Starting today at 2 pm (EST) C-SPAN will re-air in succession it's brilliant American Writers, a journey through history series to give folks who missed authors of their choice a chance to catch up by watching or taping. (VCR ALERT!) Installments I heartily recommend for those hard-pressed for time are today's "William Bradford, The Mayflower Compact," from Plimouth Plantation (wow and other New Englanders may especially enjoy this one!) at 2 pm (EST), and "Thomas Paine, Common Sense" at 8 pm (a must-see for those wondering how the true republican vision of individual sovereignty has been left behind...many consider Paine the true, and often (perhaps intentionally in some quarters) overlooked Founding Father; Tuesday, 8/28--"Lewis and Clark, Journals of the Expedition", 2 pm (EST); "Sojourner Truth, Narrative of Sojourner Truth," 8 pm (EST); Wednesday 8/29--"Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Declaration of Sentiments," 8 pm(EST); "Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass," 8 pm (EST); "Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin," 11 pm (EST); Thursday 8/30--"Mary Chestnut, A Diary From Dixie," 2 pm (EST); "Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," 8 pm (EST); Saturday 9/1--"Upton Sinclair, The Jungle," 2 pm (EST). Almost all, including those not mentioned, were marvelous treatments...only two, Hawthorne and Teddy Roosevelt, I found to be disappointing (especially Roosevelt). And for Theodore Dreiser you pretty much had to be a Dreiser aficionado to follow the discussion, but for all our Midwestern folks he is one of the coterie of "Chicago Writers" from the turn of the 20th Century. I missed Black Elk and Willa Cather which I'm hoping to catch this time around. A great, educational show for children, too! Fascinating...and time well-spent! Here's the URL for the complete rerun schedule:

http://Americanwriters.org

Beware the callers, though. They usually talk about stuff no one else cares about.

Sometimes the calls are a little off-topic, jim. But more often the callers offer information and insight about the author or historic period that would otherwise be overlooked, and stimulate the conversation. I think the interactive format (phone calls, E-mail) is a great asset to the production.

howdy!

I was looking for a topic to "jump in to" on this forum that i have heard sooo much about! What better than this one? By the way, David, where are you always getting these C-Span stuff from? I remember a post you posted on the American Writers thing on emule but it was for poets... that www.americanwriter.com place? :)

jessica