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Title: Billy Yank and Johnny Reb, Billy Yank and Johnny Reb
Identifier: dv_00178
Creator: Wiley, Bell (lecturer)
Contributor: Radio/Television, The University of Texas (producer), Frantz, Joe B. (project director), Squier, Robert D. (television director), Hendricks, Lyle (art, set, and titles)
Dates: circa 1962-1963
Resource: KLRU-TEMP videotape collection
Description: Drawing upon an unparalleled knowledge of the soldier in the ranks, both North and South, Professor Wiley gives us a composite picture of the fighting man of the Civil War. With numerous anecdotes and extracts from contemporary letters, Wiley brings to life the individual men of the Blue and Gray. In doing so, Professor Wiley not only gives flesh and emotions to a great event in our history, but also provides valuable insight into American society of the mid-nineteenth century. Professor Wiley notes at the outset that Northern and Southern soldiers had much more in common than in opposition. Yet the differences between them are instructive as to the social systems of their respective sections. For example, the observation that Northern soldiers were better educated while Southern soldiers were more prone to religious revivalism tells us much about their respective social institutions. Perhaps Wiley's most useful contribution is to give us an idea of what the Civil War was all about from the point of view of those who fought it. [Synopsis from "The History of American Civilization By Its Interpreters; A Student Guide to the Television Series" by James A. Bonar, Roger E. Willson, and The University of the State of New York] Tape is dated 1974/11/12, indicating that it is a dub of an earlier recording.

Title: The Common Soldiers of the Confederacy - North and South, The Common Soldiers of the Confederacy - North and South
Identifier: dv_00177
Creator: Wiley, Bell (lecturer)
Contributor: Radio/Television, The University of Texas (producer), Frantz, Joe B. (introduction; project director), Squier, Robert D. (television director), Hendricks, Lyle (art, set, and titles), Frantz, Joe B. (project director)
Dates: circa 1962-1963
Resource: KLRU-TEMP videotape collection
Description: Professor Wiley, a noted Civil War scholar and author, has always been more interested in what he calls the plain people than in the leaders, the generals, or the politicians. Here he gives an informative and fascinating picture of the average Confederate soldier whose courage and fighting qualities sustained the South against great odds for four bloody years. Professor Wiley has read thousands of letters and diaries written by "Johnny Reb," and he uses quotations from many of them to describe in human terms what is all too often presented in abstract numbers. Thus we learn just who the men in gray were, what their backgrounds were and how old they were, what their uniforms were like and what they had to eat, their feelings of loneliness and their attitude of "Billy Yank," and their heroism--and fear--in battle. Through Professor Wiley's lively description, the impersonal armies of the South become peopled by colorful, often humorous, often courageous, and always human creatures. [Synopsis from "The History of American Civilization By Its Interpreters; A Student Guide to the Television Series" by James A. Bonar, Roger E. Willson, and The University of the State of New York] Tape is dated 1974/10/28, indicating that it is a dub of an earlier recording.

Title: Growth of American Thought, Growth of American Thought
Identifier: dv_00208
Creator: Curti, Merle (lecturer)
Contributor: Squier, Robert D. (television director), Frantz, Joe B. (project director), Hendricks, Lyle (art, set, and titles), Radio/Television, The University of Texas (producer)
Dates: circa 1962-1963
Resource: KLRU-TEMP videotape collection
Description: This lecture by Professor Curti is both an account of his approach to history from the point of view of the humanities and a description of the field of American intellectual history, in the development of which he has played an important role. Tracing his own involvement with the history of American thought to his early interest in American literature, Professor Curti describes how in the 1920's, he developed courses devoted to American intellectual history that were among the first of their kind ever offered in this country. In the course of his personal story Professor Curti treats many of the larger problems of the nature and content of intellectual history. His account of his own research and thinking in the field, which culminated in his influential book, "The Growth of American Thought," constitutes an introduction and description of American intellectual history as a field of study. Defining his own approach to the subject as empirical, Professor Curti analyzes the history of American ideas in terms of the concepts of nationalism and democracy, both of which he thinks are fundamental to our country's intellectual development. This in turn permits him to dwell at length on what he has concluded are the main characteristics of American thought. Reflecting on the influence that his work has had, and the criticism it called forth, Professor Curti concludes that American intellectual history is still a new and exciting field that offers great opportunity and reward. Tape is dated 1974/11/20, indicating that it is a dub of an earlier recording. Notes from technician: Poor recording, second generation. Poor tracking first 4 minutes. Scratches and low RF on heads 3 and 4 throughout. Tape was baked twice and cleaned 8 times before playback.

