Alanson B. Houghton: Ambassador of the New Era

Description

Scholar Jeffrey Matthews explores the life of Alanson B. Houghton, American industrialist, politician, and diplomat (to Germany, 1922-1925, and to Great Britain, 1925-1929). Houghton uses this exploration to examine U.S. foreign policy between World War I and World War II, citing Houghton's criticism of policy under Presidents Harding and Coolidge.

Audio and video options are available.

The Origins of the Cold War

Description

From the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History website:

"The Cold War was more than the product of post-World War II tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union, argues John Lewis Gaddis, Robert A. Lovett Professor of History at Yale University. Rather, it was the product of events extending all the way back to the 1830s, when Alexis de Tocqueville predicted that Russia and the United States would become the world's foremost powers. In this lecture, delivered at the Gilder Lehrman Summer Seminar 'The Cold War,' Gaddis examines U.S.-Soviet relations from the nineteenth century through the end of World War II, tracing the myriad causes of the Cold War."

Parks and Politics: A Look at Federal Land

Description

From the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History website:

"Bureaucrats, University of Colorado professor of history Patricia Limerick argues, are often the most overlooked (at best) or reviled (at worst) of government officials, but they wield tremendous powers that shape Americans' daily lives. Nowhere is this more true than in the bureaucracy of the U.S. Department of the Interior. A wide-ranging agency charged with both protecting land and promoting its use, the Department of the Interior implements federal law over millions of acres of land and mediates the claims of environmental, mining, foresting, farming, and ranching interests, among others. Bureaucracies like the Department of the Interior may be boring, Limerick argues, but historians cannot ignore their impact on the development of the American West."

Heslin House [OR] Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 01/08/2008 - 13:38
Description

The Heslin House, located in Fairview, OR, beside the Columbia River, is an impressive example of Western Farmhouse architecture. The home was purchased by the Fairview-Rockwood-Wilkes Historical Society in 1991, and now stands as a historic house museum.

The house offers guided tours. The website offers a brief history of the home as well as visitor information.

Fort Boonesborough State Park [KY]

Description

Fort Boonesborough was originally built in 1775 by Daniel Boone and his men to serve as a frontier outpost along the Kentucky River. Today, the fort has been completely reconstructed and functions as a living history museum, giving modern-day visitors a sense of what life was like for pioneers in Kentucky. In addition to the reconstructed fort, the park contains the Kentucky River Museum, which provides visitors with "insight into the lives of families who lived on the river and worked the locks and dams in the 1900s."

The park offers exhibits, tours for school groups, living history demonstrations, special school days throughout the year, and other educational and recreational events. The website offers visitor information, a photo gallery featuring 13 photographs of the park, and an events calendar.

Edgewood Historical Society, Heritage Park, and Historical Village [TX] Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 01/08/2008 - 13:26
Description

This outdoor museum encompasses authentically restored and furnished structures representing rural life in East Texas c. 1900. The purpose of the museum is to preserve the rural culture and architectural heritage of Texas to ensure present and future generations an opportunity to celebrate their heritage.

The Soundscape of Modernity: Architectural Acoustics and the Culture of Listening in America, 1900-1933

Description

Scholar and author Emily Thompson describes the study of aural history—the study of not just music, but of noise and soundscapes as a whole, what cultures heard and how they heard it—and discusses the aural culture in the U.S. from 1900 to 1933. She looks at how sound at the time was influenced by technology and at the consumption of sound, focusing particularly on architecture's influence on sound.