Reading material..if u r interested

[Petraa]

Alaska Purchase

In 1866, the Russian government offered to sell Alaska to the United States. Russia had held the territory since 1741, but by the mid-nineteenth century, British and American settlers were pressing Alaska's southern border, increasing the likelihood of territorial quarrels. Furthermore, the Russian treasury was short of funds. Accordingly, Baron Edouard de Stoeckl, the Russian minister to the United States, was instructed in December 1866 to negotiate the sale. He and Secretary of State William H. Seward worked out a treaty under which the United States would purchase Alaska for $7.2 million in gold. Seward initially offered $5 million, an amount Stoeckl was empowered to accept. But Stoeckl correctly judged that the secretary would agree to a higher figure because of Seward's passionate commitment to American expansion as well as his wish to conclude the matter while Congress was still in session. Stoeckl received final approval of the treaty terms from his government on March 30, 1867.
When it became clear that the Senate would not debate the treaty before its adjournment on March 30, Seward persuaded President Andrew Johnson to call the Senate back into special session the next day. Many Radical Republicans scoffed at "Seward's folly," although their criticism appears to have been based less on the merits of the purchase than on their hostility to President Johnson and to Seward as Johnson's political ally. Seward mounted a vigorous campaign, however, and with support from Charles Sumner, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, won approval of the treaty on April 9 by a vote of 37-2.
For more than a year, as congressional relations with President Johnson worsened, the House refused to appropriate the necessary funds. But in June 1868, after Johnson's impeachment trial was over, Stoeckl and Seward revived the campaign for the Alaska purchase. Combining public appeals and private persuasion (including bribes to a number of key Republicans), they won a favorable vote on July 14. With the purchase of Alaska, the United States acquired an area twice as large as Texas, but it was not until the great Klondike gold strike in 1896 that Alaska came to be seen generally as a valuable addition to American territory.

[Petraa]

American Colonization Society

In an effort to resolve the debate over slavery in the United States, a diverse group of antislavery activists founded the American Colonization Society (ACS) in 1817. The organization's goal was to remove both free and enslaved African Americans from the United States and transport them to Africa. The members of the ACS believed that only after implementation of such a drastic solution could racial conflict in the United States be brought to an end. Although society members claimed to have good intentions, the extreme nature of their proposals undermined the society's popular appeal. ACS members could not conceive of a biracial society in the United States, a limitation that brought them into direct conflict with other antislavery groups, particularly abolitionists, Radical Republicans, and African American leaders such as Frederick Douglass.
The notion of forcibly returning African Americans to Africa first appeared in the late eighteenth century. These plans, increasingly centered in the Upper South, emphasized what many whites and some blacks felt to be the untenable nature of a biracial society. They believed that racial conflict was inevitable when whites and blacks lived in close proximity to one another, and thus they turned to colonization as a solution to America's race problem. Although colonization supporters presented themselves as humanitarian opponents of slavery's evils, many white advocates of colonization objected to the presence of free blacks in American society. The racial underpinnings of white support for colonization thus could not be separated from genuine humanitarian opposition to slavery.
A deep-seated concern for American political unity also informed the growth of the colonization idea. Free labor in the North contrasted sharply with the chattel slavery foundation of the South, a distinction that bred political and economic conflict between the two regions in the nineteenth century. Supporters of African colonization believed that it would both preserve racial harmony and avert a major sectional crisis.
Following the War of 1812 the African colonization idea received impetus from the actions of Paul Cuffe, a black shipowner, who in 1815 transported thirty-eight American blacks to Africa at his own expense. One year later, a New Jersey Presbyterian minister, Robert Finley, convened a series of meetings that led to the formation of the ACS the following year. As one of the benevolent societies that appeared after the War of 1812, the ACS gained the support of Congregational and Presbyterian clergy, along with that of many of the most prominent politicians from the Upper South and border states. Among its early members were Supreme Court Justice Bushrod Washington of Virginia and Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky. Official recognition was given to the society by several state legislatures, among them Virginia, Maryland, and Kentucky. The society's concentration in the Upper South and border states would prove a serious limitation, however, for it would never gain comparable strength in the North or the Deep South.
Notwithstanding its limited base of support in domestic politics, the society established the colony of Liberia on the west coast of Africa in 1822. In the following decade the number of auxiliary societies increased yearly; receipts grew; and although a total of only 2,638 blacks migrated to Liberia, the number jumped every year. Yet efforts to secure federal support were rebuffed and the triumph of Jacksonian democracy blocked the support necessary for a successful program. At the same time, opposition to the society from both abolitionists and pro-slavery forces combined with mounting debts and internal strife to undermine the organization. Although abolitionists shared the ACS's antislavery sentiments, they believed strongly in the possibility of a biracial society and adamantly rejected the notion that racial conflict could end only if African Americans left the United States. Nevertheless, the society made significant headway on the eve of the Civil War. The independence of Liberia after 1846 lifted a great financial burden, and in the 1850s, under the leadership of William McLain, the fortunes of the society revived. Prominent politicians once again endorsed colonization, and for the first time there was growing support for the idea from blacks.
The eruption of war between North and South, however, brought the society's influence in American politics to an end. President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, which outlawed slavery in Confederate territory and laid the foundations for slavery's eventual abolition everywhere in the United States, inadvertently dealt the society a blow. Lincoln had once supported colonization, but his actions and speeches as president inspired the supporters of racial egalitarianism. In the wake of the Emancipation Proclamation, the Republican Party hoped to establish a biracial society in the South and saw colonization as anathema to their goals. Likewise, Frederick Douglass and other leading African Americans saw abolition as but the first step in establishing racial equality in the United States. The idea of freeing the slaves only to remove them to Africa struck Douglass and his compatriots as an outrageous injustice. Indeed, the tremendous sacrifices made by African American soldiers, nearly 200,000 of whom served in the Union army during the Civil War, on behalf of the nation made the idea of transporting them to Africa unthinkable.
In the war's aftermath the society clung to life. Under the leadership of its secretary, William Coppinger, the society stressed its educational and missionary activities, sending fewer than 2,000 blacks to Liberia in the 1880s. In the 1890s, when rising racial tensions gave voice to back-to-Africa sentiments among southern blacks, the society, which was constantly plagued by lack of funds and in 1892 was deprived of the services of both the resourceful Coppinger and its longtime president, J. H. B. Latrobe, found itself unequal to the task. Lacking both leadership and a sense of purpose, the already emaciated organization shrunk further. After a brief period during which the society focused on an unsuccessful attempt to remodel the educational system of Liberia, the organization began to collapse, and by 1910 it had all but ceased to exist

