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Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION American history h st ri in VOA Special English I m Shirley Griffith And I m Steve Ember Today history repeats itself We start our series s riz over again The last time we were at the beginning was in February of 2003 THE MAKING OF A NATION has a loyal following In fact listener l s n r research finds it the most popular weekly program in VOA Special English It started in May of 1969 Some people can remember when THE MAKING OF A NATION was on the radio two times a week People who grew up listening to it are old enough now to listen with their own children or even their grandchildren The series tells a story You can think of it not just as a series of programs about the history of America and its people but a series of lessons The subjects include n klud exploration revolution r v lu n civil war social and political change the rise of industry and modern technology and more We ended last week at program number two hundred thirty eight The subject was the presidential election of 2004 As time adds to the story we add new programs to the series In a sense THE MAKING OF A NATION is a living history Yet some of the announcers are no longer even alive after all these years Here and there too the language may sound a little dated det For example some of the programs call black people Negroes The use of that term may be historically h s t r kl correct but today the socially accepted name is African American Technology has also changed Today THE MAKING OF A NATION is not just on radio but also on the Internet At you can download MP3 files and transcripts That way you can listen anytime or anyplace and read along The site also includes archives rka v in case you ever miss a program So how was the nation made Why did loyal citizens rebel against nst one nation and start their own with different laws THE MAKING OF A NATION answers these and other questions about American history We tell the story of how a group of farmers businessmen b zn sm n and lawyers wrote a document d kjUm nt they called the Constitution k nst tju n of the United States On September seventeenth 1787 delegates d l et to the Constitutional Convention k n v n n in Philadelphia met one last time to sign it We explain why that document is still extremely important today and not just to Americans Other governments have used it as a guide to creating a modern democracy d m kr s We explore why the writers of the Constitution included guarantees g r n ti of freedom of speech and religion and the right to a fair f r and public trial 公开审判 We also talk about the reasons for the American Revolution One of the most important was the idea that citizens of a country should have a voice in its decisions British citizens in the American colonies k l n paid taxes but had no representatives r pr z nt t v in the British Parliament p rl m nt Taxation t ks e n without representation r pr z n te n led to growing anger in the American colonies The leaders of the revolt r volt made important changes They decided that any free citizen could be a candidate for public office And they made sure that all free men who owned land and paid taxes were permitted p m t to vote Not until 1920 did the Constitution give women w m n the right to vote Later let another change lowered the voting age for Americans from 21 to 18 Our programs explain the thinking behind these and other rights They also tell the story of each presidential pr z d n l election and presidency pr z d ns in American history THE MAKING OF A NATION explores the good and the bad in American history For example how could slavery slev r exist in a nation whose people declared d kl r that all men are created equal and with a right to life liberty and the pursuit p sut of happiness Many programs tell about the ideas and issues that have shaped the United States But most importantly they tell about the people For example George Washington was a farmer before he became a military m l t r commander He became president because the citizens of the new country wanted him as their first leader After two terms he gave up power by his own choice He once again became a farmer and a private citizen In his farewell address in 1796 he warned Americans about the dangers of political parties Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration d kl re n of Independence nd p nd ns It told the world that the people of this new country would no longer answer to a European ruler Some of the people who formed the United States into a nation during the 1700s were well educated and wealthy Abraham Lincoln was not Still he grew up to become president Abraham Lincoln became president during the 1860s when several southern states decided they no longer wanted to be part of the United States We tell how President Lincoln dealt with the terrible Civil War that almost split the country apart One of our programs deals with a speech he gave in the little town of Gettysburg Pennsylvania A great battle had been fought f t there President Lincoln had been asked to come to Gettysburg to say a few words at the dedication d d ke n of a military burial b r l place The speech was short President Lincoln honored the young men who had died on that bloody battlefield He also told the world why the terrible war was being fought and why it was so important Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought br t forth on this continent a new nation conceived k n siv in liberty l b t and dedicated d d ket to the proposition that all men are created equal Those words were just the first sentence After President Lincoln wrote the speech he felt sad He considered it a failure In fact his words earned the respect of history You can hear the full Gettysburg Address in our programs about the life and presidency of Abraham Lincoln THE MAKING OF A NATION touches on many different subjects One of them is social change For example we tell about the changes that took place in the 1920s known as the Roaring Twenties Many young people decided they no longer needed to follow the conservative k n s v t v traditions of their parents and grandparents This was the age of jazz But music and social values were not the only things changing The Roaring r r Twenties were also a time of fast moving economic ik n m k change Productivity pr d k t v t grew sharply At the same time the divide between rich and poor Americans grew wider By the end of the Roaring Twenties the economy k n m was ready to collapse Then in October of 1929 the stock market crashed What followed was an economic disaster worse than any the modern world has ever known We examine the causes of the Great Depression and how it affected Americans and the rest of the world We tell the story of people who lost their jobs their homes and their hope for the future Franklin Roosevelt was elected with a promise to bring the country out of the D