History

Film Critic Stephen Schiff will review "Hamburger Hill," the latest Vietnam War film.

Donald Woods, who worked as a reporter in South Africa. While covering the racial unrest there, he befriended Black activist Steve Biko. He was later placed under house arrest when he pressed authorities to investigate Biko's death in prison. A movie based on his work and his friendship with Steve Biko will be released in November.

Writer Jay Stevens has a new book about the creation of LSD in the 1940s, research into its therapeutic and weaponized potential in the 1950s, and its role in the 1960s counterculture--fueled in part by the influence of people like Timothy Leary, Ken Kesey and Aldous Huxley.

Alexander Slepak was able to leave the Soviet Union and emigrate to the United States. His parents, both prominent Jewish activists, continue to be denied the right to leave the country.

Rock historian Ed Ward remembers the black Detroit musicians who made their mark with the city's smaller record labels.

Guest critic David Marc looks at the growing popularity of 1950s TV sitcoms. He thinks the trend reveals a troubling desire for an idealized suburban culture where whiteness and paternal authority ruled.

Rock historian Ed Ward looks at how record labels tried--and failed--to market second-rate bands from San Francisco's psychedelic rock scene.

Critic Pat Aufderheide reviews two new PBS documentaries about the ways Japan struggles to remember the bombing of its two cities.

Husband-and-wife musical duo Jane Voss and Hoyle Osborne perform two songs from the 1920s that they believe resonate with listeners today.

Critic Ken Tucker believes the new film, now on home video, highlights the importance of an often overlooked medium. His only quibble is with sci-fi author Harlan Ellison's narration, which Tucker says is unnecessary.

Mary King served as the communications coordinator for SNCC during the Civil Rights Movement. Her new book, Freedom Song, talks about her experiences in that organization, including how its race and gender dynamics played out compared to other activist organizations.

Rock historian Ed Ward profiles the 1960s California band, fronted by African American singer and songwriter Arthur Lee.

Luis Valdez grew up in a migrant worker family; he later wrote plays about Mexican Americans and worked as a labor activist in the 1960s. His new movie, La Bamba, opens soon.

Former diplomat and journalist William Attwood has a new book about the Cold War, called The Twilight Struggle. Reflecting on the history of McCarthyism, relations with communist countries, and undercover operations, he believes the Cold War's end is in sight.

Writer James Miller talks about the history of the New Left and the work of the Students for a Democratic Society, who believed that college students and intellectuals were best equipped to lead democratic movements. In his new book, Democracy in the Streets, Miller outlines how their ideologies led to street protests.

TV critic David Bianculli has been following the networks' coverage of Oliver North's congressional testimony on the Iran-Contra affair. While each station uses the same camera feeds, they deploy commentary and supplementary information in different ways, in alternately successful and distracting ways.

David Horowitz and Peter Collier were New Left activists who gradually embraced neoconservative ideologies. They believe their former compatriots were misguided and misinformed; Horowitz and Collier say the United States has consistently served as a stabilizing force in domestic and international arenas.

Film critic Stephen Schiff says that Full Metal Jacket, about Marines training for and serving in the Vietnam War, is bleak and stylized, but suffers from a lack of developed characters -- a Kubrick trademark better deployed in 2001 and Dr. Strangelove.

Nien Cheng and her husband were educated abroad and lived a comfortable, bourgeois life before China's Cultural Revolution. Though Cheng faced persecution, interrogation, and imprisonment, she was mostly able to maintain her lifestyle--and her loyalty to her country. She now lives in Washington, D.C.

Bly's work has dealt with nature, the Vietnam War, and gender differences. He considers the impact living simply in Minnesota has had on his writing.