参考译文：

从大萧条的低谷，美国艺术的创造力却达到了新的高峰

本周，我们向你讲述上世纪三十年代美国的艺术和流行文化。经济困难和社会冲突时期，常常为艺术家和作家们提供了丰富的创作源泉。画家的颜色表现了人们的梦想或人类的战斗精神。音乐家则表达了努力拼搏的人们的紧张情绪和内心的不确定性。困难时期的压力也使作家们的想象力达到了一个新的高度。所以，在上世纪三十年代的美国，严重的经济危机，即大萧条，为艺术家们的想象和创作营造了一个难得的氛围。普通民众与危机作斗争的情感也使无数的美国为消除日复一日的苦难而去看电影、听广播和其他的艺术形式。

在上世纪三十年代，最受欢迎的音乐是一种新的音乐，叫“摇摆”音乐。摇摆音乐之王是一位单簧演奏者，他叫班尼.古德曼(Benny Goodman)。班尼.古德曼和其他一些音乐者们共同让摇摆音乐成为上世纪三十年代最受欢迎的音乐。摇摆音乐是爵士乐的一种新形式，最先演奏摇摆音乐的是一些不知名的小乐队中的一些黑人音乐人在演奏，一直到上世纪三十年代中期，白人开始演奏摇摆音乐时，才大行其道。

摇摆音乐之所以成为流行音乐的一个重要原因是广播的力量越来越大。几年前，广播已经向人们证明其在政治和流行文化上的重要作用。在上世纪二十年代，数以百万的美国人购买了收音机。但广播在三十年代得到了更快的发展。广播节目的制作者们采取更加丰富的技艺来创作广播节目，而且男女演员也开始明白这种新型的电子艺术的特殊需要和力量了。摇摆音乐并不是广播让其流行的唯一的音乐形式，在上世纪三十年代，我们看到，贝多芬、巴赫等一些伟大的音乐家们的传统古典的音乐也因广播而受到广大听众的喜爱。在1930年，哥伦比亚广播公司在每周日下午，举办由纽约乐队演出的系列音乐会。第二年，美国广播公司(NBC)也开始举办每周歌剧音乐会。

在1937年，美国广播公司邀请意大利的著名指挥家阿尔图罗.托斯卡尼尼(Arturo Toscanini)指挥交响乐队在广播中演出。托斯卡尼尼是当时世界上最伟大的指挥家。当托斯卡尼尼与美国广播公司合作，举办为期十天的圣诞节特别广播音乐会，在第一天演出时，有数百万美国人在广播前聆听，数百万普通美国人能够聆听由伟大音乐指挥家现场指挥的古典音乐会，这是第一次。

在上世纪三十年代，之所以能够让无数的美国人聚集在广播前收听广播，音乐是一个很重要的原因，但更重要的是在当时广播还有一系列让人激动人心的节目或由滑稽有趣的演员所表演的节目。人们从学校、工厂中回家，听到一些诸如杰克.班尼(Jack Benny)、佛瑞德.艾伦(Fred Allen)、乔治.卑尔根(Edgar Bergen)和菲尔德斯等演员所表演的愚蠢的经历时，开心一笑。广播能够让人们忘却大萧条所带来的痛苦，让美国人团结在一起，共同分享他们的经历。

摇摆音乐、古典音乐和喜剧节目，对于广播和大众传播而言，上世纪三十年代是一个黄金时期。但这一时期，对于好莱坞和美国电影业来说，也是一个重要时期，在这一时期，电影技术越来越丰富，影响越来越大。在前几年，美国电影很消沉，但在上世纪三十年代，“对话”引入到电影中。

导演在拍电影时能够让演员通过对话来表现剧情，为此无数的美国人涌入电影院去看电影。对于好莱坞来说，这是一个伟大的时期。电影中有让人心动的新演员，如：斯宾塞.特蕾西(Spencer Tracy)、贝蒂.戴维斯(Bette Davis)、凯瑟琳.赫本(Katharine Hepburn)和年轻的雪莉.坦普尔(Shirley Temple)。这一时期最著名的电影是《飘》(Gone with the Wind)，男女演员分别是克拉克.盖博(Clark Gable)和费文丽，在电影中分别出演白瑞德(Rhett Butler)和斯嘉丽.噢哈拉(Scarlett O'Hara)。

