HISTORY

Includes:

History & Politics: Zigs & Zags

History and politics are replete with zigs and zags into all kinds of unexpected directions. Take for example, the Shah of Iran. He looked impregnable on his throne until he was toppled by massive street demonstrations. Who could have predicted that the suicide of a street vendor in a small town in Tunisia would lead to the overthrow of an entrenched dictatorship and revolts across the Arab Middle East? Or that a popular uprising in Armenia would lead to the ouster of an oligarchic regime in that country or that a real estate mogul and reality TV host would become president of the U.S.? History and politics are full of surprises. Interview by David Barsamian.  2 CDs

Origins of Radical Right-Wing Power

The history of the anti-government and anti-democratic politics that have transformed the U.S. in recent years is largely obscured from view. The radical right’s agenda includes: suppression of voting rights, privatization of everything from schools to Medicare to Social Security to public lands, elimination of unions and limiting majority rule. Core beliefs also include: there is no problem tax cuts won’t solve and that the best kind of regulation is no regulation. Let industry decide. And the intellectual godfather of this extreme right-wing thinking? Someone you’ve probably never heard of. James McGill Buchanan, a Nobel Prize-winning economist. And the money to promote his ideas comes mostly from billionaire Charles Koch. These ideological positions have moved from beyond the fringe to where they are openly discussed and legislation is proposed. If these forces get their way democracy will be in chains.

Speakers

Nancy MacLean

Nancy MacLean is Professor of History and Public Policy at Duke University. She is the author of Freedom is Not Enough: The Opening of the American Workplace and Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America.

Vijay Prashad

Vijay Prashad is an internationally renowned historian and journalist. He is the director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research and chief correspondent for Globetrotter. He is the author of many books including The Darker Nations: A People’s History of the Third World and Washington Bullets: CIA, Coups, and Assassinations.