“Worse than Watergate“: that’s what JOHN DEAN says about the Bush White House practice of secrecy and deception. John Dean of course served as counsel to President Nixon at age 31, a job he did for a thousand days.

Plus: So far this month in the Iraq insurgency, more than 450 Iraqis and dozens of U.S. troops have been killed. We’ll have our update on what the New York Times calls “the mystery of the insurgency” from U. of Michigan historian JUAN COLE: he writes the famous “Informed Comment” blog about Iraq at www.JuanCole.com

Also: John Brown was the militant abolitionist who led an assault on the arsenal at Harper’s Ferry in the hope of inciting a slave insurrection. Some people call him a terrorist, but he was right about one thing: slavery was a system of violence that could not be ended in the US without war. Columbia University historian ERIC FONER comments. (There’s a new book on John Brown, written by David S. Reynolds.)

Finally: SARAH VOWELL is one of the great voices of public radio in America today for her work on This American Life. Now she’s gone on the road to find the locations of American political violence — and to ponder their lessons — in her new book Assassination Vacation.

LISTEN ONLINE: http://thenation.audioblog.com/deluge/37b3ba25-81e3-db2e-61d2-42efc9541ef4.mp3

War, politics, idealism, passion, deceit, and betrayal: they all come together in the story of J. Robert Oppenheimer, father of the a-bomb and accused communist, told by KAI BIRD and MARTIN H. SHERWIN. Their book is American Prometheus: The Triumph of Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer.

Plus: Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun, nominated by Nixon in 1970, was the rarest of men: a conservative Republican who became a liberal as he grew older. Blackmun wrote the decision in Roe v. Wade and eventually came out against the death penalty, declaring “I shall no longer tinker with the machinery of death.” LINDA GREENHOUSE is the New York Times Pulitzer-Prize winning Supreme Court reporter; her new book is Becoming Justice Blackmun.

Also: It’s time for utopian thinking: That’s what UCLA historian RUSSELL JACOBY says: “The choice we have is not between reasonable proposals and an unreasonable utopianism. Utopian thinking does not undermine or discount real reforms. Indeed, it is almost the opposite: practical reforms depend on utopian dreaming.”” His new book is Picture Imperfect: Utopian Thought for an Anti-Utopian Age. Terry Eagleton, writing in The Nation, calls it “a book to be treasured.”

LISTEN ONLINE TO THIS SHOW:

RY COODER has a new CD: “Chavez Ravine.” It’s a story about Latino L.A. after World War II, about “cool cats,” radio, J. Edgar Hoover, and baseball — Mike Davis calls it “a magical-realist street opera celebrating the life and death of the barrio that the Dodgers killed.” Ry is the guitar legend who produced the Grammy-winning international best-seller “Buena Vista Social Club.”

Plus: EVAN WRIGHT lived with a Marine battalion during the Iraq war — he describes young men trained to be ruthless killers, and he reports on their cynicism, their ambivalence, and their bitterness about a battlefield where they can’t tell the good guys from the bad. Evan Wright’s book Generation Kill: Devil Dogs, Capitain America and the New Face of American War won the J. Anthony Lukas book prize and the L.A. Times “Current Interest” Book Prize.

More stuff to read: Jon Wiener in The Nation says the British boycott of Israeli academics is a bad idea: http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20050606&s=wiener

Web extra: listen to Victor Navasky talk about his new book A Matter of Opinion: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/audioblog?pid=2651

Antonio Villaraigosa will be L.A.’s first Latino mayor in modern times; meanwhile, back in Washington, the Republican effort to abolish the filibuster–and put lots more far-right-wing judges on the federal bench–begins today. HAROLD MEYERSON will provide comment and analysis; he writes for the LAWeekly, the American Prospect, and the Washington Post op-ed page.
READ Jon Wiener on Antonio’s victory: www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20050530&s=wiener

Also: John Brown was the militant abolitionist who led an assault on the arsenal at Harper’s Ferry in the hope of inciting a slave insurrection. Some people call him a terrorist, but he was right about one thing: slavery was a system of violence that could not be ended in the US without war. Columbia University historian ERIC FONER comments. (There’s a new book on John Brown, written by David S. Reynolds.)

Plus: So far this month in the Iraq insurgency, more than 450 Iraqis and dozens of U.S. troops have been killed. We’ll have our update on what the New York Times calls “the mystery of the insurgency” from U. of Michigan historian JUAN COLE: he writes the famous “Informed Comment” blog about Iraq at www.JuanCole.com
Juan Cole is president-elect of the Middle East Studies Association, which opposes the British boycott of Israeli academics: Read the MESA statement
Sign the AAUP petition opposing the boycott of Israeli academics.

More stuff to read: Jon Wiener debates Diane Ravich online at Slate.com on how to teach history: http://slate.com/id/2118427/entry/2118441/

Quote without comment: “Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes that you can do these things. Among them are a few Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or businessman from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid.”
–President Dwight D. Eisenhower in a letter to his brother Edgar, November 8, 1954. (thanks to Blanche Wiesen Cook for finding this item.)

From Starbucks to the sidewalk to surfing the web, we are being watched. The power and pervasiveness of surveillance technology in America today is unnerving. Robert O’Harrow Jr. will explain: he is a reporter for the Washington Post and author of No Place to Hide.

Plus: We’re still worrying about voting and vote-counting in presidential elections. Andrew Gumbel of The Independent points out that US vote-counting procedures don’t meet the standards we’ve applied to those beacons of democracy Ukraine, Georgia or Kyrgyzstan. His article “Failing the Electoral Standards” appeared at TheNation.com, and his book Steal This Vote will be published this spring.