克拉克.盖博：“不，我并不想吻你，尽管你非常想让我吻你。和你结吻是错误的。你应该和那些知道如何结吻的人结吻。”

费文丽：“而我想，你认为你就是那个人。”

克拉克.盖博：“如果时机恰当的话，也许是。”

上世纪三十年代，美国导演们还制作出一些著名的电影，如《一夜风流》(It Happened One Night)、《叛舰碟血记》(Mutiny on the Bounty)和《左拉传》(The Life of Emile Zola)。

在上世纪三十年代，对于许多美国报纸来说，与大萧条一样，广播和电影的成功，使得他们面临困境。这个困境就是购买报纸的人越来越少了。这就使得企业在广播里做广告而不是购买报纸版面来做广告。在上世纪三十年代，有近一半的独立报纸停止了发行或加入了更大的报业集团。到二战爆发时，全美国只有120座城市有竞争意义的报纸。

与日报一样，周刊和月刊也受到来自广播和电影的冲击，许多杂志社倒闭了。但这一时期，有两家杂志最为成功，一是《生活》杂志，一是《读者》杂志。《生活》杂志主要向大家介绍电影演员、新闻事件和人们日常生活的琐事，它的照片是最棒的。《读者》则从别的杂志和其他刊物中摘录一些短篇故事。

在这一时期的文学作品与来自好莱坞的电影一样，作家们更关注如何让人们忘却痛苦，而不是叙述他们所面对的严重社会问题，他们因此而赚到了很多钱。但有一些作家也创作了一些既获得良好报酬又是高质量的文学作品。其中之一是辛克莱.刘易斯(Sinclair Lewis)，他的小说《不能发生在这里》(It Can't Happen Here)，警告人们即将来临的法西斯的威胁。约翰.斯坦贝克(John Steinbeck)的著名小说《愤怒的葡萄》(The Grapes of Wrath)让无数的美国人理解和感受到贫穷农民所面临的困难。厄斯金.考德威尔(Erskine Caldwell的作品真切地反映了美国南方穷人的生活，还有詹姆士.法雷尔(James T. Farrell)的小说向人们介绍了芝加哥人的生活。

在上世纪三十年代，在许多美国艺术家的作品中同样反映了他们对社会生活的关切。托马斯.本顿(Thomas Benton)的绘画作品反映的是那些强悍、粗犷的工人。爱德华.霍珀(Edward Hopper)的绘画作品则反映了美国城市中那些令人悲伤的景象。联邦政府推出了一项计划，为这些艺术家们提供工作，让这些艺术家们在飞机场、办公楼和学校的墙壁上绘画。这个项目的目的就是要把这些艺术家们的思想和他们的创造力传达给无数的美国人。与此同时，随着照相机质量的提高和携带的方便，摄影也就越来越重要了。有些摄影家，如玛格丽特.伯克-怀特(Margaret Bourke-White)和沃克.埃文斯(Walker Evans)用他们手中的照相机向人们报道了大萧条时期人们艰难的境况。

艺术家们的所有这些创造活动，在上世纪三十年代的美国人生活中扮演着重要的角色，它不仅让人们从苦难中获得新生，而且还启发人们的心智，拓展人们的想象空间。大萧条所生产的紧张和苦难为艺术家们提供了丰富的创作源泉和良好的创作氛围，艺术家们创作了大量的作品，这些作品有严肃的，也有可爱的，有些仅仅只博人一笑，但所有这些作品，为那些在苦难中等待、努力工作和期待希望的美国人或多或少带来了一些欢乐。