Title: The Making Of An Historian, The Making Of An Historian
Identifier: dv_00003
Creator: Radio/Television Department, University of Texas at Austin, Franklin, John Hope (lecturer)
Contributor: Frantz, Joe B. (project director), Squier, Robert D. (television director), Hendricks, Lyle (art, set, and titles)
Dates: 1964-01-01
Resource: KLRU-TEMP videotape collection
Description: John Hope Franklin delivers a 30-minute lecture on his path to becoming a historian, detailing the formative professors and research that led to his first book, "The Free Negro in North Carolina: 1790-1860," and the incomplete historiography of African-Americans he found in textbooks of the time, which inspired him to write his next book, "From Slavery to Freedom: A History of Negro Americans." Professor Franklin visited the University of Texas at Austin in January 1964 to deliver two lectures as part of “The History of American Civilization by Its Interpreters,” a videotaped series featuring leading historians discussing their areas of expertise. Professor Franklin’s other lecture is entitled, “The Militant South.”

Title: The Militant South, The Militant South
Identifier: dv_00004
Creator: Radio/Television Department, University of Texas at Austin, Franklin, John Hope (lecturer)
Contributor: Frantz, Joe B. (project director), Squier, Robert D. (television director), Hendricks, Lyle (art, set, and titles)
Dates: 1964-01-01
Resource: KLRU-TEMP videotape collection
Description: John Hope Franklin delivers a 30-minute lecture based on his 1956 work "The Militant South." Professor Franklin visited the University of Texas at Austin in January 1964 to deliver two lectures as part of “The History of American Civilization by Its Interpreters,” a videotaped series featuring leading historians discussing their areas of expertise. Professor Franklin’s other lecture is entitled, “The Making of a Historian.”

Title: Reconsidering the Age of Reform, Reconsidering the Age of Reform
Identifier: dv_00248
Creator: Hofstadter, Richard (Lecturer)
Contributor: Frantz, Joe B. (project director), Squier, Robert D. (television director), Hendricks, Lyle (art, set, and titles), Radio/Television, The University of Texas (producer)
Dates: circa 1962-1963
Resource: KLRU-TEMP videotape collection
Description: Professor Hofstadter reconsiders the main themes of his analytical essay on American reform, entitled "The Age of Reform," since publication in 1955, against favorable and unfavorable reactions from other historians, and assesses his contributions. His analysis of Populism split the movement into economic realities (the "hard" aspect) and an agrariam mythology (the "soft" aspect). He is thus able to show how the farmer began to move toward material prosperity by perfecting the "hard" aspect implicit in Populism after the defeat in the election of 1896, and at the same time to point to some of the crudities in Populist ideology. His discussion of the limitations of Populist thought, especially of their rhetorical anti-Semitism, provoked what he regards as an unfortunate quarrel over whether the populists were "good guys" or "bad guys," He shows that this discussion is irrelevent to his main thesis, and reiterates that even with its interesting limitations, Populism was a constructive political force. Turning to another reform current, Progressivism. he shows how it differed in root causes, style" following, and program. Again, he feels that too much attention was focused unprofitably on a single aspect of this thesis: the idea that Progressivism was due to a "status revolution" that displaced the native "establishment" and superseded it with plutocrats and corrupt politicians. This was only one cause, but it was very useful because it accounted for the Progressive's emphasis on abstract principles of morality and justice, and other typical concerns. The third reform pattern, the New Deal, has a still different tone, although it stems from the Populist-Progressive tradition. The difference comes from a change in the ethnic bases of politics that produced a new reform pattern, less interested in abstract justice and morality or in the role of the good citizen, but more concerned with human needs, more pragmatic in politics, and based on personal loyalty in political organization.[Synopsis from "The History of American Civilization By Its Interpreters; A Student Guide to the Television Series" by James A. Bonar, Roger E. Willson, and The University of the State of New York]

Title: [The Age of Abundance] (mistitled as Nationalism and Sectionalism), [The Age of Abundance] (mistitled as Nationalism and Sectionalism)
Identifier: dv_00180
Creator: Potter, David (lecturer)
Contributor: Radio/Television, The University of Texas (producer), Frantz, Joe B. (introduction, project director), Squier, Robert D. (television director), Hendricks, Lyle (art, set, and titles), Frantz, Joe B. (project director)
Dates: 1963-10-24
Resource: KLRU-TEMP videotape collection
Description: Professor Potter's subject is the effect of economic abundance on the American people and their ideals. Sketching the process by which America developed from an economy of scarcity to one of abundance, Professor Potter notes that this was achieved through a combination of natural resources and technological advancement. The result has been that we have become a "People of Plenty," the title of Professor Potter's widely read and influential book, and this fact not only has wrought great changes in our way of life but has greatly influenced our system of values. By way of illustration, Professor Potter discusses at some length the American attachment to the ideals of equality and democracy. America has been able to indulge itself in these values, he suggests, because our economy has been capable of providing the conditions necessary for their sustenance. In contrast, an economy of scarcity not only cannot be expected to embrace such lofty and costly ideals but rather can only be expected to reject them. Professor Potter emphasizes that American economic abundance does not account for our attachment to democracy, but only has made it possible for us to support democracy. His lecture provides striking insights into American history and culture and into the problems of scarcity and abundance everywhere. [Synopsis from "The History of American Civilization By Its Interpreters; A Student Guide to the Television Series" by James A. Bonar, Roger E. Willson, and The University of the State of New York] Though the title cards read "Nationalism and Sectionalism," the lecture is "The Age of Abundance." Black and white picture with sound.

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