Joe Kennedy, Cold War Critic: The Nation, 2/4

As we head toward the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination later this year, a new book has revealed the striking differences between JFK and his father, Joe Kennedy on the bedrock fact of American politics during that era: the Cold War.  JFK’s declaration in his famous inaugural address is well known: the US should “pay any price, bear any burden” to fight communism everywhere in the world.  Virtually unknown, until now, is the fact that a decade earlier his father had declared the entire Cold War “politically and morally” bankrupt.
. . . continued at TheNation.com, HERE

‘The Americans’: Soviet Spies on TV — The Nation 1/31

The best thing about The Americans, the new spy show on FX, is that the Soviet spies are not Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.  They are a different married couple—Russians, sent by the KGB from Moscow to Washington, DC. The show begins shortly after Reagan takes office. . . .
. . . continued at TheNation.com HERE

 

 

Is ‘Pro-Choice’ Passé? Katha Pollitt on KPFK 1/30

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Forty years after Roe v. Wade, for the first time since polling began on this issue, more people are telling Gallup they are pro-life than say they are pro-choice.  Does that mean we need to replace the term “pro-choice” with something else?  If so, what?  KATHA POLLITT comments; she’s a columnist for The Nation.

ALSO: Republicans and Randians – Ayn Rand, that is: JOHN NICHOLS talks about the strange ideas of our opposition party – especially those of Ron Johnson, the Wisconsin Republican who defeated Russ Feingold.  John is Washington correspondent for The Nation.

PLUS:  Another day older and deeper in debt: historian STEVE FRASER talks about the politics of debt in America, from debtor’s prison to our present debtor nation.  Steve is author of Wall Street: America’s Dream Palace.  He wrote about debt for TomDispatch and Jacobin.

Harold Meyerson on Obama’s Majority: KPFK 1/23

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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.

 

Life in the Ruins: Amy Wilentz on Haiti–KPFK 1/16

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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.

Eight Things I Miss about the Cold War: TomDispatch 1/15

It couldn’t be a sadder thing to admit, given what happened in those years, but — given what’s happened in these years — who can doubt that the America of the 1950s and 1960s was, in some ways, simply a better place than the one we live in now?  Fifty years ago, college was cheap, unions were strong, and we had no terrorism-industrial complex. . .
. . . continued at TomDispatch.com, HERE — also at TheNation.com HERE — or Mother Jones HERE – or Salon.com HERE — or Huffington Post HERE — or Daily Kos HERE — or Alternet HERE — or Truthdig HERE — or History News Network HERE — or Redit HERE – with 480 comments!

The Noir Forties: L.A. Review of Books, 1/15

DETOUR is an ultra-low-budget 1946 film noir that packs an undeniable punch. “He went searching for love,” the Detour poster said, “but fate forced a detour” — to accidental murder. The film is one of Richard Lingeman’s touchstones in his new book The Noir Forties: The American People from Victory to Cold War. . . .
. . . continued at the L.A. Review of Books, HERE.

Rick Perlstein: Why I’m a Liberal: KPFK 1/9

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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.

The Problems with Obama’s deal on the “cliff”: KFPK 1/2

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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.