Leonard Grob and John K. Roth / The Holocaust and Endangered Democracy Today

Dec 28, 2023

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Leonard Grob is professor emeritus of philosophy at Fairleigh Dickinson University.

John K. Roth is Edward J. Sexton Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Claremont McKenna College.

Together they have published a number of books, including Encountering the Stranger (2012), which focuses on Jewish-Christian-Muslim relations; Losing Trust in the World (2017), a protest against torture; and most recently, Warnings: The Holocaust, Ukraine, and Endangered American Democracy (Cascade, 2023).

PODCAST LINKS:

Warnings: https://wipfandstock.com/9781666743968/warnings/

CONNECT:

Website: https://wipfandstock.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/wipfandstock

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wipfandstock

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wipfandstock/

SOURCES MENTIONED:

Applebaum, Anne. Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism.

Buber, Martin. I and Thou.

Delbo, Charlotte. Auschwitz and After. 3 vols.

Dostoevsky, Fyodor. The Brothers Karamazov.

Grob, Leonard, and John K. Roth. Warnings: The Holocaust, Ukraine, and Endangered American Democracy.

———, eds. Anguished Hope: Holocaust Scholars Confront the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict.

Hallie, Philip. In the Eye of the Hurricane: Tales of Good and Evil, Help and Harm.

Levinas, Emmanuel. Otherwise than Being, or, Beyond Essence.

OUTLINE:

(01:39) – Converging on the Holocaust

(11:40) – Dr. Roth’s roundtable 1: Charlotte Delbo, Anne Applebaum, Amanda Gorman

(15:01) – Dr. Roth’s roundtable 2: James Madison, Elie Wiesel, Albert Camus

(17:40) – Dr. Grob’s roundtable: (Plato’s) Socrates, Martin Buber, Charlotte Delbo

(23:29) – The beginnings of a friendship (and a book or two)

(31:45) – The Holocaust and contemporary dangers to American democracy

(35:03) – (Liberal) democracy as a verb, not a noun

(41:23) – Democracy and virtue

(49:44) – Democracy and division

(58:10) – Learning from the Holocaust era

(01:08:27) – MAGA and the 2024 election

(01:13:17) – The hurricane as political metaphor