[Petraa]

Banking

A system of trading in money which involved safeguarding deposits and making funds available for borrowers, banking developed in the Middle Ages in response to the growing need for credit in commerce. The lending functions of banks were undertaken in England by money- lenders. Until their expulsion by Edward I in 1291, the most important money-lenders were Jews. They were replaced by Italian merchants who had papal dispensations to lend money at interest. In the 13th cent. credit was essential to finance commerce and major projects. The most important was the wool trade but other examples included large buildings such as Edward's castles in north Wales. When Italians had their activities in England curtailed in the early 14th cent., they were replaced by English merchants and goldsmiths, whose rates of interest were sufficiently low to avoid the usury laws.

Monarchs had borrowed from merchants and landowners for centuries. By the late 17th cent., the growth of parliamentary power over government expenditures required more regulation. The Bank of England, founded in 1694, gave the government and other users of credit access to English funds. Similar developments occurred in Scotland and Ireland. These banks remained without serious competition until the later 18th cent., when expanding commercial activities gave scope to merchants, brewers, and landowners to establish banks based on their own cash reserves. Errors of judgement sometimes occurred and ‘runs on the bank’ took place when depositors, fearing for the security of their money, demanded its return.

Fluctuations in the value of money because of the return to a gold-based currency after the end of the Napoleonic wars (1815) precipitated a series of crises. To stabilize the currency the government eventually introduced the 1844 Bank Charter Act, which gave the Bank of England the functions of supervising the note issue and of monitoring the activities of the banking system. Regulatory powers were put in place in 1845 to control banking in Scotland and Ireland.

In the 19th cent., overseas trade and the expanding British empire reinforced the place of London as a centre of merchant banking. The skills of these specialist bankers attracted business from foreign firms and governments Seeking loans. These arrangements made possible the rapid development of railways, heavy engineering, mines, and large commercial developments. Many of these merchant banks survive, including Rothschilds, Lazard Brothers, Kleinwort Benson, and Schroders. Internal trade was funded mainly by a larger number of local banks which, after the middle of the 19th cent., became consolidated into a much smaller number of banks. Numbers continued to diminish so that by 1980 banking was dominated by four companies: Barclays, Lloyds, Midland, and National Westminster.

