The American Tapestry Project

In this episode The American Tapestry Project  we chat with Chris Magoc about his book A Progressive History of American Democracy Since 1945: American Dreams, Hard Realities. We’ll discover the Freedom Train, hear Sam Cooke sing “A Change is Gonna Come” and learn what Jackson Browne thought about ‘60s rebels become ‘80s Yuppies. That’s this week on The American Tapestry Project Episode #26

In this episode of The American Tapestry Project asks “Who owns history?” Building on the work of Eric Foner, this episode explores the current hullabaloo about what constitutes “accurate” American history and who gets to decide and why. Who owns history -- on The American Tapestry Project Episode #26.

In this episode The American Tapestry Project examines patriotic American poetry. We ask who is a patriot, what does patriotism mean, what have America’s poets said about an open-eyed American patriotism? We’ll hear what Whitman, Howe, McKay, Longfellow, Sandburg and many others past and present understood about patriotism American style. One if by land, two if by sea said Paul Revere! Whether by...

What are the American Tapestry meta-threads – stories of exclusion and inclusion. Who was Antonin Dvorak? Who was Harry Burleigh? Burleigh was Dvorak’s student. Dvorak wrote the American Tapestry theme – String Quartet #12 in F major – the “American”. Burleigh was his student, collated most of the great African American spirituals and made them a key component of American culture. This episode sha...

This episode of The American Tapestry Project explores the story of Benjamin Franklin – Hiding in Plain Sight. We’ll explore and ask “who was this man whose name you probably know as well as your own but about whom you probably know very little at all? We’ll ask and answer “who was this son of an immigrant candle maker and his wife, who, born into obscurity, upon his death was one of the most famo...

This episode of The American Tapestry Project celebrates Women’s History Month by telling the stories of four 19th century women who changed America. Tune in and meet Margaret Fuller, Sarah Josepha Hale and Lydia Maria Child. Never heard of them? All the more reason to hear their stories and how they prepared the way for the modern American woman. Fuller, Hale, Stone and Child – four names you nee...

This episode of The American Tapestry Project is the first of  two exploring how Americans celebrate freedom through holidays and  music. What was Decoration Day and how did it become Memorial Day? What  Longfellow poem defined the day? Why did Julia Ward Howe write The  Battle Hymn of the Republic and what was the origin of Taps? What happened on June 19, 1865 and how did it e...

This episode of The American Tapestry Project continues our exploration of how Americans weave the common objects of their love into the fabric of their national story through the things they celebrate, the games they play and sometimes the politics they forget. We’ll meet more Unsung American heroes – people who changed America who you might not know. Who was Ann Reeves Jarvis and her daughter An...

Who was Irene Morgan Kirkaldy? John Stark? Frances Perkins? Or, more famously, Levi Strauss? This episode of The American Tapestry Project explores yet another new thread in the stories of how Americans weave the common objects of their love into the fabric of their national story by introducing you to some Unsung American Heroes . The Cambridge Dictionary defines unsung as “not noticed or praised...

Continuing our weaving of The American Tapestry Project , today, searching for the “common objects of our love”, we’ll examine America’s great diversity in three classic American songs – Irving Berlin’s God Bless America , Woody Guthrie’s This Land Is Your Land and James Weldon Johnson’s Lift Every Voice and Sing . We’ll also ask whatever happened to Washington’s Birthday and what is the Uniform M...

The American Tapestry Project: We Tell Ourselves Stories concludes in Episode #6: The Immigrant’s Tale and The Fusion Thread . ‘ The Immigrant’s Tale’ explores the history of immigration to America from John Smith and John Winthrop in the 17th century to the Irish and Catholic Germans in the mid-19th century to the great influx of southern and Eastern Europeans  in the late 19th/early 20th ce...

Tracing the story of The American Dream: Success Stories, Horatio Alger and a Nation of ‘Hustlers , Episode 5 of The American Tapestry Project analyzes the tension between two stories: our Jeffersonian sense of ourselves as yeoman farmers living in small towns versus the reality that we live in Alexander Hamilton’s world of high finance, manufacturing and entrepreneurial zeal. In addition to such...

What is the story of American freedom? What is the paradox at its heart vexing us from the start and into tomorrow? How many ways has it been defined? Who did the defining? Who did it include; who did it exclude? What does freedom mean? What does liberty mean? What is the American Creed and what truths did Franklin – yes, Franklin, not Jefferson – say were “self-evident”? What is Lincoln’s governm...

Why are stories important? Humans seek meaning by asking questions. Where did we come from? Who are we? Where are we going? Humans are also storytellers. Asking questions and telling stories in reply are how humans make sense of their experience. As Joan Didion said, “We tell ourselves stories in order to live”. The American Tapestry Project explores Americans; sense making and story-telling as th...