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What I Saw at the Revolution

Published by USC Bedrosian Center on

Featuring Raphael Bostic, Lisa Schweitzer, Donnajean Ward, Matthew Young

In this edition of the Bedrosian Book Club Podcast, we’re taking a look to the past. We read Peggy Noonan’s 1990 memoir, What I Saw at the Revolution. This is a political memoir for those who don’t usually read political memoirs. This book is a testimony to the power of language in politics. Noonan was a speechwriter for President Reagan, in both of his terms. This is a portrait of life in Washington, D.C. as well as both the Reagan and Bush administrations. She has a critical eye for the mechanisms of political speech writing. She describes the pull between the policy wonks, the writers, and the politicians. Join us for a conversation on the power of language in politics and for a look at how our Federal government works.

To listen to the Bedrosian Book Club Podcast discussion of What I Saw at the Revolution, click the arrow in the player at the top of this post. Or you can download it (and subscribe!) through Soundcloud or iTunes!

Follow (some of) us on Twitter.  Follow Raphael @RaphaelBostic, Lisa @drschweitzer, and Donnajean @DonnajeanWard

 

Next Month …

Tune in next time for a discussion of Rez Life by David Treuer.  Novelist, and USC Professor, David Treuer brings his beautiful language for a look at life on the reservation. Treuer shines a light onto contemporary issues of sovereignty, treaty rights, and natural-resource conservation. He traces the waves of public policy that have disenfranchised and exploited Native Americans, exposing the tension that has marked the historical relationship between the United States government and the Native American population.

Links to things we talk about:

Dan Rather
His Girl Friday
Commercials turned into cartoons: G.I. Joe or Transformers
Gen X
Arthur Laffer (economist – supply side economics)
Laffer curve
Jack Kemp
RNC Chair Michael Steele Confesses to Race-Based Southern Strategy
Lee Atwater
Then–California Gov. Ronald Reagan ate grapes in public in defiance of the United Farm Workers’ grape boycott for better wages in 1969.

This podcast was produced by Aubrey Hicks and Jonathan Schwartz, recorded and mixed by Corey Hedden.

Bedrosian Center