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| Foreword | |
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| Acknowledgments | |
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| Introduction | |
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| 1900-1909 | |
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| Don P. Halsey Extols the Virtues of Great Oratory | |
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| Senator Albert J. Beveridge Defends America's Right to Subjugate "Savage" Peoples and Foreign Governments | |
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| Senator George F. Hoar Denounces American "Imperialism" | |
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| Jane Addams Offers an Impassioned Tribute to George Washington on the Anniversary of His Birthday | |
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| Tammany Hall Politician George Washington Plunkitt Justifies "Honest Graft" | |
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| President Theodore Roosevelt Condemns the "Muckrakers" Who Smear and Slander Honest Men | |
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| The Reverend Dr. Donald Sage Mackay Addresses the Question "Does God Care?" After an Earthquake Destroys San Francisco | |
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| W. E. B. Du Bois Issues a Call to Arms to His Fellow African Americans in the "Battle for Humanity" | |
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| Booker T. Washington Warns Against Confrontational Actions That May Do More Harm than Good | |
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| Mark Twain Speaks to Misses Tewksbury's School for Girls on Smoking, Drinking, and Lying | |
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| Ida B. Wells-Barnett Calls Attention to the Epidemic of Lynchings and "Mob Murder" in America | |
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| Chief Plenty Coup Confers with His Tribal Council on Achieving Peace Between the Great Tribes of the United States | |
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| The Reverend Reverdy Ransom on "White Supremacy" and an Upcoming Boxing Match Between Jack Johnson and Jim Jeffries | |
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| 1910-1919 | |
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| Anarchist Emma Goldman Derides Patriotism as a "Menace to Liberty" | |
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| Union Activist Rose Schneiderman on the Deaths of 146 Workers in the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire | |
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| Mrs. D.H. Bishop Offers a Harrowing Eyewitness Account of the Titanic's Last Hours | |
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| Henry Ford Describes the Bonus He Has Provided His Workers and Its Intended Effects on Their Private Lives | |
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| President Woodrow Wilson Requests a Declaration of War Against Germany | |
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| Carrie Chapman Catt Urges the U.S. Congress to Make One "Last, Hard Fight" for Suffrage | |
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| President Woodrow Wilson Enumerates the "Fourteen Points" That Will Ensure World Peace and "Justice to All Peoples and Nationalities" | |
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| Ambassador James W. Gerard Encourages German Americans to Be Loyal to the United States--or Else | |
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| Socialist Leader Eugene V. Debs Defends Himself in Court Against Charges of "Disloyalty" and "Sedition" | |
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| The Reverend Dr.Anna Howard Shaw Beseeches Americans to Accept President Wilson's Proposal for a "League of Nations" | |
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| Senator Henry Cabot Lodge Rejects the League and Its "Mongrel Banner" | |
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| New York Governor Alfred E. Smith Assails the "Contemptible" Publishing Tycoon William Randolph Hearst | |
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| 1920-1929 | |
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| Evangelical Preacher Billy Sunday Excoriates Alcohol as "God's Worst Enemy" | |
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| Will Rogers Skewers Both the "Wets" and the "Drys" in the Prohibition Debate | |
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| Attorney Edward Prindeville Demands Imprisonment for Eight Chicago White Sox Players Who Intentionally Lost the 1919 World Series | |
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| Helen Keller Emphatically Endorses Communism and the Russian Revolution | |
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| Margaret Sanger Promotes Birth Control as an "Ethical Necessity for Humanity" | |
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| President Warren G. Harding Marvels at the "Majesty" of Yellowstone National Park | |
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| Black Leader Marcus Garvey Finds Common Ground with the Ku Klux Klan | |
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| Maud Ballington Booth Expresses Her Belief That No Prisoner Is "Beyond Hope" | |
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| Defense Attorney Clarence Darrow Implores the Court to Spare the Lives of Two Young Murderers | |
