Allistair Cooke: 'Decadence vs. Vitality'

A short clip from Alistair Cooke's "America: A Personal History of the United States" (1973)

• Category

  News & Politics

[silverroka]

What a pity that this gentle but incisive wisdom has only been viewed 3000 times, while trash and sensation are viewed by millions. Cooke was a worthy successor to DeTocqueville.

[Ayuthya]

decline and fall, greed will get ya in the end...he has beautiful hands no?

[kestkr]

Eerie to listen to, especially when you think about today's life and culture.

[dgetzin]

What section in which episode is this from?

[videoclog]

Cooke saw it coming!

[nullchannel100]

I have been searching for this for a long time. Thank you so much for posting it!

[dropnbucket]

A true prophet from 1973. If you look at our current situation in America, you can see all the signs of decay. We are quickly becoming a third world country.

[bscottb8]

"Liberty is the luxury of self-discipline."

[mayflowerstein]

History will repeat itself.

[xarophti]

even more timely now than when originally filmed.

[Zappowx]

Always enjoyed his programe in the BBC

[fishbob1193]

I listened to his audiobook, was a full 24hours on American History, everything from Bull Run to WW2, from Spanish Colonization to De Salle's travel down the Mississippi River. Truly fantastic man and truly brilliant I advise anyone who has the means to do so get that audiobook it is fascinating. Also his talk here really does have some importance today, he was talking of the fall of America, well what one must say to that is that it is not a question of will it fall, but when.