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).
Episodes available:
Indefinitely 
Sun, 9 Jun 68
Duration:
14 mins
An eyewitness account of the assassination of Bobby Kennedy on June 5, 1968 in Los Angeles, and the collective-guilt aftermath for America.
Sun, 24 Mar 68
Duration:
15 mins
The national mood begins to change over the Vietnam war - how America began to move from early indifference to the recognition of a nightmare.
Sun, 24 Dec 67
Duration:
14 mins
Senator Jacob Javits' parking fine, Mayor Lindsay and the water commissioner, and a President Truman Christmas story.
Sun, 21 Aug 66
Duration:
15 mins
How President Lyndon B Johnson had to make way for a honeymoon.
Sun, 22 Aug 65
Duration:
14 mins
The Watts riots in Los Angeles - were they an uprising by black Americans angry at their treatment or simply criminally motivated looting and violence?
Sun, 30 May 65
Duration:
14 mins
How the debacle of the Cassius Clay–Sonny Liston boxing prize fight tarnished one of the elements of American culture - sportsmanship
Sun, 17 Jan 65
Duration:
14 mins
President Lyndon B Johnson's inauguration for his own full first term, and some earlier notable inaugurations, including Washington and Jefferson's.
Sun, 24 Nov 63
Duration:
15 mins
The assassination of John F Kennedy, the first president of the television age, and the style, grace and fun he brought to the White House.
Sun, 21 Jan 62
Duration:
14 mins
How New York construction was brought to a halt by the Electrician's Union strike, and why the computer or 'the big brain' will soon change how people work.
Sun, 8 Sep 57
Duration:
16 mins
Alistair Cooke remembers Lindsay Wellington, the BBC head who came up with the idea of weekly letters to help people in the UK understand American life in 1946.
Thu, 5 Nov 53
Duration:
14 mins
A tribute to American Pianist William Kappell, the best pianist of his generation, and what music means to Americans.
Fri, 19 Jan 51
Duration:
14 mins
How a new daily diet of television in America is changing people's lives, as reported by Alistair Cooke.
Sun, 12 Jan 47
Duration:
5 mins
A fragment preserved from Cooke's talk, reflecting on the importance of democratic capitalism and a free economy to Americans.
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