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| William Jennings Bryan Scoffs at Darwin's Theory of Evolution | |
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| Defense Attorney Dudley Field Malone Argues That Both "Theology and Science" Should Be Taught in Public Schools | |
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| Nicola Sacco, Before His Execution, Restates His Innocence | |
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| Al "Scarface" Capone Bids Farewell to Chicago and Laments Being Unappreciated for Showing Citizens a "Good Time" | |
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| Republican Presidential Candidate Herbert Hoover Predicts the "Abolition of Poverty" in the United States | |
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| 1930-1939 | |
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| Oscar Ameringer Describes Intolerable Suffering Throughout the United States as a Result of the Great Depression | |
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| Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, on His Ninetieth Birthday, Offers Profound Advice on Life and Death | |
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| Notre Dame President the Reverend Father Charles L. O'Donnell Eulogizes the Legendary Football Coach Knute Rockne | |
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| Walter W. Waters, Leader of the "Bonus Expeditionary Forces," Rallies Americans Against President Herbert Hoover | |
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| Newly Elected President Franklin D. Roosevelt Gives Inspiration and Courage to a Nation Overwhelmed by Poverty and Anxiety | |
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| Joseph Strauss, Engineer of the Golden Gate Bridge, Celebrates the Bridge as a Symbol of "New Hopes and New Aspirations" | |
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| Mary McLeod Bethune Commemorates the Sacrifices and Achievements of African American Women Over the Past 100 Years | |
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| Populist Senator Huey P. Long Advances His "Share Our Wealth" Plan to Make "Every Man a King" | |
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| Radio Broadcaster Herb Morrison Reports Live as the Hindenburg Explodes and Crashes to the Ground | |
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| Union Leader John L. Lewis Excoriates Big Business for Its "Brutality and Oppression" Against Organized Labor | |
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| Orson Welles Tries to Assure Terrified Listeners That They Are Not Being Attacked by Martians | |
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| Baseball Great Lou Gehrig, Suffering from a Fatal Disease, Thanks His Fans and Considers Himself the "Luckiest Man on the Face of the Earth" | |
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| 1940-1949 | |
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| CBS Newsman Edward R. Murrow Describes Nazi Air Attacks on the City of London | |
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| President Franklin D. Roosevelt Tries to Convince a Skeptical Nation Why It Must Defend the World Against Nazism | |
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| Legendary Composer Duke Ellington Exalts the Artistic, Intellectual, and Spiritual Contributions Made by African Americans | |
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| Famed Pilot Charles Lindbergh Argues That the United States Would Meet with "Defeat and Failure" Against the German Army | |
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| Journalist Dorothy Thompson Imagines the Horror of a World Controlled by Adolf Hitler | |
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| President Franklin D. Roosevelt Requests from Congress a Declaration of War Against Japan | |
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| Nobel Laureate Pearl Buck Contends That to Defeat Fascism Abroad, Americans Must Fight for Equality at Home | |
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| General Dwight D. Eisenhower Drafts a Message of Apology for His Failure at D-Day | |
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| General Eisenhower Issues His "Order of the Day" to the Men Who Will Storm the Beaches of Normandy | |
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| General George S. Patton Tells His Troops That War Is the "Most Magnificent Competition in Which a Human Being Can Indulge" | |
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| President Harry S. Truman Addresses a Nation Grief-Stricken by the Death of Franklin D. Roosevelt | |
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| President Truman Announces That an Atomic Bomb--the Largest Bomb Ever Used in the History of Warfare--Has Been Dropped on Japan | |
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| General Douglas MacArthur Offers Words of Peace After Japan Signs the Official Declaration of Surrender | |
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| J. Robert Oppenheimer, Creator of the Atomic Bomb, Beseeches His Colleagues Not to Forget Morality in Their Pursuit of Science | |
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| Robert H. Jackson Demands a Verdict of Guilty for the Nazi Leaders on Trial at Nuremberg | |
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| Holocaust Survivor Hadassah Rosensaft Describes the Day She Was Liberated from a Nazi Extermination Camp | |
