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Conversations with History

The novelist Elizabeth Hand, writing in the Washington Post, reviews Just Kids, Patti Smith’s remarkable memoir of her relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe in New York City’s countercultural heyday.

More than a 1970s bohemian rhapsody, “Just Kids” is one of the best books ever written on becoming an artist – not the race for online celebrity and corporate sponsorship that often passes for artistic success these days, but the far more powerful, often difficult journey toward the ecstatic experience of capturing radiance of imagination on a page or stage or photographic paper. Mapplethorpe’s iconic image of Smith for the cover of “Horses,” her landmark 1975 album, serves as a convenient symbol of both their collaborative relationship and the separate paths they took thereafter: he as one of the last century’s most heralded and controversial photographers, she as a performer whose influence still extends through poetry, contemporary music, fashion and the visual arts. (It’s a testament to her appeal that as I read this book over Christmas, my teenage daughter, middle-aged brother and septuagenarian mother all clamored to have it next.)

“Just Kids” begins and ends with the phone call that tells her of the death of the “sleeping youth cloaked in light,” the man who shared her transit from obscurity to stardom, without sacrificing their vision along the way. Her own work, however, continues. Jesus may have died for somebody’s sins, but Patti Smith lives and writes and sings for all of us.

Read the full review here.

(Buy Just Kids for $1 when you join Progressive Book Club.)

NPR

Nation

New York Times

Guardian

Related: A Peoples History of the United States: 1492 to the Present by Howard Zinn

Jonathan Tasini, author of the Audacity of Greed, talks to PBC about the perpetuation of free market culture in Washington.

“The health care plan has been demonized. So if you run away from it, you’re still going to get attacked for supporting a health care plan with none of the benefits … the truth and reality of health care is going to be a much more positive thing for the American people than the mythology the Republicans created.”

That’s David Plouffe speaking at a Progressive Book Club event last week even as the results from the disappointing Massachusetts special election began to trickle in.

Watch the entire discussion, hosted by Sam Stein of the Huffington Post:

Get David Plouffe’s new book, The Audacity to Win, free when you join the Progressive Book Club.  To hear about PBC events in advance, sign up for our newsletter.

Writer and agriculturalist Wendell Berry started following sustainable farming practices long before many new what “organic” meant. Bringing It to the Table: On Farming and Food is a collection of his most influential essays in which he describes pure and sustainable farming with personal anecdotes and profiles of farmers operating truly organic farms (not just “organic” by label).

I recently stopped by a farm in upstate New York (Four Winds Farm, in Gardiner) to see how Berry’s advice can be put into practice in today’s farming world.

From the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law:

Bigger Than Bush v. Gore?

The Supreme Court’s decision on the issues of “corporate personhood” and campaign dollars presented in Citizens United v. FEC hands unprecedented power to big business, and may provoke the most drastic shift in American politics in more than a decade.

Brennan’s director Michael Waldman is discussing the Supreme Court decision at the New York Times‘ Room for Debate roundtable blog, under the heading,”How Corporate Money Will Reshape Politics.” This from his opener:

This decision by the Supreme Court may well dwarf in impact the results of Tuesday’s election in Massachusetts. It is breathtaking in its scope: it overturns doctrine dating back a century and laws upheld in 1990, that banned corporate managers from directly spending shareholder money in elections. …

Possibly, a Constitutional amendment may be needed to restore the law to where it was at 9:50 this morning (and where it had been for the previous century). …

Waldman also has an op-ed in today’s Washington Post:

This far-reaching ruling augurs a significant power struggle. For the first time since 1937, an increasingly conservative federal judiciary faces a progressive and activist Congress and president. Until now, it was unclear how the justices would accommodate the new political alignment. The Citizens United decision suggests an assertive court, eager to overturn precedent, looming as a challenge to President Obama’s agenda.

Waldman, a former chief speechwriter for President Bill Clinton, is the author most recently of A Return to Common Sense: Seven Steps to Save Our Democracy. The historian Doris Kearns Goodwin called the book “a call to arms, which everyone who cares about our democratic system should read, absorb, debate and then use as a signpost for change.” (Learn more.)

For in-depth coverage and essential background on Citizens United v. FEC, head over to the Brennan Center’s website.

…talking about his new book, Rediscovering Values.

Last night, on the eve of the one year anniversary of the Obama Administration, the Progressive Book Club and the George Washington University hosted a conversation with David Plouffe and Sam Stein of Huffington Post.

Some of Plouffe’s comments during the discussion are making news today - particularly his comments about health care reform and the special election in Massachusetts yesterday. Both Politico and ABC News have picked up the story.

Here’s a clip from the discussion last night in which David Plouffe talks about Massachusetts, health care, and the need for Democrats to stand strong behind passing a bill:

We’ll have a full video of last night’s events tomorrow. Get David Plouffe’s book, The Audacity to Win, free when you join PBC.

Last week the Brookings Institution staged an event featuring author Jim Wallis, who discussed his new book Rediscovering Values (the PBC Pick for January).  Senior Brookings fellow E.J. Dionne moderated, and the two explored how various religious traditions offer valuable correctives the the warped “values” that landed the country in its current economic mess.

Here’s a snippet from E.J. Dionne’s introduction.

I think that one of the things that has been disappointing to me at least in the last year is that while we’ve talked a lot about what might have gone wrong in the economy that led to the crash, to the Great Recession as we’re now calling it, I’ve been surprised that we have not had a more robust conversation of what might be wrong with the way we live our lives and what might be wrong with some of our values that we brought to the economy. I think that some of that lack of discussion came from the fact that people were shell shocked and they hoped that we could pull ourselves away from the brink which we seem to be have done before we engage in that discussion. So it goes to yet another way in which Jim’s timing is perfect. I think we are now ready to have that conversation and to prime and inspire that conversation. We have a text to turn to and the preacher will preach on the text.

And here’s an excerpt from the discussion:

Jim Wallis: […] I think a lot of people feel in their heads and hearts that underneath the economic crisis is a values crisis and that we won’t get to an economic recovery without also embracing a moral recovery.

I got the first sense of this last year at Davos at the World Economic Forum. Davos has I would call it a side bar on social conscience every year, extracurricular activity. If you want to hear Jim Wallis and Mohammad Yunus, go to the fourth floor at 7:00 and meet the 40 other people from nonprofit organizations. This year they had a panel in the plenary and it was called “Values in the Market.” Tony Blair was on the panel with me and next day he said, Jim, they must be in crisis to have a panel on the values in the market and to invite you to speak. So I said every morning we get in our hotel rooms and turn on CNN, and one of you every morning, the same reporter, you’re all bundled up, the snowy magic mountain of Davos is in the background, and the reporter asks the same question every morning which was, When will this crisis end? And they had a white board and they all made their predictions. I just said with all due respect to all of you at CNN, that’s the wrong question. Here’s the right question. Not when will it end, but how will this crisis change us? That’s the question this book is really about.

More, including a full transcript, at the Brookings Institution website.