简评：

美国大萧条，更多的只是经济上的，美国人的精神生活是非常丰富的，美国人的创造力是无穷的。这从本篇文章中，我们得出了这一点。了不起。

更让我惊讶和佩服的是，美国联邦政府为艺术家们提供就业岗位，政府出资，让他们在飞机场、办公楼和学校的墙壁上心情地绘画，其目的是要让这些艺术家们，把他们的思想和他们的创造力传达给普通的美国人。

艺术是一个民族想象力的集中表现形式。长期以来，我们一直在讨论“阳春白雪与下里巴人”的问题。如果大家看到这篇文章，知道美国联邦政府曾经有这样的点子，那么我们的“阳春白雪与下里巴人”的讨论是否应该结束了。

不要把艺术看得那么深奥，真正的艺术在民间。同样，只有让艺术家们的艺术灵感和创造力和想象力传达给普通民众，那对全民族创造力的提升必将产生重要的影响。

但愿这篇文章能够有更多人看到，希望我们的政府也能够有类似的好点子，为我们中华民族的伟大复兴，提供更为强大的创造力。

第二次世界大战爆发原因之七：国联的作用未能发挥

在第一次世界大战结束后，在美国总统威尔逊的力促下，成立了国联，但美国自己却没有加入国联。作为当时世界上最强大的国家，美国没有加入国联，那么国联的命运也就可想而知了，其作用也就更清楚了。正是由于国联没有发挥其应有的作用，导致世界各国，特别是一些大国，如英国和法国，都在忙战后复兴的事，对于世界上一些地方出现的法西斯、纳粹和军国主义，根本就不管不问。有的只是能推就推，能挡就挡。而美国正忙于应付经济危机，也无暇顾及其他问题。因此，当法西斯、纳粹和军国主义已经形成气候的时候，世界其他各国仍然没有老虎建立反法西斯阵线。这使得德国、意大利和日本看到了千载难逢的好机会，一个个从不方向，向世界各国发起了进攻，开始实施他们瓜分世界的野心。

From Great Depression's Depths, Creativity Reached New Heights

This week in our series, we tell about American arts and popular culture during the nineteen thirties. Hard economic times and social conflict have always offered a rich source of material for artists and writers. A painter's colors can show the drying of dreams or the flight of the human spirit. A musician can express the tensions and uncertainty of a people in struggle. The pressures of hard times can be the force to lift a writer's imagination to new heights. So it was during the nineteen thirties in the United States. The severe economic crisis -- the Great Depression -- created an atmosphere for artistic imagination and creative expression. The common feeling of struggle also led millions of Americans to look to films, radio and other new art forms for relief from their day-to-day cares.

The most popular sound of the nineteen-thirties was a new kind of music -- "swing" music. And the "King of Swing" was a clarinet player named Benny Goodman. Benny Goodman and other musicians made swing music extremely popular during the nineteen-thirties. Swing music was a new form of jazz. Many of its first players were black musicians in small, unknown groups. It was only when more well-known white musicians started playing swing music in the middle nineteen-thirties that the new music became wildly popular.

A young girl listening to the radio 一位小姑娘在收听广播

One reason for the popularity of swing music was the growing power of radio during the nineteen thirties. Radio had already proven in earlier years that it could be an important force in both politics and popular culture. Millions of Americans bought radios during the nineteen twenties. But radio grew up in the nineteen-thirties. Producers became more skillful in creating programs. And actors and actresses began to understand the special needs and power of this new electronic art form. Swing music was not the only kind of music that radio helped make popular. The nineteen thirties also saw increasing popularity for traditional, classical music by Beethoven, Bach and other great musicians. In nineteen thirty, the Columbia Broadcasting System began a series of concerts by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra on Sunday afternoons. The next year, the National Broadcasting Company, NBC, began weekly opera concerts.

In nineteen thirty-seven, NBC asked Arturo Toscanini of Italy to lead an orchestra on American radio. Toscanini was the greatest orchestra leader of his day. Millions of Americans listened at Christmas time as Toscanini and the NBC Orchestra began playing the first of ten special radio concerts. It was a great moment for both music and radio. For the first time, millions of average Americans were able to hear classical music by great musicians as it was being played.

