KPFA - Letters and Politics

Guest: Peter Cole is a professor of history at Western Illinois University in Macomb and a research associate in the Society, Work and Development Institute at the University of the Vitvatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. Cole is the author of the award-winning Dockworker Power: Race and Activism in Durban and the San Francisco Bay Area and Wobblies on the Waterfront: Interracial Unionism in Progressive-Era Philadelphia. He coedited Wobblies of the World: A Global History of the IWW. He is the founder and codirector of the Chicago Race Riot of 1919 Commemoration Project. The post The Black Wobbly: Ben Fletcher appeared first on KPFA.

  Guest: Claudio Saunt, author of Unworthy Republic:The Dispossession of Native Americans and the Road to Indian Territory. Claudio Saunt is the Richard B. Russell Professor in American History at the University of Georgia.     The post Dispossession: The Indian Removal Act of 1830 appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Angela C. Sutton is an Assistant research professor at Vanderbilt University, where she has taught Seapower in History, the Golden Age of Piracy, and Comparative Slavery. She is the author of Pirates of the Slave Trade: The Battle of Cape Lopez and the Birth of an American Institution. The post The Pirates That Halted The Slave Trade appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Haim Bresheeth-Zabner is a Professor of film studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London. He is the author of An Army Like No Other: How the Israeli Defense Force Made a Nation. The post IDF: A History of Israel’s Army of Occupation appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Dr Reza Shaghaghi Zarghamee is a Post-doctoral Fellow in Ancient History at the University of St. Andrews.  He is the author of Discovering Cyrus: The Persian Conqueror Astride the Ancient World (Mage: 2013), and his latest Myth and History in Ancient Persia: The Achaemenids in the Iranian Tradition The post The Shahnameh & Iran’s Ancient Past appeared first on KPFA.

A look at burning political issues and debates and their historical context within the US and worldwide, hosted by Mitch Jeserich. The post Letters and Politics – August 21, 2025 appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Glory Liu is a lecturer in social studies at Harvard University. She is the author of Adam Smith’s America: How a Scottish Philosopher Became an Icon of American Capitalism. The post How Adam Smith Became A Capitalist Icon appeared first on KPFA.

Part 1: THE EARLY HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA Guest: Michael Hiltzik is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and author who has covered business, technology, and public policy for the Los Angeles Times for more than 40 years. He currently serves as the Times’s business columnist.  He is the author of The Golden State: The Making of California   Part 2: THE EVERGREEN REVIEW: A HISTORY Guest: Pat Thomas is a counter-culture historian and author of the book Evergreen Review: Dispatches from the Literary Underground -Covers & Essays 1957-1973. Pat Thomas is also the author of several other books including Listen, Whitey! The Sights & Sounds of Black Power 1965-1975, Did It! Jerry Rubin: An American Revolutionary, and Material Wealth: The Personal Archives of Allen Ginsberg. The post THE BEGINNING OF CALIFORNIA & THE EVERGREEN REVIEW appeared first on KPFA.

Guest: Guest: Lisa Duggan is a journalist, historian, activist and Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis at New York University. She is a journalist, historian, activist and Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis at New York University. She is the author of the new book Mean Girl: Ayn Rand and the Culture of Greed The post Ayn Rand and the Culture of Greed appeared first on KPFA.

Haley Cohen Gilliland is a journalist and the director of the Yale Journalism Initiative. She is the author of the book A Flower Traveled in my Blood: The Incredible True Story of the Grandmothers Who Fought to Find a Stolen Generation of Children. The post THE GRANDMOTHERS OF THE DISAPPEARED appeared first on KPFA.