The late Arthur Schlesinger Jr., the great scholar of the New Deal, liked to talk about how the best historians know that history is “an argument without end.” Now a new generation of authors has taken up that argument, and it’s as controversial as ever. Join columnists Amity Shlaes and Jonathan Alter as they square [...]
Reflections on Citizen Movements: Peace and Politics in the U.S and Japan
Nonviolent citizen movements for peace, environmental change, and social justice in both the U.S. and Japan have caused social and political change in both nations. Leading American social activist and former California State Senator Tom Hayden and James Orr, Chair of the Department of East Asian Studies at Bucknell University and author of The Victim [...]
Are New Immigrants Assimilating?
The U.S. has long been known as a nation of immigrants who embrace a common culture. Today, the U.S. finds itself in the midst of a wave of new immigrants and a fierce fight over immigration policy. Have recent arrivals made efforts to assimilate? Or are they standing apart as many anti-immigrant forces contend? To [...]
Learning from the Elections of 2004 and 2000
What lessons can be learned from the past two presidential elections? How are party alliances changing? How might this election transform foreign policy and generational dynamics? Sondra Farganis, director of the Wolfson Center for National Affairs, leads a conversation about the direction and lessons of American politics after the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections. She [...]
Satyagraha Forum: The Poetry of Peace and Politics
Is poetry inevitably political? Can language provoke peace? Spearheaded by Anne Waldman, a founder and current Director of the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa Institute, and hosted by Bob Holman, Club founder and proprietor, the Bowery Poetry Club presents an exploration of poetry as satyagraha or “truth force,” punctuated by poems from [...]
Rethinking Poverty: Making Policies that Work for Children
The United Nations’ 2000 Conference and its Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) marked an international commitment to eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, and to fostering global collaboration in these efforts. Despite some progress towards the MDGs, millions of children remain outside of the policy agenda. This conference provides peer consultation and feedback on UNICEF’s global study [...]
Manhattan Institute Forum: Dick Cheney
The Vice President of the United States, Dick Cheney, addresses the Manhattan Institute at a breakfast forum. He focuses on the House, progress in Iraq, and the Iraqi government. This event was held by the Manhattan Institute.
The Road to 2008: Presidential Politics Today with Arianna Huffington
An up-to-the-minute, headline-driven analysis of the 2008 presidential election with Arianna Huffingon, co-founder and editor-in-chief of the influential Huffington Post. At the helm of one of the most active communities on the Internet, Huffington has her finger on the political pulse. Just days before the highly anticipated Pennsylvania primary, she shared her behind-the-scenes knowledge of [...]
An Overview of Zoning, Past and Present
Why is zoning necessary? When did it begin? How do you unravel a zoning text? Doris Diether, a long time community activist and zoning expert, demystifies New York zoning in a lecture that considers New York City zoning, from pre-1916 to today. Ms. Diether covers different types of districts and what they permit, different types [...]
Who is watching, and who is being watched? Who decides which spaces are visible to the camera and which are effectively invisible, off-limits to authorities? A roundtable discussion examines how engineers, artists, and activists intervene in surveillance systems to subvert, invert, and redefine these relationships, and how the principle of “sousveillance” – meaning surveillance from [...]
