The Radio Foundation, Inc. , 58:53
Engaging, Informational, Polished
This is a very interesting hour of informative, fast-moving narrative skillfully threading together interviews, archival audio, and on-the-money music -- well edited, and thoughtfully produced. The program ranges back in time to the 16th-century's Portuguese Inquisition, when Jews were expelled or forced to convert to Catholicism, but briskly skips ahead to focus more intensively on anti-Semitism in the 20th-century.
Historian, psychologist, or other, the commentators hold your attention, and teach. If I once knew, I'd completely forgotten that Adolf Hitler was inspired by Henry Ford's virulently anti-Semitic newspaper, "The Dearborn Independent."
The program tracks the progression of Anti-Semitism and puts it within the context of larger social and political changes. It touches on third rail issues of immigration, discrimination, religious intolerance, genocide, war. Sound timely? Plus, we get to hear the voice of Edward R. Murrow as he unapologetically reports on the dark horror of Buchenwald. But I don't mean to make the program sound grim. It's engaging and offers glimpses of hope. Things change, always. Once in a while for the better.
Between the open -- American prep school boys cheering full-scale slaughter -- and the close -- a fantastic quote by Sartre -- lies an old-school hour of excellent radio. Program on appropriate holidays and historical anniversaries, but no need to ghettoize-- it's about people, so any time...
Sydney Lewis
, Atlantic Public Media
May 2, 2007
The Story of Antisemitism in America - Father Coughlin, Henry Ford and Charles Lindbergh publicly denounce Jews - Joe Lieberman chosen to run for Vice-President