Banking has been characterized, largely because of technological innovation, by an increasingly sophisticated provision of banking services and an expansion of consumer credit. The business of safeguarding and lending money is often arranged through machine-readable cards and continuous access by telephone

[Petraa]

Baseball


The baseball traces its origin to the game of the same name. Modern baseball evolved from the English game of "rounders" in the first half of the 19th century. Alexander Cartwright of New York formulated the basic rules of baseball in 1845, calling for the replacement of the soft ball used in rounders with a smaller hard ball.
Despite its uncomplicated appearance, the baseball is in fact a precision-made object, and one that has often been the subject of heated controversy throughout its history. Although baseballs have changed very little in this century, either in terms of their physical dimensions or raw materials, some observers have suggested that the balls have secretly been "juiced up" to increase the output of crowd-pleasing homeruns during periods of lagging attendance at major league baseball games. The manufacturers of baseballs and Major League Baseball have steadfastly denied such allegations, however, and no proof of any covert alterations in the ball's design or composition has ever been produced.
An official Major League baseball consists of a round cushioned cork center called a "pill," wrapped tightly in windings of wool and polyester/cotton yarn, and covered by stitched cowhide. Approximately 600,000 baseballs are used by all Major League teams combined during the course of a season. The average baseball remains in play for only five to seven pitches in a Major League game. Each ball must weigh between 5 and 5.25 ounces (141.75-148.83 grams) and measure between 9 and 9.25 inches (22.86-23.49 centimeters) in circumference to conform to Major League standards.
Such uniformity was nonexistent in the early years of baseball's history, when balls were either homemade or produced on a custom-order basis as a sideline by cobblers, tanners and other small business owners. In 1872, the modern standard for the baseball's weight and size was established. The production of balls became more consistent during the remainder of the decade, thanks largely to the demands made on manufacturers by the newly formed National League, the first professional baseball league.
At the turn of the century, the baseball had a round rubber core. This gave way in 1910 to the livelier cork-centered ball, which was itself replaced two decades later by the even more resilient cushioned cork model. The baseball has undergone only one significant change since that time, when a shortage in the supply of horses in 1974 prompted a switch from horsehide to cowhide covers.

[Petraa]

Elizabeth Blackwell

Elizabeth Blackwell was born on Feb. 3, 1821, in Bristol, England. Her parents emigrated with their nine children to New York City when Elizabeth was 12. Mr. Blackwell soon became an ardent abolitionist. In 1838 the Blackwells moved to Cincinnati, Ohio; within a few months Mr. Blackwell died and left his family unprovided for. The three oldest girls supported the family for several years by operating a boarding school for young women.
In 1842 Blackwell accepted a teaching position in Henderson, Ky., but local racial attitudes offended her strong abolitionist convictions, and she resigned at the end of the year. On her return to Cincinnati a friend who had undergone treatment for a gynecological disorder told Blackwell that if she could have been treated by a woman doctor she would have been spared an embarrassing ordeal, and she urged Elizabeth to study medicine. The following year Blackwell moved to Asheville, N.C., where she taught school and studied medicine in her spare time. Her next move, in 1846, was to a girls' school in Charleston, S.C., where she had more time to devote to her medical studies.
When her attempts to enroll in the medical schools of Philadelphia and New York City were rejected, she wrote to a number of small northern colleges and in 1847 was admitted to the Geneva, N.Y., Medical College. All eyes were upon the young woman whom many regarded as immoral or simply mad, but she soon proved herself an outstanding student. Her graduation in 1849 was highly publicized on both sides of the Atlantic. She then entered La Maternité Hospital for further study and practical experience. While working with the children, she contracted purulent conjunctivitis, which left her blind in one eye.
Handicapped by partial blindness, Dr. Blackwell gave up her ambition to become a surgeon and began practice at St. Bartholomew's Hospital in London. In 1851 she returned to New York, where she applied for several positions as a physician, but was rejected because of her sex. She established private practice in a rented room, where her sister Emily, who had also pursued a medical career, soon joined her. Their modest dispensary later became the New York Infirmary and College for Women, operated by and for women. Dr. Blackwell also continued to fight for the admission of women to medical schools. During the Civil War she organized a unit of women nurses for field service.
In 1869 Dr. Blackwell set up practice in London and continued her efforts to open the medical profession to women. Her articles and her autobiography (1895) attracted widespread attention. From 1875 to 1907 she was professor of gynecology at the London School of Medicine for Women. She died at her home in Hastings.

