Fiction that Matters

lareviewofbooks:

Marjorie Heins raises important but troubling questions about academic freedom in her new book Priests of our Democracy. From Stephen Rohde’s review:

Heins juxtaposes her compelling and distressing account of the anticommunist purges [during the 1940s and 50s] that reached into the ivory towers of our colleges and universities with a chilling cautionary tale that asks whether history is repeating itself through the repressive reactions to 9/11. Have the earlier witch hunts that targeted alleged communists (with a disturbing and disproportionate focus on Jews) been replaced with an obsessive targeting of alleged terrorists (with a disturbing and disproportionate focus on Muslims)? Have we learned anything from the excesses of McCarthyism, or are we condemned to repeat them?

Read more over here.

penamerican:

PEN American Center appears on Bill Moyers on America’s Torture Program

“On this weekend’s Moyers & Company, Siems, director of the Freedom to Write and International Programs at PEN American Center, and Liman, whose credits include The Bourne Identity, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and Fair Game, join Bill Moyers to talk about what we should be learning from and doing about U.S. torture tactics.”