1. Choosing the running mate (29:12)

Date:
1956
Summary:
Discusses the influence of the president in picking vice-presidential nominees and the difficulties in getting able men to accept this nomination. Points out that candidates are most often selected to "balance the ticket" from the standpoint of geography as well as points of view on pertinent issues. Considers the "whys" behind the nomination of seven vice presidents who eventually became president.

2. Dr. Pinel unchains the insane (25:03)

Date:
1956
Main contributors:
Bernard Girard, James Fonda, Shirley Gordon, Michael Ross, Henry Corden, Lou Krugman, Gene Roth, William Hayden, Ernest Sarracino, Peter Brocco, Lewis Charles, Todd Hunter, Grant Holcomb, Walter Cronkite, Walter Blake, Sidney Van Keuren, Ed Fitzgerald, Budd Small, William Ferrari, Richard Dixon, Rudy Butler, Frank Webster, Joel Moss, Robert B. Harris, Jack P. Pierce, Carmen Dirigo, CBS Television, The National Association for Mental Health, Inc.
Summary:
Uses a dramatized, "on-the-scene" news type of interviewing and documentary reporting to present the story of how Dr. Pinel fought for improved treatment of the insane. Describes his principles that the insane were sick people and should be treated as such, not as wild beasts. Shows some of the opposition he received from officials and the townspeople when he unchained the insane.

3. Ghost town in the Negev (29:45)

Date:
1956
Summary:
Discusses and demonstrates how the deciphering of papyri led to recent excavations in Negev that have resurrected the village of Nesson--lost for 2000 years. (NYU) Kinescope.

4. Gregor Piatigorsky (25:45)

Date:
1956
Summary:
Piatigorsky plays "Bourees #1 and #2" from Suite in C Major, by Bach; "Slow Movement" from Cello Sonata, by Chopin; "Masques" from Romeo and Juliet, by Prokofief; "Romance," by Anton Rubinstein; "Waltz," by Tschaikowsky; and "Introduction, Theme and Variations," by Schubert-Piatigorsky.

5. Portraits of ancient people (29:34)

Date:
1956
Summary:
Explains how we learn from the portraiture left us, how ancient people looked. Indicates that the artist's styles are much the same today as they were 2500 years ago. (NYU) Kinescope.

6. Royal jewels (29:37)

Date:
1956
Summary:
Pictures three expeditions which trace the acquisition by the metropolitan Museum of Art of jewelry which belonged to an Egyptian Princess of the XIIth Dynasty. Traces and discusses changes in the techniques of archeology during the past 100 years. (NYU) Kinescope.

7. The good life on the Nile (29:19)

Date:
1956
Summary:
Takes the viewer on a trip down the Nile with a nobleman of the XIth Dynasty and his entourage in ancient Egypt in the year 2000 B.C. Uses original ship models from the tomb of Meket-Re. (NYU) Kinescope.

8. The new old Greece (29:31)

Date:
1956
Summary:
Considers the recently deciphered tablets from Pylos and Knossus that have furnished evidence calling for a thorough revision of Greek history before Homer. Discusses this "brand new" world of Ancient Greece and the possibility that Homer could actually write. (NYU) Kinescope.

9. The past in Persia (29:22)

Date:
1956
Summary:
Discusses the empire of the Persians under Darius and its destruction by Alexander the Great. Gives a glimpse of this culture through a display of a number of gold objects. (NYU) Kinescope.

10. The pen and the word (29:38)

Date:
1956
Summary:
Discusses early Egyptian writing of 4000 B.C. Explains the deciphering of this writing from the Rosetta stone. (NYU) Kinescope.

11. The unlucky traveler (29:43)

Date:
1956
Summary:
Professor Kraemer reads from an illustrated account by an Egyptian envoy, written in 1200 BC, who traveled to Syria at a time when law and order within the Egyptian empire were in a state of corruption. The account stresses the indignities suffered by a traveler.