Letter from America by Alistair Cooke: The Early Years (1940s, 1950s and 1960s)
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
An eyewitness account of the assassination of Bobby Kennedy on June 5, 1968 in Los Angeles, and the collective-guilt aftermath for America.
The national mood begins to change over the Vietnam war - how America began to move from early indifference to the recognition of a nightmare.
Senator Jacob Javits' parking fine, Mayor Lindsay and the water commissioner, and a President Truman Christmas story.
Democracy demonstrated - how the President of the United States had to make way for Mr Meyer Sugarman's wedding night.
The Watts riots in Los Angeles - were they an uprising by black Americans angry at their treatment or simply criminally motivated looting and violence?
How the debacle of the Cassius Clay–Sonny Liston boxing prize fight tarnished one of the elements of American culture - sportsmanship
President Lyndon B Johnson's inauguration for his own full first term, and some earlier notable inaugurations, including Washington and Jefferson's.
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.
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.
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.
A tribute to American Pianist William Kappell, the best pianist of his generation, and what music means to Americans.
How a new daily diet of television in America is changing people's lives, as reported by Alistair Cooke.
A fragment preserved from Cooke's talk, reflecting on the importance of democratic capitalism and a free economy to Americans.
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