Living in the USA

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HAROLD MEYERSON on Obama’s majority—and the way he connected our struggles for equality today with the history of “Seneca Falls and Selma and Stonewall.”  But can Obama’s majority win the coming fights not just for social equality but for economic reforms?  Harold is editor at large of The American Prospect and columnist for the Washington Post op-ed page.

Plus: Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” has become one of the emost widely recorded songs in music history—ALAN LIGHT explains how that happened.  His new book is THE HOLY OR THE BROKEN: …The Unlikely Ascent of ‘Hallelujah’.  Playlist: “Hallelujah” by Jeff Buckley, K.D. Lang, Bob Dylan, Adam Sandler, and Leonard Cohen Live in London.

Also: The true story of a convicted murderer and the lawyers who fought for his freedom: BARRY SIEGEL, the Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist who heads the Literary Journalism program at UC Irvine, tells the story of Bill Macumber, who was released from prison in Arizona in November after spending 37 years in jail maintaining his innocence.  Barry’s new book is MANIFEST INJUSTICE.
Barry Siegel book talk at UCI Law School noon Thurs 1/24: info HERE.

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Haiti Since the Earthquake: AMY WILENTZ reports on life in the ruins, and on the failures (and occasional successes) of relief and recovery efforts.  Fact: most of the $379 million initially allocated by the US for aid to Haiti after the earthquake did not go to Haiti or Haitians; one-third went to the US military.  Amy’s magnificent new book is FAREWELL FRED VOODOO: A Letter from Haiti.  READ Amy’s new report from Haiti in The Nation HERE ;
SUPPORT Dr. Megan Coffee at TiKayHaiti.org.

Plus: TOM FRANK on the secret behind Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln: historian Doris Kearns Goodwyn—“uninspiring to the point of boredom.”  So how did her work come to define our era?  Tom wrote about Spielberg and Goodwyn for his Harper’s column this month, HERE.

Also: the My Lai massacre was not an isolated incident; millions of innocent Vietnamese civilians were killed and wonded by American forces—“a My Lai a month” is what award-winning reporter NICK TURSE calls it.  His decade of research in secret Pentagon archives and interviews with vets and Vietnamese are the basis of his important new book, KILL ANYTHING THAT MOVES: The Real American War in  Vietnam.

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Radicals use “liberal” as a synonym for all that is anemic, weak-kneed, and not really leftist at all. “I own it,” RICK PERLSTEIN says, because “liberalism, done right in this all-too-reactionary nation, is always already radical.”   Rick this week has started a thrice-weekly column for TheNation.com.

Also: Orange County Republicans: the doomsday scenario.  The white-hot heart of the GOP outside the South is Orange County, California; and yet it was in Orange County that Republicans lost the key state assembly seat that gave Democrats a supermajority in Sacramento.  GUSTAVO ARELLANO will explain — he’s editor-in-chief of the OC Weekly, where Scott Moxley’s cover story on the GOP appears this week.

Plus: the slave ship Amistad set sail from Havana in June, 1839 with a routine delivery of human cargo.  But the 53 Africans being held captive managed to take control of the ship and steer for freedom.  MARCUS REDIKER will tell that story—he is Distinguished Professor of Atlantic History at the U. of Pittsburgh and author of the wonderful new book, The Amistad Rebellion: An Atlantic Odyssey of Slavery and Freedom.

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The problems with Obama’s deal on the fiscal “cliff”—HAROLD MEYERSON explains – he’s editor at large of The American Prospect and he writes a column for the Washington Post op-ed page—where his new piece is “Lessons from the Longshoremen,”  HERE.

Plus: DAVID COLE asks the question “Who Pays for the Right to Bear Arms?”  His answer: Black America.  Young black men die of gun homicide eight times more often than young white men.  David teaches Constitutional Law at Georgetown; his gun piece appears on the NYTimes op-ed page today, HERE.

Also: What Lincoln did, and what he didn’t do, to free the slaves: yesterday was the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation: ERIC FONER will comment – he teaches history at Columbia and won the Pulitzer Prize for his book The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery.
READ Eric Foner on the Emancipation Proclamation in the New York Times yesterday HERE.

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CALVIN TRILLIN has written an epic poem about the 2012 election–for example, a verse on Michelle Bachman, to the tune of the Beatles song:  “Michelle, our belle/Thinks that gays will all be sent to hell.”  Trillin writes for The New Yorker and serves as The Nation‘s Deadline Poet; his new book is DOGFIGHT.

Plus:  JOHN NICHOLS with The Nation’s Progressive Honor Roll for 2012: from Bernie Sanders to Boots Riley, from Marcia Moody to Jane McAlevey, we salute activists, movements and politicians.

