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Professor Michael A. Bellesiles on the history of gun culture in America. His new book, Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture looks at our country's obsession with guns. Historically, he says it began around the civil war. Before that, there was virtually no access to firearms. His research refutes the conventional lore that Colonial families were armed, and that the gun was the symbol of the frontier. Bellesiles is a Colonial historian at Emory University, and the Director of Emory's Center for the Study of Violence.

Host Alex Chadwick talks to Armando Alonzo, professor of history at Texas A&M about the verdict of a jury in Brownville, Texas. Six decades after a New York lawyer bought Padre Island from a Mexican-American family, the jury determined that he had swindled the family's impoverished descendants out of 1.1 million-dollars in oil and gas royalties.

Will Murphy from member station WFIU in Bloomington Indiana reports that Bobby Knight, Indiana University's head basketball coach, has been fired. He coached the Hoosiers for 29 years. Knight has a history of violent outbursts, and a recent incident between the coach and a student led IU officials to believe he violated a school policy designed to keep the coaches temper under control.

NPR's Joshua Levs reports from member station WABE in Atlanta on To Conserve a Legacy a new traveling exhibition of African-American artwork. For years, black colleges and universities collected many paintings, sculptures, prints, and photographs from students, teachers, or independent artists. Together, two hundred of these works chronicle the expression of blacks during different times in the nation's history. The exhibit is currently in Atlanta, and is scheduled to go to Durham, North Carolina, Nashville, and Norfolk, Virginia.

If there is war in Iraq, the U.S. military could face a formidable enemy: the weather. Some of history's most important battles have been decided by weather conditions. U.S. war planners are preparing to adjust battle tactics based on researchers' forecasts. NPR's Tom Gjelten reports.

Robert talks to 2 former students of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas; Elizabeth Eckford and Kendall Rhinehart. Eckford, a Black woman, was one of the Little Rock Nine who integrated the school in 1957. Rhinehart is a white man who was among the few who treated her as an equal in the classroom. They recall the harassment that they both withstood, and reflect on the ways their friends and families reacted at the time. The two have been reunited as part of a student history project.

Robert discusses the history of chicken with John Steele Gordon, a contributing editor for "American Heritage." Gordon wrote "The Chicken Story," an article in the September issue of American Heritage. Gordon says chicken was considered a luxurious meal as recently as 60 years ago and cost about 10 dollars a pound in today's terms. Industrialization brought chicken prices down. Now there are eight chickens for every person in the US.

ilm Critic JOHN POWERS reviews "Evita". The new film starring Antonio Banderas and Madonna and he reviews "Portrait of a Lady". REV. :Rock Critic ED WARD has selected some of his favorite awful Christmas music. Ed Ward is co-author of Rock of Ages: The Rolling Stone History of Rock and Roll. Originally broadcast 12/11/90.

Liane Hansen speaks with Irish Minister of State Avril Doyle nd Kevin Whelan, visiting professor of history at Notre Dame University, who re currently giving a lecture tour in the U.S. on the Great Irish Famine of 845-49. In the midst of the most advanced empire in the world at the time, more han a million Irish died and almost two million more were forced to emigrate in rder to survive. Most of the latter came to the United States, where they had a rofound affect on this country.

In India, the Hindu nationalist-led BJP government plans to rewrite school textbooks, leaving out the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi by a Hindu fanatic. Critics say the omission is one of a dozen examples of the government trying to recast the country's history in a more harmonious, Hindu-flavored light. NPR's Michael Sullivan reports.