Lynne Olson tells Terry Gross why many students opposed U.S. intervention in World War II:

[T]hese kids were basically saying, ‘Hell no, we don’t want to go to war. This is something we absolutely do not want to do.’ And this major isolationist organization, … America First, was founded by a bunch of Yale students — Yale law students and Yale undergraduates — and among them were young men who went on to have incredibly illustrious careers. … Gerald Ford was a Yale law student and he was one of the founders of America First. Potter Stewart, who later went on the Supreme Court, was also a founder. Sargent Shriver, the first head of the Peace Corps, was a founder, as was Kingman Brewster, who later became president of Yale and, quite ironically, U.S. ambassador to Great Britain. Among the students who supported America First were John F. Kennedy, who was a Harvard senior, and Kurt Vonnegut and a young prep school student named Gore Vidal.

Image via S-USIH

Author Lynne Olson talks to Terry Gross about whether Charles Lindbergh was sympathetic to the Nazi ideology

I’m not so sure it was the Nazi ideology. He admired the Germans’ technological expertise. Bottom line: Charles Lindbergh was a technocrat. That’s what he was really interested in and the Germans were experts in technology and he also admired what the Germans had done in terms of reviving country and he certainly was sympathetic with Germany. Often he would say, ‘You know, I don’t approve of what they’re doing to the Jews. I don’t approve of their denial of freedoms,’ but you never really got the sense that he felt very strongly about that.

Image of Charles Lindbergh emerging from the White House on April 20, 1939 after meeting with President Franklin Roosevelt via the Library of Congress

John Collins tells Terry Gross about what kind of Messiah people who collected the Dead Sea Scrolls expected:

Most people wanted a big strong warrior who would drive out the Romans, who would smash heads. So, if you look at this then from the viewpoint of TheNew Testament, the question is, ‘Why would anybody have thought that Jesus of Nazareth fit that description?’ And actually I think that bothered his followers, too, and if you read the through The New Testament, the answer they come up with eventually is, ‘Well, he wasn’t first time round but when he comes back: watch out.’ And in the Book of Revelation, you know, Jesus comes as a warrior with a sword coming out of his mouth to strike down the wicked and that’s kind of the classic view of the messiah at the time.

Image by 00nanga via Flickr

Morning - fire drill! Well, false alarm. But here’s a scenario to keep in mind the next time you have one.

livelymorgue:

Oct. 2, 1963: Probationary firemen participated in a drill described in The Times “one of the biggest — but safest — ‘fires’ in town.” Audience members laughed and cheered while 30 people were “rescued” by firemen at a five-story tower on Welfare Island. The fire college site was dedicated by the city and was said to be “the finest” in the world at the time. Photo: Meyer Liebowitz/The New York Tmes

At one point, when Theodore Roosevelt was police commissioner of New York, he and his men raided one of the Thomashefsky theaters. And he saw Bessie, who was very young and looked much younger than she was always, and he said, ‘Look out little girl.’ And she said, ‘Little girl, my ass. If anyone’s being taken in, it’s me.’

— On today’s Fresh Air, the story of the Thomashefskys, stars of the Yiddish stage.

Alan Lomax's Massive Archive Goes Online

This is awesome

Folklorist Alan Lomax spent his career documenting folk music traditions from around the world. Now thousands of the songs and interviews he recorded are available for free online, many for the first time. It’s part of what Lomax envisioned for the collection — long before the age of the Internet.

Related: Alan Lomax on Fresh Air

When Boris Thomashefsky died, 35,000 people lined the streets of New York City to say goodbye. On today’s Fresh Air, the story of Boris and his wife Bessie, two of the greatest stars of the Yiddish stage.

(via An actor’s final exit. (Daily Mirror. July 12, 1939) - ID: psnypl_the_4766 - NYPL Digital Gallery)

“These people who founded Massachusetts, they were seeking religious liberty and they were complaining about the persecutions they suffered in England. And of course, the first thing they do when they get to Massachusetts is persecute others and persecute their religion.” — Historian Andrew Preston, “The Religious Language in U.S. Foreign Policy.”

(via Puritan Clipart)

smellslikemegan:

George Washington as a middle-aged dad with his record collection.

I’ve always wanted to see how presidents would look modernized.. so I’m making it happen. 

Today’s show: how religious rhetoric has influenced American foreign policy from George Washington’s days to the present. [picture h/t emilykilpatrick]

Tomorrow: Historian Andrew Preston on how religious rhetoric has shaped U.S. foreign policy since the days of George Washington.

United States License Plate Map (by designturnpike)

Tomorrow: NSA Historian Matthew Aid takes us behind the doors of the National Security Administration in the years after September 11.

US Navy Cryptanalytic Bombe (by brewbooks)

Audio is now up for Terry’s conversation with historian Jill Lepore about the early history of birth control in the United States. Enjoy!

31% of the men who graduated from Oxford in 1913 were killed in World War I.

nprfunfacts:

The prime minister of England and the German chancellor both lost a son, as well.

I’m not sure if this should be classified as fun…but it certainly is astounding.

Happy Weekend! On Monday’s show, Alice Waters. She’ll explain how studying abroad in Paris changed her entire relationship with food. 

Paris Exposition: Salle des Fetes, Paris, France, 1900 (by Brooklyn Museum)

Sly Stone is known to millions from the records he made with Sly and the Family Stone. But his early days, and the recordings he produced for his own Stone Flower label, add another dimension to the career of this enigmatic character, says rock historian Ed Ward.