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BBC Radio 3 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Third Programme.

BBC Radio 3

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The Essay Podcast

The Essay

Discussion & Talk

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Essays from leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond.

Leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond, themed across a week - insight, opinion and intellectual surprise.

The Essay: Bliss Was It in That Dawn

The Essay: Bliss Was It in That Dawn: Episode 1

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Factual: History

Bliss Was It in That Dawn

Episode 1

BBC Radio 3 - The Essay, Bliss Was It in That Dawn, Episode 1Close menu

Michael Goldfarb recalls being a child in 1950s New York.

Michael Goldfarb recalls being a child in 1950s New York, when the city truly was the centre of the world: artistically, financially and diplomatically.

As people get deep into middle age it's normal to look back at your childhood through a golden haze of nostalgia. But what if things really were better in the past? What if, by chance, you were born and grew up in a time and place of unprecedented economic growth and stability? 

In this series of five talks for The Essay, Michael Goldfarb, born in the middle of the American Century, looks back at growing up in a US where things really were better: economically and socially;

As the US struggles with growing inequality and political gridlock, Goldfarb remembers being born in the afterglow of World War 2, and how the "children of victory" were certain that the future would always be bright. 

In this programme, he remembers being a child in 1950s New York, when the city truly was the centre of the world: artistically, financially and diplomatically.

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Michael Goldfarb recalls growing up in America in the 1950s and 60s

Michael Goldfarb recalls growing up in America in the 1950s and 60s. He describes an era of unprecedented economic growth and stability, and the apparent certainty that the future would be bright

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