration policy, labor standards and occupational health, and trends in immigrant worker organizing. From 1990 to 2000 more immigrants arrived in the U.S. than in any previous decade, and while many lessons can be learned from past struggles for immigrant workers’ rights Professor Fine notes the ways that ethnicity, legal status, and the changing nature of work impact opportunities for low-wage immigrant workers and their ability to organize.

Frank Bidart, Wellesley CollegeVijay Seshadri, Sarah Lawrence CollegeKevin Young, Emory UniversitySally Dawidoff (moderator), American Social History ProjectThe Association of Writers and Writing Programs ConferenceWashington, DC, February 5, 2011In the second part of this two-part panel discussion, held at the Association of Writers and Writing Programs Conference, distinguished contemporary American writers Frank Bidart, Vijay Seshadri, and Kevin Young talk about writing about the Civil War 150 years after it began. Seshadri grew up an immigrant child of an immigrant father obsessed with the war; Young comes to the subject as a twenty-first-century African-American poet living in the South; and Bidart was spurred to write about Gettysburg by “the world created by the Bush administration.” Allen Tate and Robert Lowell’s seminal odes are also read and discussed. For all these writers, the war has become part of their Americanness.Part 1: Introduction by Sally DawidoffReadings:Ode to the Confederate Dead by Allen Tate (recording), read by the authorFor the Union Dead by Robert Lowell, read by Frank BidartThe Nature of the Chemical Bond (excerpt) by Vijay Seshadri, read by the authorFor the Confederate Dead by Kevin Young, read by the authorFor the Republic by Frank Bidart, read by the authorPart 2: DiscussionCreditsPermission to broadcast Frank Bidart’s reading of Robert Lowell’s poem “The Union Dead” granted by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC.Permission to broadcast the recording of Allen Tate reading his poem “Ode to the Confederate Dead” granted by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC and by Universal Music Enterprises, a division of Universal Music Group Recordings, Inc.Permission to post Vijay Seshadri’s “The Nature of the Chemical Bond” granted by Graywolf Press.

Stan Deaton, Georgia Historical SocietyCivil War @ 150: Civil War Myths and MisinformationCUNY Graduate CenterApril 5, 2011In this 12 minute talk, Stan Deaton (Senior Historian at the Georgia Historical Society) discusses the challenges his institution faces when discussing and commemorating the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War. With many people unconvinced that the Civil War was fought to preserve and extend slavery, Deaton explains that we must rely on evidence on the ground in the 1860s. All too often, the public refers to “politically correct” material that was distributed during later historical periods and alters the original meaning of the insurrection. The Georgia Historical Society has reached new and diverse audiences with its legacy program, the Civil War 150 Historical Marker Project, which demonstrates how they seek to change the ways the Civil War and “our past” is discussed. This talk was part of the public seminar: Civil War Myths and Misinformation.

Annelise Orleck, Dartmouth CollegeCUNY, Graduate CenterIn the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, poor mothers in New York City and across the United States took charge of their lives and their communities, using federal anti-poverty dollars to build health clinics, serve free meals to poor children, publish community newspapers and even open free public swimming pools. Many of these programs were so successful that they literally extended life expectancies in poor communities. In this talk for New York City teachers, historian Annelise Orleck traces the history of community programs built by welfare mother activists in Brooklyn, New York and Las Vegas, Nevada. The incredible story of these grassroots activists and their many successes draws upon Professor Orleck’s book Storming Caesars Palace: How Black Mothers Fought Their Own War on Poverty.The images that Professor Orleck discusses during the talk are available below.Welfare Rights Images

Jay Gitlin, Yale UniversityU.S. Territorial Expansion: From the Louisiana Purchase to the California Gold RushThe Graduate CenterFebruary 22, 2011Historian Jay Gitlin examines American diversity through the lens of westward expansion rather than immigration. In the nineteenth century hundreds of thousands of people who spoke a different language, held different religious beliefs, and came from a wide range of ethnic backgrounds became U.S. residents through territorial acquisition, conquest, and diplomacy.Professor Gitlin describes the people and cultures within the Louisiana Purchase and conflicts that arose with that acquisition. He then outlines the key events and ethnic and cultural issues related to the Mexican American War and the California gold rush.

Lisandro Pérez, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNYCubano New York: Nineteenth Century Immigrants to the World’s Sugar CapitalThe Graduate Center, CUNYMarch 4, 2011In the nineteenth century, Cubans were the largest Latin American or Spanish-speaking population in New York City. Lisandro Pérez discusses the importance of these immigrants to both Cuban and U.S. history in conversation with ASHP/CML staff members Andrea Ades Vásquez and Pennee Bender. Due to New York City’s importance in sugar refining and marketing, thousands of Cubans viewed the city as their business, communications, and educational center. The New York Cuban community provided political organizing, visions of modernity, and approaches to nation building to the island throughout the nineteenth century and introduced New Yorkers to a diverse Spanish-speaking population of businessmen, cigar workers, laundresses, and seamstresses.“Cubano New York: Nineteenth Century Immigrants to the World’s Sugar Capital” is a Now and Then podcast conversation. The series features conversations and interviews with scholars, educators, and ASHP/CML staff members on topics in history.

Carol Groneman, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNYCUNY, Graduate CenterHistorian Carol Groneman, whose dissertation grounds the scholarship of ASHP’s documentary “The Five Points: New York’s Irish Working Class in the 1850s,” looks at what happened when immigrants of the Irish famine came to the United States (1845-1855):How were they perceived?What institutions were built from their participation?What meaning might we extract from their experience?How does their experience resonate for today’s immigrants?Groneman uses historical visual evidence and select primary sources such as census data to unpack the profound impact Irish immigration had on society. Different from the wave of Irish immigrants who came at the turn of the nineteenth-century, the Irish famine group swelled urban centers such as Boston, Chicago, and New York, and established Irish-American identity through the development of ethnic neighborhoods, the Democratic Party, parochial schools, and labor organizations.

Donna Thompson Ray, American Social History ProjectCUNY, Graduate CenterIn this three-part video podcast, ASHP/CML’s Donna Thompson Ray shares the benefit of her area of expertise with New York City Department of Education teachers in a discussion about the work of artist Jacob Lawrence.  Eliciting contributions from teachers, Thompson Ray leads a conversation about Lawrence’s Migration Series and how educators can, and do, use the images in the series to teach students about the Great Migration.  She discusses Lawrence’s own experiences with migration and the art of the Harlem Renaissance, how the Great Migration was experienced by those who took part in it, conditions that caused it, and how it affected people’s lives.  In the process, Thompson Ray models a close reading of select images from the series, demonstrating how teachers might use the work to deepen their students’ understanding of the era.The images shown here are from The Phillips Collection.  For more on the Great Migration go to Up South: African-American Migration in the Era of the Great War.