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| Zionist Leader Abba Hillel Silver Implores the United Nations to Authorize the Creation of a Homeland for Jews in Palestine | |
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| Secretary of State George Marshall Announces a Plan to Save War-Ravaged Europe from Descending into "Chaos" | |
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| World-Renowned Performer Paul Robeson Adamantly Defends His Love for the Soviet Union and Its Government | |
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| Major-League Baseball Player Jackie Robinson Appears Before the House Un-American Activities Committee to Comment on Robeson's Remarks | |
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| 1950-1959 | |
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| Senator Joseph McCarthy Launches a "Final, All-Out Battle" Against Communist Sympathizers in the United States | |
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| Senator Margaret Chase Smith Warns Against Those Who Use "Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry, and Smear [Tactics]" for Political Gain | |
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| Nobel Laureate William Faulkner Expresses His Heartfelt Belief That "Man Will Not Merely Endure: He Will Prevail" | |
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| President Harry S. Truman Defends Sending Troops to Korea and Firing General Douglas MacArthur | |
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| General MacArthur Explains His Actions in the Korean War and Refutes Charges of Being a "Warmonger" | |
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| Democratic Governor Adlai Stevenson Reminds Members of His Party of All That They Have Accomplished in the Past Twenty Years | |
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| Vice Presidential Candidate Richard M. Nixon Confronts Allegations That He Used Campaign Funds for His Personal Gain | |
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| John W. Davis Contends That "Separate but Equal" Is a Matter for the Legislature, Not the Courts, to Decide | |
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| NAACP Attorney Thurgood Marshall Argues That "Separate but Equal" Schools and Other Institutions Are Unconstitutional | |
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| Former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt Addresses the Question: "Hasn't the United Nations Failed?" | |
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| Environmentalist Rachel Carson Muses on the "Exceeding Beauty of the Earth" and Its Effect on the Human Spirit | |
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| Architect Frank Lloyd Wright Encourages His Students to Create Buildings That Are "Beneficial to Humankind" | |
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| Homer Hickam Relates How Sputnik Inspired Him to Become a Rocket Engineer for NASA | |
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| Jack Kerouac, in a Rare Public Appearance, Describes What the "Beat Generation" Is--and Is Not | |
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| Poet Carl Sandburg, Before a Joint Session of Congress, Honors Abraham Lincoln on the 150th Anniversary of His Birth | |
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| Green Bay Packers Coach Vince Lombardi Orders His Players to "Make Any Sacrifice to Win" | |
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| 1960-1969 | |
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| Dwight D. Eisenhower Ends His Presidency with a Heartfelt Message of Peace and a Warning About the Growing "Military Establishment" in America | |
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| President John F. Kennedy Summons the Nation and the World to Join Together in the Fight Against "Tyranny, Poverty, Disease, and War" | |
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| President John F. Kennedy Informs Americans of the Installation of Nuclear Missiles in Cuba--a "Reckless and Provocative Threat to World Peace" | |
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| Alabama Governor George Wallace Promises His State: "Segregation Now! Segregation Tomorrow! Segregation Forever!" | |
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| Standing in Front of the Berlin Wall, President John F. Kennedy Reminds the World of the "Failures of Communism" | |
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| Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Electrifies a Nation with His Call for an End to Segregation and Racial Discrimination | |
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| Dr. King Eulogizes Four Little Black Girls Murdered by the Ku Klux Klan | |
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| Malcolm X Scoffs at Dr. King's Pacifism, Declaring: "There's No Such Thing as a Nonviolent Revolution" | |
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| President John F. Kennedy Pays Tribute to the Poet Robert Frost and All of America's Writers and Artists | |
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| Cardinal Richard Cushing Offers a Final Prayer for President John F. Kennedy, Slain by an Assassin's Bullet | |
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| President Lyndon Johnson Orders "Air Action" Against North Vietnam After U.S. Destroyers Are Attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin | |
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| Senator Barry Goldwater Exclaims at the 1964 Republican Convention That "Extremism in the Defense of Liberty Is No Vice" | |
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| Berkeley University Student Mario Savio Criticizes the School Administration's Attempts to Stifle Free Speech | |
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| President Lyndon Johnson Envisions Transforming America into a "Great Society" Free of Poverty, Crime, and Racism | |
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| President Johnson Makes an Impassioned Plea to Congress to Pass the Voting Rights Act of 1965 | |
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| FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover Explains Why Only "Clean Cut" Men (and No "Beatniks") Can Serve in the FBI | |
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| President Lyndon Johnson Outlines the "First Steps" to Limiting the War in Vietnam and Makes a Stunning Personal Announcement to the American People | |
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| Labor Leader Cesar Chavez, Recovering from a Three-Week Fast, Explains to His Followers Why "Sacrifice" Is Integral to Their Struggle | |
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| Robert F. Kennedy Calms a Mostly Black Crowd of 1,000 After Informing Them That Martin Luther King Jr. Has Just Been Assassinated | |
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| Two Months Later, Robert F. Kennedy Is Killed by an Assassin's Bullet and Is Eulogized by His Younger Brother, Senator Ted Kennedy | |
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| Crew Members of the Apollo 8 Spacecraft Offer a Christmas Eve Message of Peace and Hope to a Nation Reeling from Social and Political Turmoil | |
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| Congresswoman Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm Demands That the United States Spends Its Resources on "People and Peace, Not Profits and War" | |
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| Wellesley Graduate Hillary Diane Rodham Defends Her Generation's Use of "Constructive Protest" to Create Social Change | |
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| Vice President Spiro Agnew Blasts the "Effete Corps of Impudent Snobs" and "Professional Anarchists" Who Oppose the War in Vietnam | |
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| Betty Friedan Explains Why the Feminist Movement Is Imperative Not Only for Women, But for Men As Well | |
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| 1970-1979 | |
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| Herbert L. Carter Describes in Graphic Detail His Eyewitness Account of the Atrocities Committed at My Lai | |
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| Twenty-eight-Year-Old Veteran and War Hero John Kerry Asks the U.S. Senate "Where Are the Leaders" to End This "Barbaric War" in Vietnam? | |
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| TV Reporter Dorothy Fuldheim, Who Covered the Kent State Shootings, Responds to Critics of Her "Pro-Student" Sympathies | |
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| Inmate L. D. Barkley Reads Aloud the Prisoners' Demands During a Hostage Crisis in New York State's Attica Prison | |
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| Twenty-five-Year-Old Attorney Sarah Weddington Argues Before the U.S. Supreme Court Why Abortions Should Be Legal Throughout America | |
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| Actress Jane Fonda Broadcasts Pro-Communist Radio Messages in Hanoi to Demoralize American Servicemen Fighting in Vietnam | |
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| President Richard M. Nixon Announces a Cease-Fire Between the U.S. Military and the North Vietnamese | |
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| Pat Simon, the Mother of a Young Soldier Killed in the Vietnam War, Asks That Amnesty Be Granted to All Draft Resisters | |
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| Representative Barbara Jordan Argues for the Impeachment of President Richard M. Nixon | |
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| President Nixon Bids an Emotional Farewell to His Staff | |
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| President Gerald R. Ford Explains His Motivations for Pardoning Richard M. Nixon | |
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| Astronomer Carl Sagan Discusses the Implications of Finding Life on Other Planets | |
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| The Message (Recorded by President Jimmy Carter) Enclosed in the Voyager I and Voyager II Spacecrafts | |
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| Native American Activist Leonard Peltier, on Trial for Murder, Denounces the Judge as a "Member of the White Racist American Establishment" | |
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| Nobel Laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer Reflects on the Role of Stories and Literature to "Uplift the Spirit" | |
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| Conservative Leader Phyllis Schlafly Denounces the Women's Movement as Incompatible with a "Successful Family Life and Motherhood" | |
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| President Jimmy Carter Addresses the "Crisis of Confidence" Affecting the "Heart and Soul and Spirit" of the Nation | |
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| 1980-1989 | |
