Kathleen Frydl: Echoes of the 60s

Recorded Live: Sunday, March 30, 2008, 9:30 am PST

G U E S T :

• Kathleen Frydl
  Professor of History, U.C. Berkeley, and author of The GI Bill

Moderated by : The Very Rev. Alan Jones,
Dean of Grace Cathedral

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About the Program:

Are we now living in an era that echoes the 1960s? Comparisons between the wars in Iraq and Vietnam have become commonplace rhetorical devices in political campaigns, newspaper columns, and stand-up comedy routines. These comparisons can be illustrative, illuminating, and even funny, but are they apt? In conversation with Grace Cathedral’s Dean, Alan Jones, U.C. Berkeley professor of history Kathleen Frydl will discuss the cultural features – the rise of the mass media, fluctuations in American knowledge and public opinion, the level of public trust in government – of the Vietnam Era against the backdrop of the intervening 40 years and today’s zeitgeist.

Kathleen Frydl's field is the U.S. since 1607, with special emphasis on the 20th century. Thus far her research has focused on political history and, within that subfield, she has maintained a particular interest in institutions. She lectures survey courses on recent U.S. history, political history from the Gilded Age, and (with her colleague Peter Zinoman) on the Vietnam War. Her forthcoming book, The GI Bill, will be published by Cambridge University Press.