The World Beyond the Headlines from the University of Chicago

Based on nearly a decade of painstaking research in archives and census records, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Elliot Jaspin's book Buried in the Bitter Waters provides irrefutable evidence that racial cleansing occurred again and again on American soil, and fundamentally reshaped the geography of race. From the World Beyond the Headlines Series. Co-sponsored with the Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture.

A discussion with Alexander Vershbow, United States Ambassador to the Republic of Korea and Lee Tae-sik, Korean Ambassador to the United States. From the World Beyond the Headlines Series. Cosponsored by the Korea Economic Institute, the Korean Consulate of Chicago and the Center for East Asian Studies.

James Mann is author in residence at Johns Hopkins University’s Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies and the author of Rise of the Vulcans, About Face, and Beijing Jeep. He was previously the Los Angles Times Beijing bureau chief. In his new book, The China Fantasy, Mann explores two scenarios popular among the policy elite. The "Soothing Scenario" contends that the successful spread of capitalism will gradually bring about a development of democratic institutions, free elections, independent judiciary, and a progressive human rights policy. In the "Upheaval Scenario," the contradictions in Chinese society between rich and poor, between cities and the countryside, and between the openness of the economy and the unyielding Leninist system will eventually lead to a revolution, chaos, or collapse. Against this backdrop, Mann poses a third scenario and asks, What will happen if Chinese capitalism continues to evolve and expand but the government fails to liberalize? From the World Beyond the Headlines Series.

A lecture by Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute and Professor of Sustainable Development and Health Policy and Management at Columbia University and the author of The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time. From the World Beyond the Headlines Series. Cosponsored by the University of Chicago's Human Rights Program, the School of Social Service Administration, Rockefeller Chapel, and Chicago Promise.

Paul Barrett and Dr. Umar Abd-Allah in a discussion of their recent works, American Islam: The Struggle for the Soul of a Religion and A Muslim in Victorian America. Dr. Abd-Allah's work is a biography of Alexander Russell Webb, one of the earliest American converts to Islam to achieve a modicum of fame. Mr. Barrett's book offers portraits of a number of contemporary American Muslims, demonstrating the complexity of the community and diversity of opinion within this community. Paul Barrett was a reporter and editor for 18 years at the Wall Street Journal, and currently directs the investigative reporting team at Business Week. Dr. Abd-Allah is Scholar-in-Residence at the Nawawi Foundation. From the World Beyond the Headlines Series.

A talk by Danny Postel, Senior Editor of openDemocracy, an online global magazine of politics & culture. The Iran depicted in the headlines is a rogue state ruled by ever-more-defiant Islamic fundamentalists. Yet inside the borders, an unheralded transformation of a wholly different political bent is occurring. A "liberal renaissance," as one Iranian thinker terms it, is emerging in Iran, and in his pamphlet Reading 'Legitimation Crisis' in Tehran, Danny Postel charts the contours of the intellectual upheaval. From the World Beyond the Headlines Series.

A talk by Sallie Hughes, Asst. Prof. in the School of Communication at the Univ. of Miami, on her book, Newsrooms in Conflict: Journalism and the Democratization of Mexico. The book examines the dramatic changes within Mexican society, politics, and journalism that transformed an authoritarian media institution into many conflicting styles of journalism with very different implications for deepening democracy in the country. From the World Beyond the Headlines Series.

A talk by Tariq Ali, editor, New Left Review. Since 1998, the Bolivarian revolution in Venezuela has brought Hugo Chávez to world attention as the foremost challenger of the neoliberal consensus and American foreign policy. While Chávez's radical social-democratic reforms have brought him worldwide acclaim among the poor, he has attracted intense hostility from Venezuelan elites and Western governments. Drawing on first-hand experience of Venezuela and meetings with Chávez, Tariq Ali shows how Chávez's views have polarized Latin America and examines the hostility directed against his administration. Ali discusses the enormous influence of Fidel Castro on both Chávez and Evo Morales, the newly-elected President of Bolivia, and contrasts the Cuban and Venezuelan revolutionary processes. From the World Beyond the Headlines Series.

A talk by Ira Chernus, Professor of Religious Studies, University of Colorado-Boulder on his book, Monsters to Destroy. In an ambitious effort to clarify a complicated issue, Ira Chernus tackles the question of why U.S. foreign policy aimed at building national strength and security has the paradoxical effect of making the country less safe and secure. His answer: The ''war on terror'' is based not on realistic appraisals of the causes of conflict, but rather on ''stories'' that neoconservative policymakers believe about human nature and a world divided between absolute good and absolute evil. From the World Beyond the Headlines Series.

Atlantic Monthly editor James Fallows discusses his new book, based on his award-winning series of articles for the magazine. Fallows analyzes the decision-making behind the Iraq war, and argues that the administration didn't fail to plan — it just ignored the plans of its own experts. Fallows also places the war within the larger context of the war on terror, arguing that the Iraqi venture has greatly undercut our global efforts to curtail terror attacks and the effectiveness of terrorist organizations. From the World Beyond the Headlines Series.