Archive for November, 2012

Oliver Stone and historian Peter Kuznick on the Untold History of the United States from the Atomic Age to Obama’s Drone War

by , posted on Friday, November 16th, 2012 at 5:29 pm

from Democracy Now!

Part One

Academy Award-winning Oliver Stone has teamed up with historian Peter Kuznick to produce a 10-part Showtime series called, “Oliver Stone’s Untold History of the United States.” Drawing on archival findings and recently declassified documents, the filmmakers critically examine U.S. history — from the atomic bombing of Japan, to the Cold War, to the fall of Communism, and continuing all the way through to the Obama administration. Contrary to what’s taught in schools across the country, the filmmakers found the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were militarily unnecessary and morally indefensible.

Part Two

Stone and Kuznick also suggest the Soviet Union, not the United States, ultimately defeated the Germans in World War II. And, they assert the United States, not the Soviet Union, bore the lion’s share of responsibility for perpetuating the Cold War. The filmmakers also found U.S. presidents, especially in wartime, have frequently trampled on the Constitution and international law, and they note the United States has brought the world dangerously close to nuclear war by repeatedly brandishing nuclear threats. The first episode of the series aired Monday night on Showtime. For more about this series and the companion book, we are joined by Stone and Kuznick

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Food for Thought: Larry Grossberg on Cultural Studies

by , posted on Thursday, November 15th, 2012 at 9:00 am

“For me, cultural studies was always partly a response to the dominant practices of the academy, and the dominant practices of knowledge production. … It seemed to me that cultural studies was an attempt to find a different way to be an intellectual, a different way of bringing politics into the academy, and a different way of producing knowledge.” — Larry Grossberg

This video is a preview of a full length conversation with Larry Grossberg, an internationally renowned scholar of cultural studies as well as popular culture, conducted by University of Ottawa professor Boulou Ebanda de B’béri and his research assistant Michael Audette-Longo.

Part 1: Cultural studies as a specific project
Part 2: Discussion on articulation
Part 3: Discussion on past and present projects
Part 4: Discussion on modernity

The full-length conversation can be found after the jump.

(more…)

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Tavis Smiley & Cornel West on Election, Obama and Progressives

by , posted on Friday, November 9th, 2012 at 1:31 pm

from Democracy Now!

Part One

As the most expensive presidential election in U.S. history comes to an end, broadcaster Tavis Smiley and professor, activist Dr. Cornel West join us to discuss President Obama’s re-election and their hopes for a national political agenda in and outside of the White House during Obama’s second term. At a time when one in six Americans is poor, the price tag for combined spending by federal candidates — along with their parties and outside groups like super PACs — totaled more than $6 billion. Together, West and Smiley have written the new book, “The Rich and the Rest of Us: A Poverty Manifesto.”

Both Tavis and Smiley single out prominent progressives whom they accuse of overlooking Obama’s actual record. “We believe if [Obama] is not pushed, he is going to be a transactional president and not a transformational president,” Smiley says. “We believe the time is now for action and no longer accommodation… To be the most progressive means you’ve taken some serious risk. And I just don’t see the example of that.” West says that some prominent supporters of Obama “want to turn their back to poor and working people. It’s a sad thing to see them as apologists for the Obama administration in that way.”

Part Two

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