Hello, this is the History Hour Podcast from the BBC World Service with me Max Pearson, the past brought to life by those who were there.

This week, the story behind two of the most famous speeches in American history.

We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence,

whether sought or unsought,

by the military industrial complex.

Ask not what your country can do for you.

Ask what you can do for your country.

Also the emotional trauma that can engulf transnational adoption.

Something about his picture reached out and grabbed me and he was honestly the most beautiful

child I've ever seen and he still is.

This child spoke to me. Plus the role of

British women in the First World War and Christy Nolan, a award-winning author who

overcame huge difficulties for his art.

It could take a half an hour for him to type out a word.

Like real art doesn't come easy and in his case it didn't because he had to be filtered through the broken body.

That's all to come but we begin this week in South

Africa where the 20th century was marked by the brutality of the apartheid regime and the struggle

for legitimate majority rule.

It wasn't until 1990 that the ANC leader Nelson Mandela was released after serving 27 years

in prison for his part in the fight for the rights of South Africa's black population. In the following years

the nation struggled to build a new democracy and to throw off the suffering left by decades of

a racist regime. But as Rebecca Keseby now reports to build a new society the country

...