Government & Politics

Edmund (Pat) Brown, the former governor of California. From 1959 to 1967, Brown commuted the death sentences of 23 convicts, but allowed 36 others to go to the gas chambers. He has written a book, Public Justice, Private Mercy: A Governor's Education on Death Row, about the extraordinary personal and political pressures that came to bear on each decision, and of the evolution of his thinking on the death penalty from his inauguration to his last day in office.

Actress and director Lee Grant. As an actress, Grant won an Oscar as Best Supporting Actress for her role in "Shampoo," Emmys for her work on "Peyton Place" and "Electra," and an Obie for "The Maids." As a director, she won an Academy Award for her documentary "Down and Out in America." This month, HBO is showing Grant's latest production, "Battered." It's a documentary about the victims, and perpetrators, of domestic violence. "Battered" airs as part of HBO's "America Undercover" series.

Novelist Taghi Modarressi. His new novel, The Pilgrim's Rules of Etiquette, is set in Iran after the Islamic revolution. It revolves around an aging academic, well acquainted with the ways and mores of the West, and his family and friends as they deal with the fear and poverty during the Iran-Iraq War. But when his prize student is killed at the front, the academic, who until now has closeted himself away with his philosophical pursuits, must acknowledge the meaninglessness of his efforts when compared to the chaos of contemporary Iran.

Reporter Robert Sam Anson. While a young reporter for Time Magazine in Cambodia during the Vietnam War, Anson was captured by the North Vietnamese and their allies in the Khmer Rouge. He's written a book about that experience, but also about Time's reporting of the war. For much of the war, according to Anson, Time's hawkish stance compromised the work of its reporters, himself included. Anson's earlier books include "They've Killed the President!": The Search for the Murderers of John F.

Ronald Takaki. He's the grandson of Japanese immigrants and a professor of Ethnic Studies at Berkeley. His book, Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans, tells the diverse stories of Asian immigrants who have come to the United States during the past century and a half. Takaki relates the personal testimonies of new immigrants and their American-born children.

Shelley Winters. With two Oscars and well over 100 films to her credit, Winters is a star in the classic Hollywood mode. But she is almost as well known for her off-screen adventures and irrepressible life style that made her a staple in the gossip columns.

Television producer and screenwriter Allan Burns. He co-created "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," "Rhoda," "He and She," "Lou Grant" and "The Munsters," a body of work that has earned him 8 Emmys. Burns has a new series this fall on NBC titled "FM." It's about the on-the-job and at home travails of a public radio program director. (Interview by Sedge Thomson)

Political writers Jack Germond and Jules Witcover. Their new book, Whose Broad Stripes and Bright Stars? is an examination of last year's Presidential election. In particular, the book focuses on the degree to which behind-the-scenes `handlers' determined the election's tone and outcome. The book also explores how the process of picking a president has changed in the 30 years that they have covered national politics. Germond and Witcover write the only nationally syndicated daily column devoted to politics.

Novelist Frederick Forsyth. With the publication of The Day of the Jackal, The Odessa File and The Dogs of War, all in the space of three years, critics dubbed Frederick Forsyth a master of the international suspense thriller. The plots of all his stories have been praised for their split-second calculations and for their attention to the mechanical details of, say, mixing the right sunburn salve or creating an atomic bomb. Forsyth turned to novels after a long career as a newspaper and radio reporter throughout Europe and Africa.

Washington Post chief defense correspondent George Wilson. His new book, Mud Soldiers: Life Inside the New American Army, is an analysis of the efficiency and morale of the all-volunteer Army Infantry, the combat branch that would bear the brunt of any war, and which almost certainly sustain the highest loses. Wilson spent a year with 200 recruits, following them from basic training to maneuvers in the Mohave Desert, to their first assignments. Wilson's other books include Army in Anguish and Supercarrier.

Medical examiner Michael M. Baden. In his new book, Unnatural Death: Confessions of a Medical Examiner, Baden, the former chief medical examiner for New York City, reviews the record of famous autopsies of the last 30 years as evidence of a pattern of bungled investigations of unnatural deaths. Baden, who has been a medical examiner for 30 years, views his profession as a historian or anthropologist who revisits ruined or questionable autopsies in the hopes of correcting history. Baden is now director of the forensic sciences unit for the New York State Police.

On the eve of the 20th anniversary of man's first walk on the moon, commentator Stewart Brand shares his thoughts on space exploration and how it has changed us. Brand is founder of The Whole Earth Catalog.

Journalist Amy Wilentz. Her first book, The Rainy Season, Haiti since Duvalier, is an account of Haiti since the overthrow of President-for-Life Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier, and of how the country's hope for reform gave way to despair when it was clear Haiti's new leadership couldn't, or wouldn't, reverse 40 years of chaos and stagnation. The book is also an account of how Wilentz was transformed by the story, of how the epochal change Haiti was going through, and its stunning contrast of poverty and corrupted wealth, overwhelmed her first assumptions.

Writer Jack Olsen. He's been called a master of the `true crime' genre, and in his new book, Doc, he tells the story of how Dr. John Story, one of the most respected citizens of Lovell, Wyoming, systematically raped his patients, and how, in this ultra-conservative, God-fearing environment, the women either couldn't speak up, or, when they did, were dismissed. Lovell is set in Mormon country, and many of the women the doctor victimized feared excommunication for "fornication" if they when to the authorities, who, invariably, were also elders in the Mormon church.

Journalist MICHAEL KAUFMAN. His new book, Mad Dreams, Saving Graces - Poland: A Nation in Conspiracy, charts the rise, fall and resurrection of the democratic movement in Poland. Leading this drive has been Solidarity, the shipworkers' union headed by Lech Walesa. But Kaufman also traces the hidden spiritual undercurrents in Polish history and culture and that make this quest toward self-definition considerably more complex. Kauffman served as Warsaw bureau chief for The New York Times from 1984 to 1987. He has also been bureau chief for the Times in Nairobi, New Delhi and Ottawa.

Historian and writer Simon Schama. His revisionist history of the French Revolution - Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution - has been one of the most talked-about and debated volumes of history in the last several years. Critics have lauded Schama for bringing vividly to life the characters that inspired the five-year popular uprising that changed the modern political order.

Book Critic John Leonard reviews From Beirut to Jerusalem, Thomas Friedman's account of his ten years covering the Middle East for The New York Times.

Television critic David Bianculli reviews "False Witness," a syndicated TV special that re-examines the facts surrounding the Jeffrey MacDonald murder case, the same case chronicled in the book "Fatal Vision," and the subject TV miniseries of the same name.

The New York Times correspondent's new book is called From Beirut to Jerusalem, about Arab-Israeli conflicts in the Middle East. He joins Fresh Air to discuss how cultivating a network of contacts, coming to terms with the frequent violence he witnessed in Lebanon, and how those experience affected his reporting in Israel.

Critic Ken Tucker recommends the home video release of the recent thriller. He says the premise -- a demon-possessed doll terrorizes a family -- is absurd, but the movie features characters with surprising depth. And while Child's Play is violent, it doesn't rely solely on gore to terrify its audience.