Is violent self-defense ethical? In the history of colonialism, racism, sexism, capitalism, there has long been a dividing line between bodies "worthy of defending" and those who have been disarmed and rendered defenseless. That those subject to the most violence--the enslaved, the colonized, the oppressed--have been forcibly made defenseless raises, for any movement of liberation, a question: Can violence be used in the interests of self-defense?...

"What can we hope for at the end of the world? What can we trust in when community has broken our hearts? What would it mean to pursue justice without violence? How can we love in the absence of faith? In a heartbreaking yet hopeful collection of personal essays and prose poems, blending the confessional, political, and literary, acclaimed poet and essayist Kai Cheng Thom dives deep into the questions that haunt social movements today. With the author's...

"From the award-winning author comes a gripping account of one of the most scandalous murder in modern Irish history, at once a propulsive work of true crime and an act of literary subversion. Malcolm MacArthur was a well-known Dublin socialite and heir. Suave and urbane, he passed his days mingling with artists and aristocrats, reading philosophy, living a life of the mind. But by 1982, his inheritance had dwindled to almost nothing, a desperate...

After Solomon's reign, grasp how the kingdom of Israel divided into a Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom of Judah. Observe how the Northern Kingdom became dominant under the powerful King Omri, creator of the capital of Samaria, excavated in the early 20th century. Learn of the divisive rule and tragic fate of Omri's son, Ahab, and how the kingdom fell to aggression by the Assyrian Empire.

Martin Luther King, Jr., may be America's most revered political figure, commemorated in statues, celebrations, and streets names around the world. On the fiftieth anniversary of King's assassination, the man and his activism are as close to public consciousness as ever. But despite his stature, the significance of King's writings and political thought remains underappreciated. In To Shape a New World, Tommie Shelby and Brandon Terry write that the...

This film presents Bourdieu's theory as to to how dominant ideologies are experientially reproduced in the education system through what he terms "objective misrecognition" and how this works as a form of symbolic violence.

In the eyes of his supporters, he has championed the rights of the poor and bravely defended his country's interests in the face of foreign aggression. Opponents have portrayed him as an embarrassing and dangerous megalomaniac, squandering the nation's oil wealth while bolstering his own power base. This indepth look at Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez explores his Bolivarian political philosophy, his adoption of "21st-century socialist" principles,...

Born in France, around the Commune de Paris, and in the wake of the French Revolution, anarchism rapidly disseminated its theories throughout the world. When the brand new International Workers’ Association was created, anarchism even became predominant within the workers’ movement. Yet early on, anarchism instilled fear in people, not only because all over the world it waged the war for an 8-hour working day, founded schools with no God and no...

In an era of feminist studies and women's progress, this program asks: Has feminism gone too far? Have activist women betrayed the women's movement? Do feminist leaders speak for most women? What is left for the women's movement to accomplish? The guests on this program are two prominent and controversial feminists, Camille Paglia and Christina Sommers. Ms. Paglia is Professor of Humanities at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and best-selling...

On the fifth anniversary of 9/11, 1,800 delegates gathered at the Congress of World Religions in Montreal to spend a week in ecumenical dialogue. This program captures the wisdom of attendees who, speaking from the podium or offstage, address topics ranging from widespread religious fanaticism, the destabilizing action/reaction spiral of violence, and the misuse of religion for political ends to defusing alienation through acceptance, fighting the...