13 episodes
Letter from America by Alistair Cooke: The Early Years (1940s, 1950s and 1960s) BBC Radio 4
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- Society & Culture
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4.3 • 6 Ratings
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The assassinations of John F Kennedy and Bobby Kennedy through to Vietnam and America’s shame at the My Lai massacre. A fascinating social, cultural and political history of American life, through the words of British-American journalist and broadcaster, Alistair Cooke (1908 – 2004).
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Bobby Kennedy's assassination, 1968
An eyewitness account of the assassination of Bobby Kennedy on June 5, 1968 in Los Angeles, and the collective-guilt aftermath for America.
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1000th letter - American reactions to Vietnam, 1968
The national mood begins to change over the Vietnam war - how America began to move from early indifference to the recognition of a nightmare.
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Christmas 1967
Senator Jacob Javits' parking fine, Mayor Lindsay and the water commissioner, and a President Truman Christmas story.
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Honeymoon with President Johnson, 1966
Democracy demonstrated - how the President of the United States had to make way for Mr Meyer Sugarman's wedding night.
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The LA Watts riots, 1965
The Watts riots in Los Angeles - were they an uprising by black Americans angry at their treatment or simply criminally motivated looting and violence?
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Clay vs Liston Fight
How the debacle of the Cassius Clay–Sonny Liston boxing prize fight tarnished one of the elements of American culture - sportsmanship
Customer Reviews
Excellent
Thank you BBC!
Insightful record of the lives of America
I grew up loving the voice of Alistair Cooke, I savour my revisits into this world.
Letters
Here in 2017 the idea or task of writing letters may have fallen foul of technological highways. But people do still write. They call it blogging. Alistair Cooks letters are timeless. If only others did something similar.
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