[Petraa]

Robert Fulton

Robert Fulton was born November 14, 1765, in Lancaster County, Pa. His father worked at farming, among other jobs, and died when Robert was a small boy. By the age of 10 Robert showed promise as an artist and was employed by local gunsmiths to make designs for their work. At 17 he went to Philadelphia, the cultural center of the Atlantic seaboard, and spent 4 years making portraits and doing miniatures. Financially successful, he was able to buy a farm near the city for his mother.
In 1786 Fulton went to London to study painting with Benjamin West, who had been a family friend and was by this time one of the leading American painters living in England. England was already in the midst of its industrial revolution, and Fulton was fascinated by the new engineering enterprises - canals, mines, bridges, roads, and factories. His interest became professional, and after about 1793 he gave up painting as a vocation, pursuing it only for his own amusement.
As early as 1794 Fulton considered using steam power to drive a boat. Seven years earlier John Fitch had successfully demonstrated his steamboat on the Delaware River at Philadelphia, but in the interim no one had been able to make both a mechanical and commercial success of the idea. Though the British government had banned the export of steam engines, Fulton wrote to the firm of Boulton and Watt about the possibility of buying a ready-made engine to be applied to boat propulsion.
Most of Fulton's energy during these years was devoted to more conventional problems of civil and mechanical engineering. He patented in England a "double-incline plane" for hauling canal boats over difficult terrain and machines to saw marble, to spin flax, and to twist hemp for rope. He built a mechanical dredge to speed the construction of canals and in 1796 published his illustrated pamphlet, A Treatise on the Improvement of Canal Navigation.
For the next 10 years Fulton devoted himself to the development of underwater warfare through the invention and improvement of a submarine and explosive torpedoes. It is thought that he believed that if warfare were made sufficiently destructive and horrible it would be abandoned - a fallacy often invoked by inventors of military devices. He tried to interest the French government in his experiments, and he obtained the promise of prizes for any British ships he might destroy with his devices. In 1801 he proceeded with his submarine, the Nautilus, against various ships but was unsuccessful. By 1804 his failure to win French money for destroying British ships led him to offer to destroy French ships for the British government. Once again he failed in combat, although he was able to blow up one ship during an experiment.
In 1802 Fulton had met Robert R. Livingston, formerly a partner in another steamboat venture but recently appointed U.S. minister to the French government. Despite the failure of Fulton's earlier ventures, Livingston agreed to support Fulton's old idea of building a steamboat. In 1803 an engine was ordered (disassembled and with many duplicate parts) from Boulton and Watt, to be delivered in New York City. But it was 1806 before permission to export the engine was obtained, the parts were assembled, and Fulton was able to sail for America.
The engine was put together in New York and set aboard a locally built vessel. One of the problems was to determine the proper proportions for a steamboat. Fulton was convinced that science dictated a very long and narrow hull, though experience later proved him wrong. Although Livingston had been an advocate of a kind of jet propulsion for steamboats (that is, a jet of water forced out the back of the boat under high pressure), the two now settled on paddle wheels as the best method. On Aug. 17, 1807, the Clermont (as it was later named) began its first successful voyage up the Hudson River to Albany, N.Y. Under way it averaged 5 miles per hour.
After the voyage of the Clermont, steamboats appeared up and down the Atlantic Coast, and Fulton himself introduced the first steamboat on the western waters. Before his death on February 24, 1815 he had erected a large boat works in New Jersey and directed the building of one ferryboat, a torpedo boat, and 17 regular steamboats.
Fulton's success, where at least a dozen other American inventors had failed, had many causes. In Livingston he had a rich and politically powerful patron who was able to obtain a lucrative monopoly on the steam navigation of the state's waters. Fulton also began his work with a first-class engine, purchased from Boulton and Watt, the world's leading engine builders. Previous inventors, including John Fitch, had had to build their own engines. Also, Fulton was able to employ mechanics and experimenters who had, over the past 2 decades, gained considerable experience with steam engines. It was Fulton's luck and genius to be able to combine these elements into a commercially successful steamboat venture

[generation]

hey thanks ......

