Also we’ll speak with historian MICHAEL BELLESILES about the violent and ugly America of 1877.  His new book is 1877: America’s Year of Living Violently. Michael teaches history at Central Connecticut State University.

Also: China just passed Japan as the number two economic power in the world – and yet China is still ruled by a Communist Party. Historian JEFF WASSERSTROM will explain some of the paradoxes here – Jeff writes for Foreign Policy the Christian Science Monitor, and the Huffington Post, and is chair of the history department at UC Irvine. He is co-founder of the blog ChinaBeat.org, and his new book is CHINA IN THE 21^ST CENTURY: WHAT EVERYONE NEEDS TO KNOW.

Also: the “Ground Zero Mosque” in lower Manhattan — should it find another site, out of “respect for the 9-11 families,” and the ADL argues?  STEPHEN ROHDE explains why “It is wise, it is right, it is good for that mosque and community center to be built in that place.”  Stephen is co-president of Progressive Jewish Alliance and chair of Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace.

Plus: “Mad Men” is the best series on TV right now – NATASHA VARGAS-COOPER talks about sex, literature, politics, and of course advertising on the show – and how it portrays the “cultural matrix” of the early sixties.  The New Yorker called her MAD MEN UNBUTTONED “the richest of the “Mad Men” books.”

Also:  TOM FRANK just finished a two-year term as the voice of left wing sanity at the crazed op-ed page of the Wall Street Journal – he was there in 2008 when “the market god collapsed” — And he was there when it was revived.  Tom’s books include What’s the Matter with Kansas? and The Wrecking Crew.  He starts a new column for Harper’s in December.

HAROLD MEYERSON

Plus: “METHLAND”: small town America has been crushed by union busting and agribusiness – and now an incredibly cheap, long-lasting, and highly effective drug has taken hold: NICK REDING tells the story of one town’s struggle with crystal meth.  His award-winning book Methland is out now in paperback.

Also: Obama abandoned his environmental and energy programs. But cities have taken the initiative towards green energy and green jobs — and L.A. is in the lead, on some fronts at least. 
JOAN FITZGERALD will explain. She’s Director of the Law, Policy and Society Program at Northeastern University, and her new book is Emerald Cities: Urban Sustainability and Economic Development.

Also: HENRY FORD’s Amazon colony — historian GREG GRANDIN tells the story of Ford’s biggest failure.  His book Fordlandia is out now in paperback.  (originally broadcast 9/2/2008)

Plus: Politics and modern music: Hitler and Stalin went to the opera, and Joe McCarthy subpoenaed composers. What was going on?  ALEX ROSS explains – he’s music critic for The New Yorker, where’s he’s written not only about classical music but also about Bjork, Bob Dylan and Radiohead.  His award-winning book, out now in paperback, is THE REST IS NOISE: Listening to the 20th Century, and his famous website is www.TheRestIsNoise.com. (originally broadcast 5/14/2008)

. . . . from The Nation, Aug. 16 issue, continued HERE or HERE

Also –from the Center for the Study of the Lower East Side, our interview with the great RICHARD PRICE about his novel — out now in paperback – LUSH LIFE. (originally broadcast 3/09)

Plus: FRIEDRICH ENGELS – “a foxhunting man, a womanizing, champagne-drinking capitalist” – and a lifelong revolutionary. Also, “far more adventurous than Marx when it came to exploring the ramifications of his and Marx’s thinking.” TRISTRAM HUNT explains.  MARX’S GENERAL: THE REVOLUTIONARY LIFE OF FRIEDRICH ENGELS is his book, out now in paperback.  (originally broadcast 9/09)

Also: Obama is having a bad summer – who do the Republicans have on deck to challenge him?  JOHN NICHOLS says it looks like SARAH PALIN is the best they’ve got–and, he says, the current primary season shows her to be smarter and more capable than we thought.  John is Washington correspondent for The Nation and writes “The Beat” blog at TheNation.com.

Also: KPFK Sports!  The owners are ruining the games we love – that’s what DAVE ZIRIN says, starting with George Steinbrenner, who died recently.  The big question: Are the Frank and Jamie McCourt, owners of the Dodgers,  spending more money on their divorce lawyers than on their pitching staff? Dave writes about the politics of sports in his new book Bad Sports: How Owners are Ruining the Games We Love.

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Also: How a new form of slavery was imposed on hundreds of thousands of African-Americans after the Civil War: DOUGLAS BLACKMON found that tens of thousands of southern blacks were arrested, often for “vagrancy;” unable to pay their fines, they were sold as forced laborers to coal mines, lumber camps, brickyards, railroads, quarries and farm plantations. His book Slavery by Another Name won 2009 Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction; it’s out now in paperback.

Plus: Is Dick Cheney now the leader of the Republican Party? BART GELLMAN of the Washington Post talks about Cheney’s past — his hidden role in the Bush administration’s most fateful choices: shifting focus from al Qaeda to Iraq, unleashing the National Security Agency to spy at home, and promoting “cruel and inhuman” methods of interrogation.  Bart Gellman’s book ANGLER, out now in paperback, won the L.A. Times Book Prize for Nonfiction for 2009.  Watch Bart Gellman on The Daily Show HERE.
show originally broadcast 5-6-09.

Also: MAZEL TOV, MIS AMIGOS: JOSH KUN has unearthed some amazing connections between Latin and Jewish popular music – from Yiddish mambos to Fiddler on the Roof charangas.  Also: how Tito Puente ended up playing the Catskills.  Josh teaches at USC’s Annenberg school and is director of the Popular Music Project there.  He curated the exhibition “Jews on Vinyl” currently at the Skirball Museum, and will be hosting a listening party tomorrow/Thurs there at 730pm.  Details HERE.

Plus: How Bush’s wars became Obama’s: TOM ENGELHARDT analyzes “a disaster that is yet to end.”  Tom created and runs the indispensable TomDispatch.com, and is the author of The End of Victory Culture; Andrew Bacevich says “Tom Engelhardt is the I.F. Stone of the post 9/11 age.”  Tom’s new book is THE AMERICAN WAY OF WAR.