It's the Brian Marrishow on WNYC. Good morning, everyone, and happy 4th of July.

Counting from 1776, the United States is now 249 years old, right? There will be lots going on

next year on this day to be sure when the country turns 250, a quarter of a millennium.

And it was last July when we celebrated WNYC's 100th birthday and launched our centennial series,

100 years of 100 Things.

So for this holiday edition of the show, we have put together some favorites from that

series.

Today, it's a look back at the extraordinary New Yorker, Francis Perkins, and her enduring

impact on our lives.

We hear from the New Yorker poetry editor about that magazine's century of publishing poems.

We hear about blacklisting and the

Red Scare and about the life, music, and legacy of salsa superstar Celia Cruz. But we start here,

appropriately perhaps for the fourth, with 100 years of the United States as a global superpower.

This is from November after President Trump's election, but before he

took office and had his new cabinet in place, with the changes to American foreign policy

being ushered in by the second Trump administration ending foreign aid, withdrawing from some

major treaties, upending alliances. It's a good time to look back at where we've been and how we got here.

President Trump said after the election, quote, America's enemies are on notice, our military

will be great again, and America will never back down, unquote. That's quite a contrast from

President Harry Truman in 1945 at the signing of the United Nations Charter.

If any nation would keep security for itself, it must be ready and willing to share security

with all. That is the price which each nation will have to pay for world peace.

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