[Petraa]

Originally Posted by generation

hey thanks ......

welcom

[jin1]

hi petra, what is the source of those passages?

[ushalfred]

While much of television's history is filled with banality, writer/producer Norman Lear (born 1922) is credited with enlarging the scope of the medium. With such groundbreaking television series as All in the Family, Maude, and Sanford and Son to his credit, Lear helped usher in an age of enlightenment in American entertainment, where sensitive social and political issues could be discussed without awkwardness.
Norman Milton Lear was born in New Haven, Connecticut on July 27, 1922. His father Herman was a securities broker; mother Jeanette was a homemaker. Lear attended Boston's Emerson College, but dropped out in September 1942 to join the U.S. Air Force during World War II. Writing a war memoir for People magazine in 1995, Lear, an avowed pacifist, admitted he "just had to get into it. I was Jewish and I wanted to kill Germans." Lear received a Decorated Air Medal for his wartime accomplishments. Upon leaving the Air Force in 1945, Lear married and got a public relations job in New York City with George and Dorothy Ross, making $40 a week.
In 1949, Lear moved his family to Los Angeles, California where he entered the world of television, working as a writer for shows such as The Colgate Comedy Hour, and for such comedians as Martha Raye and George Gobel. Several years after arriving in Los Angeles, he divorced his first wife and, in 1956, married Frances Loeb. In 1959, Lear and partner Bud Yorkin created Tandem Productions, which produced motion pictures such as Come Blow Your Horn (1963), Divorce American Style (1967), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and Start the Revolution Without Me (1969).

Broke the TV Mold


In the early 1970s, Lear created a popular situation comedy series that would have a major impact upon television programming. Tandem Productions' new comedy was based on a British series called Until Death do Us Part. Lear and Yorkin secured the American rights to the show and, on January 12, 1971, All in the Family aired on CBS, breaking the taboos of television comedy with hilarious aplomb. Carroll O'Connor was cast as Archie Bunker, a cranky, self-assured working class bigot; Jean Stapleton played Edith Bunker, Archie's dim-witted, doting, and big-hearted wife; Sally Struthers was cast in the role of daughter Gloria; and Rob Reiner took the role of Mike Stivic, Gloria's liberal husband who was in constant conflict with Archie.
In a March 1999 interview on the news program Dateline NBC, Lear addressed the blandness permeating television at the time. "The biggest problem in comedy was Mom's dented the car, and how do we keep Dad from finding out, or the boss is coming to dinner and the lamb roast is ruined. We paid attention to our children. We paid attention to our marriages. We paid attention to the newspapers we read and the culture. And we chose our subjects from all these things that were influencing us." Lear received many professional and humanitarian awards, ranging from the William O. Douglas Award and a Man of the Year Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
Both critics and television historians agree that All in the Family had the most impact of any of Lear's productions. After living through the socially and politically charged climates of the 1960s, Lear pulled his stories out of the nation's newspapers and news broadcasts and made them relevant to viewers from all walks of life. The episodes caused controversy, but not at the expense of entertaining the nation. The show explored such charged issues as prejudice, rape, sexual dysfunction, menopause, homosexuality, and religion. As a result, it became a bastion of popular culture, spawning such consumer goods as soundtrack records, T-shirts, and board games. Carroll O'Connor's portrayal of Archie, the working-class bigot, struck a chord with viewers, who made his colorful vocabulary, "Meathead" (referring to his son-in-law) and "Dingbat" (his wife), part of the national lexicon. But while the Archie character was an icon for working class Americans, the show also raised the public consciousness about women's issues through Stapleton and Struthers' characters. Although often overshadowed by her boorish husband, many of the show's strongest episodes revolved around the Edith Bunker character. The role of daughter Gloria closely paralleled the views of the women's movement in the United States at the time.
Despite the accolades and attention given to him in the wake of the show's success, Lear stressed that he did not intend to remedy societal ills. In a 1990 interview with the Los Angeles Times, he explained that the purpose of his show was to "lift up the apparent. They were saying far worse things than this in the schools and on the playgrounds. If I had any sense that this little half-hour situation comedy was going to reverse or change or even seriously affect 2000 or 2500 years of bigotry, I would have to be some kind of fool."

