KPFA - Against the Grain

Conventional wisdom holds that the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and early 60s neglected the question of police violence, only to be remedied by the Black Panther Party and decades later by the Movement for Black Lives. But historian Joshua Clark Davis argues that that assumption is inaccurate. He also discusses the extensive involvement of local police departments, above and beyond the FBI’s COINTELPRO, in disrupting and repressing the Civil Rights movement.

Joshua Clark Davis, Police Against the Movement: The Sabotage of the Civil Rights Struggle and the Activists Who Fought Back Princeton University Press, 2025

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Ancient Greece and Rome are venerated throughout our society — including on the far right. Is this a misappropriation and misuse of the ideals of Greco-Roman antiquity? Classical scholar Curtis Dozier argues that when white nationalists appeal to ancient thinkers to justify their reactionary ideas, there is surprisingly much to draw from.

Curtis Dozier, The White Pedestal: How White Nationalists Use Ancient Greece and Rome to Justify Hate Yale University Press, 2026

Pharos – Doing Justice to the Classics

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The struggle for labor across the color line has often been credited to white activists. However, as sociologist Cedric de Leon argues, the black labor movement, independently organized outside of the official union movement, propelled such efforts. He discusses the black labor movement’s divisions, including in the face of the state’s attempt to destroy it.

Cedric de Leon, Freedom Train: Black Politics and the Story of Interracial Labor Solidarity UC Press, 2025

The post The Black Labor Movement appeared first on KPFA.

The U.S. Constitution is an object of great political veneration in this country. Legal scholar Aziz Rana examines the contradictions within it, which have allowed for the authoritarianism of the Trump administration. (Encore presentation.)

Aziz Rana, The Constitutional Bind: How Americans Came to Idolize a Document That Fails Them University of Chicago Press, 2024

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As Congress considers a war powers vote, economist Mark Weisbrot places the Trump administration’s attack on Venezuela in the context of a longstanding bipartisan campaign to undermine left-leaning governments across Latin America. He discusses the differing visions Trump and his Secretary of State Marco Rubio have for the region, one focused on oil and the other on regime change, including in Cuba.

Image credit: IbaKa Vector

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Modern art has always been a battleground — and the highly influential Museum of Modern Art has been partisan since its inception. Architectural historian Patricio Del Real discusses two differing political visions of modernism and modern architecture: one rooted in the left, and associated with figures such as Communist muralist Diego Rivera, and the other on the right, represented by the architect and fascist sympathizer Philip Johnson. He weighs in on the role of MoMa in promoting a view of modernism in Latin America, stripped of its radical politics and racial fusions, and radiating American power and hegemony. (Encore presentation.)

Patricio del Real, Constructing Latin America: Architecture, Politics, and Race at the Museum of Modern Art Yale University Press, 2022

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Extreme inequality defines our age. The world’s wealthiest 0.001%, a mere 60,000 people, own three times more wealth that half of the world’s population combined. And such inequality is increasing with time. Economist Rob Larson discusses the cloistered world of the very rich, their power and wealth, and their influence over all our lives. (Full-length presentation.)

Rob Larson, Mastering the Universe: The Obscene Wealth of the Ruling Class, What They Do with Their Money, and Why You Should Hate Them Even More Haymarket Books, 2024

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As influenza cases reach a twenty-five year high, a look at the complicated history of long lasting post-viral conditions. Medical anthropologist Emily Mendenhall considers how the medical establishment has frequently ignored chronic but often invisible illnesses like long Covid and long flu, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Lyme disease.

Emily Mendenhall, Invisible Illness: A History, from Hysteria to Long COVID UC Press, 2025

Photo by Helenn Melo on Unsplash

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As the United States seizes control of Venezuela, what lessons can be drawn from the movement against the US occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq? Historian Jeremy Varon reflects on how the anti-war movement grew into the millions in the face of jingoism and media complicity with the US state.

Jeremy Varon, Our Grief Is Not a Cry for War: The Movement to Stop the War on Terror University of Chicago Press, 2025

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The United States spends over a $100 billion dollars more a year on the military than it did at the height of the Cold War. What does it get year upon year for that money? Since 2001, America’s overseas war have led to nearly a million deaths. Ben Freeman discusses the intersection of interests that drive America’s military spending, including the private contractors who receive half of the US military budget and the universities, Hollywood movies, and media funded by the Pentagon or its arms manufacturers.

William D. Hartung and Ben Freeman, The Trillion Dollar War Machine: How Runaway Military Spending Drives America into Foreign Wars and Bankrupts Us at Home Bold Type Books, 2025

Think Tank Funding Tracker

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