Tragedy or Hope

Educating 1960s campus protesters as to "what's right with America."

Contrasting radical mobs, anarchy, and 1960s counterculture with footage of American manufacturing and innovation, this film celebrates the concept of American exceptionalism and argues that anti-Vietnam War protesters were influenced by communism, atheism, and immorality. Set mostly in a university library, this political debate between a medical student, his 1770s ancestor, and a history professor is a sequel to the 1972 National Education Program film, Brink of Disaster! Two additional characters appear in this drama: a 19th-century steamboat captain, and the student’s grandfather - an early 20th-century automobile worker. The National Education Program at Harding College in Searcy, Arkansas created a variety of widely-distributed anti-communism films from the mid-1940s to the early 1970s.

History Documentary

Tragedy or Hope

Videos

Tragedy or Hope

Similar Films

  • Las Hurdes
  • Dworzec
  • Freak Out!
  • Charlie Wilson's War
  • The Good Shepherd
  • Les Sorcières de Salem
  • Newspaper Train
  • Lions for Lambs
  • High Landz
  • Star Spangled Salesman
  • The Village Detective: A Song Cycle
  • Free Spirits
  • Merchants of Doubt
  • The Atomic Cafe
  • WMD: Weapons of Mass Deception
  • 1989
  • El Crazy Che

NextFilm 2026