Posts tagged ‘Empire’

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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Chris Hedges: The Absurdity of American Empire

by , posted on Wednesday, September 12th, 2012 at 6:26 am

from GRITtv with Laura Flanders

What happens when you force communities, families and entire ecosystems to kneel before the dictates of the marketplace? You get what Chris Hedges, co-author with Joe Sacco of Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt, calls “sacrifice zones.” From Appalachia to North Dakota to Camden, New Jersey, these zones, ravaged by the excesses of capitalism, prefigure our collective future.

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