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History

History

The Alamo in downtown San Antonio
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A leader of the San Antonio Native American community is speaking out about the latest controversy at the Alamo over the firing of Alamo Trust President and CEO Kate Rogers and the removal of an Indigenous Peoples Day social media post.
  • When you think of Mount Rushmore, you picture four presidents carved in stone in the Black Hills of South Dakota. But part of that story began in San Antonio. Sculptor Gutzon Borglum began shaping his vision for the monument while working in San Antonio. As Mount Rushmore celebrates 100 years, we look back on the history and future of the landmark.
  • A new controversy at the Alamo over history, whose history gets told, and anti-woke politics has been reignited. Republican state leaders cracked down on the telling of the history of the Spanish mission. We hear from the American Indians in Texas at the Spanish Colonial Missions.
  • Christopher Columbus used to be considered a hero for "discovering America" But did he? Columbus has now become a more controversial figure. Five years ago San Antonio took down its Columbus statue. A new biography of Columbus takes a fresh look at the explorer – his life and afterlife – how our understanding of the man has changed.
  • Archeologist Jorge Luis García Ruiz documents the movement north of Spanish explorers in his book, Presidio: Soldiers of the King in New Mexico.
  • We think of the surrender of Robert E. Lee as the end of the Civil War, but the end really wasn’t clear at the time. The Galveston News reported Lee’s surrender as a positive development for the Confederacy and encouraged Texans to fight on. How did Lincoln’s peace take hold? How did a divided nation come together? Michael Vorenberg’s new book is Lincoln’s Peace: The Struggle to End the American Civil War.
  • George E. Hardy was the youngest Red Tail fighter pilot at 19 years old and completed 21 missions across Europe during World War II.
  • The city of San Antonio has donated the controversial Confederate memorial statue to SS American Memorial Foundation, based in Seguin.
  • Hannah Arendt came of age in Germany as Hitler rose to power, before escaping to the United States as a Jewish refugee. Arendt’s time as a political prisoner, refugee and survivor in Europe informed her groundbreaking insights into the human condition, the refugee crisis and totalitarianism. A PBS documentary” Hannah Arendt: Facing Tyranny” takes a closer look at one of the most fearless political writers of modern times who still inspires us today.
  • It was a time when Americans were afraid to speak out. A swirling political and cultural hysteria was part of life. Anyone who questioned American policy was targeted and ruined. Books were taken from libraries. School teachers were being scrutinized. It was the Red Scare. In post-World War II America being called a communist was a serious charge. America was willing to abandon freedoms because of alleged conspiracies. Clay Risen joins us to discuss his new book "Red Scare: Blacklists, McCarthyism, and the Making of Modern America."
  • We think of the surrender of Robert E. Lee as the end of the Civil War, but the end really wasn’t clear at the time. The Galveston News reported Lee’s surrender as a positive development for the Confederacy and encouraged Texans to fight on. How did Lincoln’s peace take hold? How did a divided nation come together? Michael Vorenberg’s new book is Lincoln’s Peace: The Struggle to End the American Civil War.