Black parents worry about racism’s impact on their children. Jennifer C. Nash is interested in both the nature of racialized anxiety and the way it’s rendered visible to the general public. Among other things, she looks at how Black mothers have used the epistolary form to convey their concerns, fears, and hopes.

Jennifer C. Nash, How We Write Now: Living with Black Feminist Theory Duke University Press, 2024

The post Conveying Black Loss appeared first on KPFA.

When we think of potentially dangerous and addictive drugs, most of us think about illegal substances like heroine or cocaine. And yet widely-prescribed drugs like Xanax, Ritalin, Adderall, and Vicodin are also addictive, but legal in the United States. Historian David Herzberg discusses the artificial distinction that has been created between addictive drugs and medicines — with the key difference being the class and race of the consumers who use them and the partial protections that one group receives and the other does not.

Resources:

David Herzberg, White Market Drugs: Big Pharma and the Hidden History of Addiction in America University of Chicago Press, 2020

The post Good Patients, Bad Addicts appeared first on KPFA.

In the aftermath of the Vietnam War, the U.S. transported refugees from Vietnam to its colonial possession Guam. In that period, Israel did something similar, offering citizenship to Vietnamese refugees, in the wake of its expanded occupation of Palestine. Evyn Lê Espiritu Gandhi looks at the condition of refugee settlers, as well as solidarity between the indigenous inhabitants of settler colonial states. (Encore presentation.)

Resources:

Evyn Lê Espiritu Gandhi, Archipelago of Resettlement: Vietnamese Refugee Settlers and Decolonization across Guam and Israel-Palestine UC Press, 2022

The post Refugee Settlers in Guam and Palestine appeared first on KPFA.

Not one movement but a multiplicity of movements engaging in protest and direct action brought down France’s absolutist regime in 1789. Micah Alpaugh describes popular uprisings and insurrections in Paris and the provinces that operated without central leadership and later inspired anarchists around the globe.

Micah Alpaugh, The People’s Revolution of 1789 Cornell University Press, 2024

The post French Revolutionary Movements appeared first on KPFA.

Ayn Rand’s novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged have been called gateway drugs to rightwing ideas for so many Americans. And while the works of the writer and philosopher have seen a resurgence since the global economic crisis, her influence has been undeniably huge and sustained since those books were originally published in mid-century. Historian Lisa Duggan examines what is at the heart of Rand’s enduring appeal. (Encore presentation.)

Resources:

Lisa Duggan, Mean Girl: Ayn Rand and the Culture of Greed UC Press, 2019

The post Ayn Rand and the Culture of Greed appeared first on KPFA.

What is Mexican philosophy, and what are its guiding principles? According to Carlos Alberto Sánchez, Mexican philosophy is a byproduct of Western philosophy’s role in the colonization of the Americas. He lays out some of its central concepts and considers how they apply to everyday life.

Carlos Alberto Sánchez, Blooming in the Ruins: How Mexican Philosophy Can Guide Us Toward the Good Life Oxford University Press, 2024

The post Mexican Philosophy appeared first on KPFA.

Public schools have long been a battleground for the right. But since the Covid pandemic, the right has had the wind at its back, enlarging its ranks with parents frustrated by school closings and masking mandates. Education journalist Laura Pappano discusses how the far right has sowed panic over library books, gender neutral bathrooms, and the supposed teaching of Critical Race Theory — not just to take over school boards, but to cast doubt on the value of public education itself.

Resources:

Laura Pappano, Parent Activism, Partisan Politics, and the Battle for Public Education Beacon Press, 2024

The post The Right’s War on Schools appeared first on KPFA.

What did the abrupt transition from socialism to capitalism in the former Soviet Bloc mean for residents, radicals, and the social order? Helena Sheehan, a Marxist thinker, educator, and activist, devotes a portion of her latest book to the impact and legacy of the momentous events of 1989 and 1990. (Encore presentation.)

Helena Sheehan, Until We Fall: Long Distance Life on the Left Monthly Review Press, 2023

The post Socialism to Capitalism appeared first on KPFA.

Throughout much of the 20th century and into the 21st, the U.S. state has worked to undermine and destroy leftwing and anti-imperialist labor unions around the world. And much of those efforts were assisted by an entity ostensibly committed to the interests of American workers: the trade union federation the AFL-CIO. Historian Jeff Schuhrke argues that by doing so the AFL-CIO fueled the demise of the U.S. labor movement, as U.S. corporations could more easily move factories to other countries where militant labor opposition had been repressed.

Resources:

Jeff Schuhrke, Blue-Collar Empire:The Untold Story of US Labor’s Global Anticommunist Crusade Verso, 2024

Photo credit: Mattpopovich

The post U.S. Empire and the AFL-CIO appeared first on KPFA.

Award-winning artist/illustrator Nate Powell discusses his graphic adaptation of James Loewen’s classic text “Lies My Teacher Told Me.”

The post Fund Drive Special: Adapting Loewen’s “Lies” appeared first on KPFA.