Launched Spin-Off Shows


Lear and Yorkin created several successful spin-off shows based upon characters that originally debuted on All in the Family. Maude featured Bea Arthur as a thoroughly liberated modern woman. Lear's wife, Frances, took credit for the character. In a 1975 People magazine interview she explained that "a great deal of ?Maude comes from my consciousness being raised by the women's movement; and from Norman's being raised by me." The Jeffersons dealt with African-American bigot, George Jefferson, (played by Sherman Helmsley) and his travails as a successful businessman in white America. Lear created other shows with varying degrees of success, including the Afro-centric comedy Sanford and Son, and its spin-off, Grady; the suburban, surrealist dark comedy Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman; Good Times; and Hot L Baltimore.

Formed Political and Business Ventures


In addition to his television programs, Lear found other ways to express his political convictions. In 1981, he formed People for the American Way, a liberal coalition that promoted pluralism and raised public awareness about issues related to the First Amendment. Lear raised the ire of conservatives by creating a commercial featuring movie star Gregory Peck decrying the 1987 nomination of Judge Robert Bork to the U.S. Supreme Court. Lear scripted a 1982 TV special, I Love Liberty, which promoted liberal politics while acting as a salute to the Bill of Rights.
While Lear has creatively expressed his political viewpoints, his business acumen has made him a wealthy man. Residuals from his various shows have allowed him to amass a $225 million empire. When he dissolved his partnership with Yorkin, Lear started TAT Communications, which was later developed into Embassy Communications. In 1986, Lear and then-partner Jerry Perenchio sold Embassy to the Coca-Cola Company for $485 million. With the proceeds from his share of the sale, Lear financed a new company, Act III, which acquired trade magazines, television stations, and multiplex movie theater chains in secondary markets, in addition to bankrolling motion pictures. Two of the features that the company funded, Stand By Me and The Princess Bride, were directed by All in the Family star, Rob Reiner. When Lear divorced his wife of 29 years in 1986, she walked away with $112 million.
Despite a self-imposed retirement from the world of television in 1977, Lear returned in 1984 with ideas that tried to recapture the thought-provoking climate that made All in the Family and Maude such commercial successes. A situation comedy, a.k.a. Pablo, starring Hispanic comedian Paul Rodriguez stalled. Other Lear shows such as 1991's Sunday Dinner and 1994's 704 Hauser Street failed to capture the success of his previous ventures. In a 1984 interview with the Washington Post, Lear decried the business trends prevalent in the television industry. "God forbid anything be an acquired taste. There's no chance for the public to acquire a taste because they yank it so quickly. As a result of America's fixation and obsession with short-term thinking, everything suffers. In every business, we innovate less and experiment less because of the need not to diminish a current profit statement but to have one that exceeds the last. Wherever we look."
Lear is still active in political and social groups such as People for the American Way and Common Cause. He married his third wife, psychologist Lyn Davis Lear, in 1987, and readily acknowledges that she is a conduit for his inner spiritual growth. In 1989, he founded the Business Enterprise Trust to promote social consciousness and vision in business. The following year, Lear showed support for the NAMES Project's AIDS memorial quilt by making a donation towards its maintenance. He has three daughters; Ellen, Kate and Maggie (from his first two marriages), and a stepson, Benjamin Davis (from Lyn Davis Lear's previous marriage). Lear resides in Mandeville Canyon, California. In late 1998, Lear told reporters he was working on a new show similar to Sunday Dinner that would explore human spirituality. "Every member of the species from the beginning of time has been seeking some understanding of why we're here and what [life is] all about," he told National Public Radio in 1994. "The varieties of religious experience are infinite."
When a reporter from the Washington Post asked Lear if he was worried that his reputation would diminish if each new project wasn't as successful as All in the Family, Lear gave a lucid response. "Of course it crosses my mind. But if you're sufficiently busy, you don't think about it. And I am sufficiently busy. I wake up every morning of my life hopeful, and I believe in the possible."
Lear was awarded a National Medal of the Arts by the National Endowment for the Arts in 1999.



AWARDS

Man of the Year Award, National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, 1973; Emmy Awards for All in the Family, 1970-1973; Peabody Award for All in the Family, 1977; William O. Douglas Award, 1981; TV Academy Hall of Fame, 1984; National Medal of the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, 1999.