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In Our Time

The Statue of Liberty

In Our Time

BBC

History

4.69.2K Ratings

🗓️ 14 February 2008

⏱️ 43 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Statue of Liberty."Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”. With these words, inscribed inside her pedestal, the Statue of Liberty has welcomed immigrants to America since 1903. But the Statue of Liberty is herself an immigrant, born in Paris she was shipped across the Atlantic in 214 separate crates, a present to the Americans from the French. She is a token of friendship forged in the fire of twin revolutions, finessed by thinkers like Alexis de Tocqueville and expressed in the shared language of liberty. But why was this colossal statue built, who built it and what did liberty mean to the Frenchmen who created her and the Americans who received her?With Robert Gildea, Professor of Modern History at Oxford University; Kathleen Burk, Professor of Modern Contemporary History at University College London; John Keane, Professor of Politics at the University of Westminster

Transcript

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0:00.0

Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.

0:04.7

My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.

0:08.5

As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices.

0:18.0

What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,

0:24.6

poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples.

0:29.7

If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds.

0:36.0

Thanks for downloading the In Our Time Podcast.

0:39.0

For more details about In Our Time and for our terms of use, please go to BBC.co. UK forward slash radio for I hope you enjoy

0:46.6

the program.

0:47.6

Hello give me your tired your poor your huddled masses yearning to breathe free."

0:55.0

With these words inscribed inside the pedestal the Statue of Liberty has welcomed immigrants

0:59.2

to America since 1903.

1:02.0

But the statue itself is older than that and with another meaning and is in

1:06.2

itself an immigrant. Born and raised in Paris, it was shipped across the Atlantic in

1:10.6

214 separate crates, a present to the American people from the French.

1:15.7

The monumental woman is a token of transatlantic friendship forged in a fire of twin revolutions,

1:21.2

finessed by thinkers like Alex,

1:22.8

is de Tocville, and expressed in the shared language of Liberty.

1:26.1

But why was this colossal statue built, who built it, and what did Liberty mean

1:30.4

to the Frenchman who created her, and the Americans who received her.

1:33.6

We've been to discuss the city of liberty, a Robert Gilday, professor of Modern History at Oxford

1:37.6

University, Kathleen Burke, professor of Modern Contemporary History at University

...

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