The Last Empress: Madame Chiang Kai-shek and the Birth of Modern China
Hannah Pakula presents her work The Last Empress: Madame Chiang Kai-shek and the Birth of Modern China, which tells the epic story of one of the most remarkable and controversial women of the twentieth century, and of the advent of the Asian superpower to which the United States is now inexorably tied. The wife of [...]
An interesting look at the origins of the “modern surveillance state” – author Jennifer Fronc discusses her book, “New York Undercover: Private Surveillance in the Progressive Era.” It was relatively common, it turns out, for “social activists” to send private investigators into gambling parlors, brothels, and meetings of criminal gangs and radical political organizations. These [...]
The Museum of American Finance hosts “Did Economists Get It Wrong?” – an expert panel on the different explanations of the current crisis on the 80th anniversary of the Crash of 1929. Speakers David Adler, Economic journalist and author of Snap Judgment (Financial Times Press, 2009) Justin Fox, Economics and business columnist for Time magazine Teresa Ghilarducci, [...]
James Orbinski – An Imperfect Offering
An Imperfect Offering: Humanitarian Action for the Twenty-First Century is a searing personal memoir that is also an urgent call to confront suffering in all its many forms, from one of the greatest living humanitarian activists. Having seen things we hope never to see, confronted suffering and evil we hope never to encounter, and faced [...]
Inside Islam: What a Billion Muslims Really Think
THIRTEEN visits the Scholastic Auditorium for a screening and discussion of Inside Islam: What a Billion Muslims Really Think. The film from Unity Productions Foundation follows the international Gallup poll of Muslim opinion on matters from which their voices are often excluded. This event was sponsored by Intersections International, Change the Story, Americans for Informed [...]
Caroline Alexander – The War That Killed Achilles
The story of the Trojan War is immortalized in Homer’s epic of epic poems, The Iliad and brought to life in Caroline Alexander’s The War That Killed Achilles – a work that Ken Burns calls “a triumph.” Through the hero Achilles, The Iliad draws on the true nature of what it means to be a [...]
Secrets of the Dead: Mumbai Massacre
Taped at The Jewish Theological Seminary, April 1, 2009 Speakers: Russell G. Pearce: Edward & Marilyn Bellet Professor of Legal Ethics, Morality, and Religion running time: 48 minutes 49 seconds Today, the legal profession faces a crisis of ethics and professionalism. Will the values that sustained lawyers in the past continue to support them, or [...]
Rightsizing New York’s Budget: Thomas P. DiNapoli
With a budget shortfall of $12.5 billion projected for 2009-10, New York’s state government faces its most significant fiscal crisis in decades. However, this is not just another cyclical downturn. What’s left of Wall Street will be significantly leaner, less profitable, and more heavily regulated than the securities industry whose explosive growth fueled the expansion [...]
U.S. Foreign Policy Towards a Rising Asia: A Conversation with Senator Chuck Hagel
During this time of global financial uncertainty and political change in the United States, America can capitalize on its opportunities in the rising Asia-Pacific region. United States Senator Chuck Hagel (R-Nebraska) will discuss these opportunities in this region and how the US can proceed. Senator Hagel has served as senior member of the Senate Foreign [...]
