Maine Humanities Council

Brad Babson is a consultant on East Asia and global development issues. He served 26 years with the World Bank, most recently as Senior Advisor for the East Asia and Pacific Region, with assignments including Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, South Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam. He has published widely on topics related to East and Southeast Asia, including the topic of this talk: the integration of North Korea into the international community. Babson holds an MPA from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and a BA from Williams College.

This talk was part of the 2009 Views of the East teacher program in Brunswick, Maine, which was co-sponsored by the World Affairs Council of Maine. Views of the East is a program of the Five College Center for East Asian Studies through the National Consortium for Teaching About Asia, funded by the Freeman Foundation and Unum. We welcome your feedback on this episode.

 

 Today's Challenges on the Korean Peninsula [72:30m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1009)

Before he was the leader of a nation torn apart by a Civil War, Abraham Lincoln was a young man growing up during tumultuous times in Illinois. In the first presentation of the Lincoln Bicentennial Symposium, historian Bruce Chadwick explained Lincoln’s rise to power from his first unsuccessful race for the state legislature to his election as President. Chadwick spent 23 years as a journalist before earning a doctorate in American history in 1994 at Rutgers University. He is a professor, historian, lecturer and author of 28 books, including a lengthy series on baseball history.

This lecture was part of the Legacy of Lincoln symposium co-presented by the Maine Humanities Council, Maine Historical Society, and American & New England Studies Program at USM on March 21, 2009. Victoria Bonebakker of the Maine Humanities Council and Richard D’Abate of the Maine Historical Society introduced Professor Chadwick’s talk.

 

 The Rise of Abraham Lincoln [68:36m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1583)

The goal of this day-long program was to provide an introduction to the complex web of politics, culture, and religion that has made South Asia both a volatile area and an emerging power. Rachel Sturman, Assistant Professor of History and Asian Studies at Bowdoin College, was the featured scholar. The recording is offered here in two parts: an overview from the beginning of the day and a question-and-answer session from the end.

India and Pakistan: The History Behind the Headlines took place on December 4, 2008, in Brunswick, Maine. We welcome your feedback on this program.

 

 India and Pakistan: Part 1 [64:59m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (2674)

 

 India and Pakistan: Part 2 [48:15m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (78)

The Blaine House is the Governor’s residence in Augusta, Maine. At the 175th anniversary celebration of this historic house on August 16, 2008, historian Jo Radner interviewed some of its former residents and staff.

Phyllis H. Siebert was the Blaine House chef from 1972 until her retirement in 2001. Cass Longley-Leahy is one of James B. Longley’s children. Governor Longley was in office from 1975 to 1979. Burton Cross served as Governor of Maine between 1953 and 1955. Margaret (Peggy) Gardiner’s father, William Tudor Gardiner, was the Governor of Maine from 1929 to 1933. Nancy Catlin is the great-granddaughter of Edwin Chick Burleigh, U.S. Senator (1913-1916) and Governor of Maine (1889-1893). Several other descendents of the Burleigh family—Mary J. O’Connor, Dr. Susan O’Connor, and Mari McGuire—joined her for this interview. Nicholas S. Sewall occupied the wartime Blaine House while his father, Sumner Sewall, served as the Governor of Maine between 1941 and 1945.

 

 Phyllis H. Siebert [26:07m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (92)

 

 Cass Longley-Leahy [10:30m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (93)

 

 Burton Cross [7:23m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (92)

 

 Margaret (Peggy) Gardiner [13:37m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (97)

 

 Nancy Catlin [5:37m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (98)

 

 Nicholas S. Sewall [9:29m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (211)

Patrick Rael is Associate Professor of History at Bowdoin College. His areas of interest include antebellum America, Civil War and Reconstruction, and comparative slavery. Among other publications, he has edited a volume of scholarship on African-American Activism Before the Civil War (Routledge, 2008). In this talk, Rael places the Vietnam conflict in a continuum of U.S. military engagements, considering the impacts of war on society, and vice versa.

This talk was part of the 2008 Teaching American History teacher program in Brunswick, Maine. Please feel free to leave a comment below.

 

 Standard Podcast [69:03m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1089)

Neil Rolde’s 2006 book, Continental Liar from the State of Maine, is a biography of James G. Blaine, the Maine politician who dominated the American political stage from just before the Civil War and almost until the twentieth century. A former Maine politician himself, Rolde is a prize-winning historian and author of Unsettled Past, Unsettled Future: The Story of Maine Indians; The Interrupted Forest: A History of Maine’s Wildlands; Maine, Down East and Different; and many other books. A former Board member of the Maine Humanities Council, Rolde won the Constance H. Carlson Public Humanities Prize in 2005.

This talk was part of the Portland Public Library’s Brown Bag Lecture Series. We welcome your feedback on this Neil Rolde podcast.

 

 Neil Rolde [54:45m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (386)