Supreme Court and Segregation, The
Professor of history Gary Gerstle talks about the significance of the Supreme Court's Brown vs. the Board of Education decision. "I would say the practical significance in terms of how much was integrated and how quickly is less important," Professo...
Supreme Court in the 1930's, The
Professor of history Gary Gerstle talks about Franklin D. Roosevelt's efforts to "pack the Supreme Court" with justices he believed would be sympathetic to his legislative agenda, particularly the Wagner Act and the Social Security Act.. Although Ro...
Goddard, Race and Intelligence (Part One)
Professor of American studies and history Matthew Frye Jacobson talks about Henry Herbert Goddard, who believed that race was the key to discovering what people's potential was in the realm of intelligence. Goddard's work was used by nativists in Co...
Goddard, Race and Intelligence (Part Two)
Professor of American studies and history Matthew Frye Jacobson explains that, while Henry Herbert Goddard and others like him are often viewed currently as, "...crackpots...out on the fringe somewhere with bizarre ideas that aren't really related t...
Franz Boas Takes On The Eugenicists
Professor of American studies and history Matthew Frye Jacobson talks about Jewish scholar and Columbia anthropology professor Franz Boas. Professor Jacobson explains that Boas was, "...one of the first scholars who really started to question what w...
Fueling the Abolition Movement
Historian and author Ira Berlin explains that the key event in the abolition of slavery was the Revolutionary War. "The ideology of the American Revolution--the notion that all men are created equal--is every corrosive to the institution of slavery,...
Science, Race and Immigration
Professor of American studies and history Matthew Frye Jacobson talks about the ascendancy of science in the latter part of the nineteenth century, and the use of science to classify people into racial types and racial hierarchies. This gave rise to...
Slavery Experience, The
Historian and author Ira Berlin talks about the realities of day to day life for slaves. Professor Berlin explains that the slave's experience varied depending on whether he or she lived in a city or in the country, on a small farm or a large planta...
Slavery and the Civil War
While many people, including Abraham Lincoln, said the Civil War was about the Union, historian and author Ira Berlin argues that the war cannot be understood without the institution of slavery. In fact, Professor Berlin adds, "...By the end of the ...
Slavery: A Historical Perspective
Historian and author Ira Berlin provides a historical overview of slavery, noting that it is mentioned in both the Bible and the Koran. Professor Berlin describes slavery as an institution that produces goods very quickly and cheaply, but does so in...