Also: The most significant conquest of the 20th century may have been the triumph of America’s market empire over Europe. Columbia University historian Victoria de Grazia tells the story of “Americanization” — her new book is Irresistible Empire.

Web extra: May 4 is the 35th anniversary of the Kent State killings — four students killed by the National Guard, which was shooting at students demonstrating on campus against the war in Vietnam. President Nixon had told the media about “these bums, you know, blowin’ up the campuses.” Allison Kraus was one of those killed, shot through the chest 350 feet away from the guardsmen. The next day her father told the press, “my daughter was not a bum.” more info: http://kent.state.tripod.com/

SARAH VOWELL is one of the great voices of public radio in America today for her work on This American Life. Now she’s gone on the road to find the locations of American political violence — and to ponder their lessons — in her new book Assassination Vacation.

PLUS: Agribusiness in California: it’s both an economic wonder and an intolerable human tragedy — RICHARD WALKER will explain. His new book is The Conquest of Bread: 150 Years of Agribusiness in California. Mike Davis calls it “a magnificent and haunting study.”
READ Jon Wiener’s review of The Conquest of Bread in The Nation Apr. 11: www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20050411&s=wiener

ALSO: First came collaboration and resistance in World War II — and then came public justice, and private score-settling. JOSEPH KANON has written about that world in his new thriller Alibi. Kanon has been praised as the next John le Carre’ and the heir apparent to Graham Greene.

MORE INFO: Sarah Vowell works with “826NYC,” a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting students ages 6-18 with their writing. 826 believes that great leaps in learning can happen with one-on-one attention and that strong writing skills are fundamental to future success. Their free programs are challenging and enjoyable, and aim to strengthen each student’s power to express ideas effectively, creatively, confidently, and in his or her individual voice. There’s a branch in LA: 826LA.

“Worse than Watergate“: that’s what JOHN DEAN says about the Bush White House practice of secrecy and deception. John Dean of course served as counsel to President Nixon at age 31, a job he did for a thousand days.
SEE John Dean at the BookFest at UCLA, Sat. 1130am, Korn Convocation Hall

Also: MAUREEN DOWD, the New York Times op-ed columnist: she’ll talk about what she calls “Bushworld“: “It’s their reality,” she says. “We just live and die in it.”
SEE Maureen Dowd at the Bookfest at UCLA, Sat. 1130am, Korn Convocation Hall

Plus: VICTOR NAVASKY: he’s the renowned editor, writer, and teacher who has been at the helm of The Nation for almost thirty years. Now he has a new book: A Matter of Opinion, an extraordinary political document: a spirited, provocative argument for independent journals of opinion as vital to the health of democracy — a wonderful book, and a funny one too.
SEE Victor Navasky at the Bookfest at UCLA, Sat. 130pm Rolfe 1200

AT THE BOOKFEST AT UCLA, STOP BY AND SAY HI: Jon Wiener at The Nation Booth 344, Saturday 300pm.

OUR RECENT GUESTS AT BOOKFEST:
SATURDAY
11:30am: Together at Last: John Dean, Maureen Dowd, and Jon Wiener: Korn Hall
12:30pm: Adam Shatz: “Islam Now”: Haines 39
1:30pm: Victor Navasky: “Hollywood and the Reds”: Rolfe 1200
2:00pm: Russell Jacoby, Jonathan Schell, Amy Wilentz: “Outsourcing Democracy”: Haines 39
3:30pm: Chris Hedges: “Covering War”: Haines 39
3:30pm: Richard Steven Street: “California Farmworkers”: Korn Convocation Hall

SUNDAY
10:00am: Katrina vanden Heuvel, “America’s Political Culture”: Moore Hall 100
10:30am: Melissa Boyle Mahle, “The New World Order”: Haines 39
1:00pm: Steve Fraser, Adam Hochschild: “Writing Epic History”: Dodd 147
1:30pm: Marc Cooper: “A Sense of Place” Franz 1178

Complete festival schedule at www.latimes.com/extras/festivalofbooks/ Tickets FREE but REQUIRED: available at Ticketmaster: info at www.latimes.com/extras/festivalofbooks/ticketing.html

Once upon a time — you looked so fine: It’s the 40th anniversary of Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone” — GREIL MARCUS will talk about the “explosion of vision and humor that forever changed pop music.” His new book is Like A Rolling Stone: Bob Dylan at the Crossroads.
Playlist: Bob Dylan, “Like a Rolling Stone” — Highway 61 Revisited
Jimi Hendrix, “Like a Rolling Stone” — Jimi Plays Monterey
Bob Dylan, “Like a Rolling Stone” — Live 1966

Also: It’s the 2nd anniversary of the fall of Baghdad to US troops: we’ll speak with Karen Houppert about the lives of military wives, whose ranks range from the gung-ho to the openly rebellious. Karen wrote about “The New Face of Protest” for The Nation; her book is Home Fires Burning: Married to the Military–For Better or Worse.

Plus: VED MEHTA is the essayist who wrote in the New Yorker about his early struggles with blindness–he was a staff writer there for 33 years. He’s been awarded three Guggenheim Fellowships and a MacArthur Genius grant. Now he’s published the 11th volume of his Continents of Exile series: The Red Letters: My Father’s Enchanted Period, about his discovery of his father’s affair with a married woman. The Times Literary Supplement called it “nothing less than a literary masterpiece.”
Ved Mehta will be speaking at the LA Times Festival of Books at UCLA on Sat. Apr. 23, at 1100AM in Haines 39.