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| Presidential Candidate Ronald Reagan Vows a "National Crusade to Make America Great Again" | |
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| Dr. Rayna Green, Cherokee, Offers a "Modest Proposal" for a "Museum of the Plains White Person" | |
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| UN Ambassador Jeanne Kirkpatrick Excoriates the Soviet Union for Shooting Down a Passenger Plane, Killing Everyone On Board | |
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| Eleven-Year-Old "Ambassador of Peace" Samantha Smith Shares Her Vision of the Future | |
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| New York Governor Mario Cuomo Challenges President Reagan's Portrayal of America as a "Shining City on a Hill" | |
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| Susan Baker of the PMRC Recommends Putting Warning Labels on Records with "Sexually Explicit and Violent" Rock Lyrics | |
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| Musician Frank Zappa Dismisses the PMRC's Proposal as an "Ill-Conceived Piece of Nonsense" | |
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| Holocaust Survivor Elie Wiesel Criticizes President Reagan at the White House for Planning to Visit a German Cemetery Where Nazi Officers Are Buried | |
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| President Ronald Reagan Honors the Memory of the Seven Astronauts Killed in the Space Shuttle Challenger Explosion | |
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| Corporate Raider Ivan Boesky Encourages Graduating Business Students to "Seek Wealth" in a "Virtuous and Honest Way" | |
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| An Unrepentent Oliver North Defends His Role in the Iran-Contra Scandal and Blames Congress for Its "Fickle, Vacillating" Foreign Policy | |
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| The Reverend Jesse Jackson Rallies All Americans--Particularly the Most Disadvantaged--to "Keep Hope Alive!" | |
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| Ryan White Relates the Prejudices and Hatred He Has Endured Since Being Diagnosed with AIDS | |
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| Patricia Godley, a Former Drug Addict, Stands Before a Town Hall Meeting on Drug Abuse and Implores: "Make Me Know I'm Worth Fighting For" | |
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| 1990-1999 | |
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| Student Dissident Shen Tong Offers a Firsthand Account of the Violent Crackdown in Tiananmen Square, China | |
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| President George Bush Announces the Allied Air Attack on Saddam Hussein's Forces in Iraq and Kuwait | |
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| Judge Clarence Thomas Vehemently Denies Charges of Sexual Harassment Made by Former Employee Anita Hill | |
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| Anita Hill Describes Judge Thomas's Sexual Advances Toward Her in Lurid Detail | |
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| The Reverend Cecil L. Murray, During the L.A. Riots, Implores His Parishioners to Find Faith and Refrain from Violence | |
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| Senator Daniel Inouye Pays Tribute to the Courage and Patriotism of the Highly Decorated 442nd Regiment of Japanese American Soldiers | |
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| President Bill Clinton Addresses a Predominantly Black Church on What Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Would Say If He Were Alive Today | |
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| Barbra Streisand Defends the Role of the Arts--and Actors as Activists--in American Society and Politics | |
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| The Reverend Billy Graham, After the Okahoma City Bombing, Offers a Sermon on the "Mystery of Evil" | |
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| Elizabeth Birch Appeals to Members of the Christian Coalition to Find "Common Ground" with Gays and Lesbians | |
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| Defense Attorney Johnnie Cochran Enumerates the Reasons Why O.J. Simpson Must Be Found "Not Guilty" | |
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| Handgun Control Activist (and Registered Republican) Sarah Brady Speaks to the Democratic National Convention on Gun Violence in America | |
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| Famed Actor and NRA Leader Charlton Heston Lashes Out at Those Who Attempt to "Undermine the Second Amendment" | |
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| Bill Henderson Laments Society's Increasing Dependence on Computers and Technology | |
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| The Original Draft of President Bill Clinton's Apology to the American People for His "Improper Relationship" with Monica Lewinsky | |
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| The Speech He Ultimately Gave | |
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| Journalist Tom Brokaw Looks Back on the Triumphs and Turmoils of the Twentieth Century--and Looks Ahead to the Challenges and Possibilities of the Century to Come | |
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| Permissions | |
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| Additional Sources | |
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| Index | |