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The "History of God."

British religious scholar Karen Armstrong. Her new book, a bestseller in England, is "A History of God" (Knopf). "All religions have been designed to help us touch the God in each other" Armstrong says of her research, which traces 4000 years of Monotheism in the form of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. The author, a Catholic nun for seven years in the 1960's, left the order to take a degree at Oxford, and now teaches at the Leo Baeck College for the study of Judaism.

23:08
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Other segments from the episode on December 23, 1993

Fresh Air with Terry Gross, December 23, 1993: Interview with Karen Armstrong; Interview with Marvin Traub; Review of the album "On the Town" and the television show "Great Performances."
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14:18

The Bloomingdale's Mystique.

How did a second tier New York department store called Bloomingdale's --where the city's domestic help bought their uniforms in 1950-- evolve into "the most celebrated store in the world": the pinnacle of designer fashion and self promotion? The answer can be found in Marvin Traub, the former chairman of Bloomingdale's for forty years. His new memoir is called "Like No Other Store..." (Times Books).

Interview
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05:57

New Life for "On the Town."

Classical Music critic Lloyd Schwartz reviews a new recording of Leonard Bernstein's "On the Town" and the television concert of the same show. (Deutsche Grammophon).

Review

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43:50

Religion Scholar Karen Armstrong

Religion scholar Karen Armstrong on Islamic fundamentalism. Shes the author of the bestselling books The Battle for God, Jerusalem, and The History of God. Shes also the author of Islam: A Short History (Modern Library Chronicles).

Interview
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44:29

Religion Scholar Karen Armstrong

When Armstrong decided to leave the Roman Catholic convent where she was a nun in 1969, she entered a world vastly different than the one she had been isolated from for seven years. She had no idea what was going on in Vietnam and had little idea what was happening in popular culture. She's written a new memoir, The Spiral Staircase: My Climb Out of Darkness, about her life in the convent and the spiritual quest that followed. Her other books include The Battle for God and A History of God.

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