1938

<p><br>Erika Funke WVIA Senior Producer/Program Host recommends this book:<br><br>The word panorama was introduced in the 1780s by Irish Artist Robert Barker<br>derived from Greek roots suggesting a complete view. Barker hoped the viewer<br>would feel as if really on the spot.<br><br>In titling his study 1938: American Historical Panorama Dr. Spear<br>signals his aim in examining this pivotal year giving us the big picture<br>but also human stories that allow us to feel as if really on the spot.<br><br>And clarity is a hallmark of his writing. The complex multilayered<br>Spanish Civil War is narrated with all its contradictions.<br>The factions alliances and consequences are explained with<br>straightforward comprehensibility and we feel the suffering of the civilians.<br><br>Dr. Spear gives us a strong grounding in a critical year while evoking echoes in our own times. He addresses matters of race gender justice and the media<br>in the big picture and through people's stories so we feel the impact.<br><br>Summary:<br>Isolationism kept the U. S. out of war but several thousand left-leaning Americans volunteered to fight in the Spanish Civil. There was also the diversion of a radio war as actor-director Orson Welles orchestrated an on-air version of the H. G. Wells 1890s science fiction classic about a Martian invasion of Earth.<br>Advances in aviation were indeed real however. The most successful effort belonged to Howard Hughes. Nineteen thirty-eight also marked the advent of the first superhero Superman. But the Great Depression was still on-going.<br>Yet misery in America was not universal. The advent of Swing pioneered by bandleaders such as Benny Goodman made the latter thirties a new Jazz Age. And baseball seemed more exciting than ever. It included the efforts of Detroit's Hank Greenberg to break Babe Ruth's record of sixty homeruns set in 1927.</p>