麻豆社

Alvin Hall sets off on a road trip through the USA revisiting Alistair Cooke's Letter from America.

This was broadcast weekly and ran continuously for 58 years on 麻豆社 radio from 1946 to 2004.

Cooke had set himself a challenge that seemed deceptively simple: to explain the United States to Britain and the world.

His Letters achieved that and more. He was an acute observer, a marvellous storyteller, a man who loved America but saw it in intensely clear terms - a country that was both great and sometimes terribly flawed in its greatness.

All the major issues, all the significant stories were grist for his writer's mill.

The Korean War and the Cold War, desegregation, the assassinations of the Kennedys and Martin Luther King, the fall of Nixon, the rise of Reaganomics, immigration, September 11 and the George W Bush presidency.

But after Alistair Cooke's death in 2004, are the Letters still relevant?

For Alvin Hall, the answer is emphatically yes.

Crisscrossing America he tests the insights and observations of Cooke on subjects as diverse as desegregation and jazz, the American Dream and immigration.

Hall also discovers that Alistair Cooke remains as fresh and insightful as he ever was when he wrote and spoke over all those years about an America he loved and understood so well.

Omnibus of five parts.

Over 900 episodes of Alistair Cooke's Letter from America are available to hear through the 麻豆社 Radio 4 website and 麻豆社 Sounds.

Alvin Hall is an internationally renowned financial educator, TV and radio broadcaster, bestselling author, and regular contributor to magazines, newspapers, and websites. He is an unabashed admirer of Alistair Cooke and Letter from America.

Producer: Bill Law

First broadcast on 麻豆社 Radio 4 in November 2012.

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