Letters and Politics – January 18, 2016
A look at burning political issues and debates and their historical context within the US and worldwide, hosted by Mitch Jeserich.
Letters and Politics
10:00 AM Pacific Time: Monday - Thursday
Letters & Politics seeks to explore the history behind today’s major global and national news stories. Hosted by Mitch Jeserich.
With John Bew, teacher of history and foreign policy at the War Studies Department at King’s College London and author of the book Realpolitik: A History. Then, Lawrence Lessig, American academic, attorney, and political activist, Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and author of the book Republic Lost: The Corruption of Equality and the Steps to End It. We’ll … Continued
With Jonathan Hansen, professor of history at Harvard University, and author of the book Guantanamo: An American History. And an excerpt of Pacifica Radio’s State of the Union coverage, with Davey D, Bill Fletcher of the Institute for Policy Studies, Ruth Conniff of the Progressive Magazine, and Hatem Bazian, founder of Zaytuna College. About Guantanamo: An … Continued
The Obama administration says it plans to continue with immigration raids, rounding up Central American women and children who are fleeing violence in their countries. We’ll be in conversation about the conditions of those countries, their gangs, and the history of the United States’ involvement in their civil wars and coups. With Roberto Lovato, writer … Continued
With Linda Martin Alcoff, Professor of Philosophy at Hunter College and author of the book The Future of Whiteness. And Vincent Brown, Professor of History and Professor of African and African-American Studies at Harvard and Curator of “A Slave Revolt in Jamaica, 1760-1761,” an animated thematic map that narrates the spatial history of the greatest slave insurrection in the … Continued
With Khatharya Um, political scientist, Associate Professor in the Department of Ethnic Studies, and Chair of Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Author of the book From the Land of Shadows: War, Revolution, and the Making of the Cambodian Diaspora. And Kris Schreier Lyseggen, journalist, photographer and fine artist. Author of The Women of San … Continued
With Robert Spitzer, professor of history and political science at the State University of New York at Cortland, and author of many books including Guns Across America: Reconciling Gun Rules and Rights (2015) and The Presidency and Public Policy (1983). About the book: In vast swathes of America, the sacredness of the Second Amendment has become a political third … Continued
With Jessica Goad of the Center for Western Priorities and principal author of Going to Extremes: The anti-government extremism behind the growing movement to seize America’s public lands. Then, Jeremy Brecher, author of more than a dozen books on labor and social movements, on his book Strike!. About Going to Extremes: Last week, armed members of … Continued
Building a Business of Politics
The Rise of Political Consulting and the Transformation of American Democracy. With Adam Sheingate, Associate Professor of Political Science at Johns Hopkins University and author of Building a Business of Politics: The Rise of Political Consulting and the Transformation of American Democracy. About the book: Political races in the United States rely heavily on highly paid political consultants … Continued
The History of Arab Caliphates
With Jonathan Lyons, author of The House of Wisdom: How the Arabs Transformed Western Civilization. He served as editor and foreign correspondent for Reuters for more than twenty years. About the book: For centuries following the fall of Rome, Western Europe was a benighted backwater, a world of subsistence farming, minimal literacy, and violent conflict. Meanwhile … Continued