Music was an important reason why millions of Americans gathered to listen to the radio during the nineteen thirties. But even more popular were a series of weekly programs with exciting or funny new actors. Families would come home from school or work and laugh at the foolish experiences of such actors as Jack Benny, Fred Allen, George Burns, Edgar Bergen, and WC Fields. Radio helped people forget the hard conditions of the Great Depression. And it helped to bring Americans together and share experiences.

Swing music. Classical music. Great comedy programs. The nineteen thirties truly were a golden period for radio and mass communications. But it was also during this period that Hollywood and the American film industry became much more skilled and influential. In previous years, films were silent. But the "talkies" arrived in the nineteen thirties.

Actress Vivien Leigh in "Gone with the Wind"  《飘》中的女演员费文丽

Directors could produce films in which actors could talk. Americans reacted by attending film theaters by the millions. It was a great time for Hollywood. The films had exciting new actors. Spencer Tracy. Bette Davis. Katharine Hepburn. The young Shirley Temple. The most famous film of the period was "Gone with the Wind" with Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh, in the starring roles of Rhett Butler and Scarlett O'Hara.  

CLARK GABLE: "No, I don't think I will kiss you, although you need kissing badly. That's what's wrong with you. You should be kissed, and often. And by someone who knows how'"

VIVIEN LEIGH: "And I suppose you think you're the proper person."

CLARK GABLE: "I might be, if the right moment ever came."

Directors in the nineteen thirties also produced such great films as "It Happened One Night," "Mutiny on the Bounty," and "The Life of Emile Zola." 

The success of radio and films, as well as the depression itself, caused problems for many Americans newspapers during the nineteen thirties. The trouble was not so much that readers stopped buying newspapers. It was that companies talked about their products through advertisements on radio instead of buying advertising space in newspapers. Nearly half of the nation's independently published newspapers either stopped publishing or joined larger companies during the nineteen thirties. By World War Two, only one hundred twenty cities had competing newspapers.

Weekly and monthly publications faced the same problem as daily newspapers -- increased competition from radio and films. Many magazines failed. The two big successes of the period were Life Magazine and the Reader's Digest. Life Magazine had stories for everyone about film actors, news events, or just daily life in the home or on the farm. Its photographs were the greatest anywhere. Reader's Digest published shorter forms of stories from other magazines and sources.

Most popular books of the period were like the films coming from Hollywood. Writers cared more about helping people forget their troubles than about facing serious social issues. They made more money that way, too. But a number of writers in the nineteen thirties did produce books that were both profitable and of high quality. One was Sinclair Lewis. His book "It Can't Happen Here," warned of the coming dangers of fascism. John Steinbeck's great book "The Grapes of Wrath" helped millions understand and feel in their hearts the troubles faced by poor farmers. Erskine Caldwell wrote about the cruelty of life among poor people in the southeastern United States, and James T. Farrell about life in Chicago.

Detail from a Ben Shahn mural from the Depression era 本.休恩创作的反映大萧条时期的壁画

The same social concern and desire to present life as it really existed also were clear in the work of many American artists during the nineteen thirties. Thomas Benton painted workers and others with strong, tough bodies. Edward Hopper showed the sad streets of American cities. Reginald Marsh painted picture after picture of poor parts of New York City. The federal government created a program that gave jobs to artists. They painted their pictures on the walls of airports, post offices and schools. The program brought their ideas and creativity to millions of people. At the same time, photography became more important as cameras improved in quality and became more moveable. Some photographers like Margaret Bourke-White and Walker Evans used their cameras to report the hard conditions of the Depression.

All this activity in the arts and popular culture played an important part in the lives of Americans during the nineteen thirties. It not only provided relief from their troubles, but expanded their minds and pushed their imaginations. The tensions and troubles of the Great Depression provided a rich atmosphere for artists and others to produce works that were serious, foolish, or just plain fun. And those works, in turn, helped make life a little better as Americans waited, worked, and hoped for times to improve。

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