Also:  it’s time to listen again to BOB DYLAN’s 2009 Christmas album!  Is this a joke — or a tragedy?  SEAN WILENTZ explains — he’s official historian at the official Bob Dylan website (he also teaches history at Princeton.)  READ Sean Wilentz on Dylan’s Xmas album HERE.   PLAYLIST: “Here Comes Santa Claus”;  “I’ll Be Home for Xmas”; “Must Be Santa,” “Winter Wonderland”; “O Little Town of Bethlehem”  (originally broadcast 11/11/09).

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JOE KENNEDY, the famous father, was said to be a Nazi sympathizer, an anti-Semite, a bootlegger, and a Wall Street swindler.  Only some of that is true, says DAVID NASAW — his new book THE PATRIARCH: THE REMARKABLE LIFE AND TURBULENT TIMES OF JOSEPH P. KENNEDY, was named one of the ten best books of the year by the New York Times.

Plus: What will Barack Obama do with his second term?  Cut military spending, and a mount frontal attack on global warming?  The far right thinks so; TOM FRANK doesn’t agree.  His column in the new Harper’s is “Second Chance”.  Read The Baffler on gun culture HERE.

Also: LEONARD COHEN‘s songs combine intense emotion and impressive intelligence with a rich musicality.  SYLVIE SIMMONS talks about his life and unforgettable work — her new book is I’M YOUR MAN: THE LIFE OF LEONARD COHEN.
Playlist: “Suzanne”;  “I’m Your Man”; “Tower of Song”; “Democracy”;  and of course “Hallejulah.”

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OLIVER SACKS talks about seeing things, hearing voices, and his own experiences getting stoned in Topanga in the sixties.  He’s the legendary neurologist and wonderful  New Yorker essayist whose books include the classics The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Awakenings.  His new book is Hallucinations — it’s eloquent, compassionate, and fascinating.  “Sacks deftly integrates literature, art, and medical history around his very human, often riveting, case histories“–Library Journal.

 Plus: Oliver Stone’s Untold History of the United States – it’s a 10-part documentary, running now on Showtime Mondays at 8 – and it’s also a big book, co-authored by historian Peter Kuznick.  Analyzing the American empire especially after WWII, it’s provocative, massively documented, and a necessary antidote to the mainstream media’s celebration of American triumphalism—
–and the book is our featured thank-you gift in the KPFK fund drive.

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HOWARD ZINN, who died in 2010, stood at t e center of key social movements of the 20th century, and wrote the best-selling left-wing American history book A People’s History of the US.  Historian MARTIN DUBERMAN talks about his achievement and his politcs – his new book is Howard Zinn: A Life on the Left.

Plus: MARK LeVINE on Gaza.  Mark teaches the history of the modern Middle East at UC Irvine and writes a column for Al Jazeera English; his most recent book is Impossible Peace: Israel/Palestine since 1989.

Also:  Columbia Records has produced and released a lot of the key music of the 20th century – historian SEAN WILENTZ talks about the musicians, the producers, and the music.  Sean’s new book is 360 Sound: The Columbia Records Story. 
PLAYLIST: Louis Armstrong Hot 5: “West End Blues” 1928; Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys: “Steel Guitar Rag”, 1935; Billie Holiday “God Bless the Child,” 1941; West Side Story, Rita Moreno, “America” – 1961.

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OLIVER STONE talks about his “Untold History of the United States,” a 10-part documentary series on Showtime, Mondays at 9 (and other times) – this coming Monday is episode 3 on The Bomb–video preview HERE.   Companion volume, co-authored by Peter Kuznick: info HERE.   More info at The Nation, HERE.

Plus: HAROLD MEYERSON on Washington politics—and that fiscal cliff we hear so much about.  Harold writes a column for the Washington Post op-ed page and is editor-at-large of The American Prospect.

Also: ERIC FONER comments on “Lincoln,” Steven Spielberg’s highly-praised film about passage of the 13th Amendment banning slavery.  Spielberg’s point: Lincoln freed the slaves.  Eric says that’s not quite right—first we had the abolitionists; and then during the Civil War the slaves did a lot to free themselves.  Eric’s book The Fiery Trial won the Pulitzer Prize and the Bancroft Prize; it’s out now in paperback.

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“It wasn’t even close,” says JOHN NICHOLS at TheNation.com.  John will talk about Obama’s two-million vote margin.  John was MSNBC’s man in Ohio last night, reporting for Rachel Maddow & Co. from the Teamsters’ Hall in Toledo.

Also: TOM FRANK will talk about what Obama will do with his win: pursue “the grand bargain” and make a deal with Republicans to cut the budget.  Tom’s new book, Pity the Billionaire, is out now in paperback.

And HAROLD MEYERSON will look at the Senate races, where Democrats triumphed across the board — and billionaires failed to put their candidates in office.  Harold writes about politics for the Washington Post op-ed page and The American Prospect, where he is editor-at-large.