Government & Politics

In 1934, twenty-one-year old Philby became a spy for the Soviet Union. British journalist Phillip Knightley conducted several interview with him, which became the basis for his biography, called The Master Spy.

Stahl hosts the CBS show Face the Nation. She joins Fresh Air to discuss President Reagan's tightly-controlled engagement with the media, the sometimes vindictive nature of past administrations, and how she conducts effective interviews.

Film mogul Samuel Goldwyn's son gave permission to A. Scott Berg to write the movie producer's biography. Berg says the elder Goldwyn entered the United States illegally, and later built himself by working at a glove factory before helping develop the studio system.

Linguist Geoff Nunberg takes issue with the use and misuse of loaded terms like holocaust, genocide, and terrorism in political discourse. He says that a person's reluctance to use such inflated terms doesn't mean they take an issue any less seriously.

Journalist William Shawcross says that countries in the West are often fatigued by the perpetual struggles of refugees around the world. He recently wrote the introduction for the book Forced Out; an earlier book of his own, called The Quality of Mercy, covered Cambodians fleeing the American bombing and the Pol Pot regime.

Stanley Karnow's new book examines the United States' colonial interests in the Philippines. Karnow discusses the tension between Filipino and the imposed American culture, the enduring role of the United States after Filipino independence, and the rise of Ferdinand Marcos.

Journalist Dennis King has a new book about the infamous politician, whom King describes as an extreme, right-wing fascist. LaRouche, once a self-identified socialist, employed cult-like tactics to move his left-wing followers toward anti-Semetic ideologies, and was able to exert significant influence on both major political parties.

Fallows writes for the Atlantic Monthly, and reports on Asia. His new book, More Like Us, examines the cultural differences between the United States and Asian countries, and argues that America needs to embrace its unique diversity -- and work to resolve class differences -- in order to reach its full potential.

Carl Bernstein, who broke the Watergate story with his colleague Bob Woodward, has a new memoir about his parents, called Loyalties. Bernstein's mother and father were communist activists during the McCarthy era, and were monitored by the FBI.

Peter Conrad studied in Englad on a Rhodes scholarship, but grew up in Tasmania -- an island once used as an Australian penal colony. His new memoir, about his return to his home country, is called Behind the Mountain.

William and Jane Tubman are American scholars of the Soviet Union's politics and literature, respectively. Their new book, Moscow Spring, documents their six months in the country during the reforms of Perestroika and Glasnost under the Gorbachev administration.

Writer, photographer and teacher MARGARET RANDALL. For 23 years, she lived throughout Latin and Central America, writing about the people, and in particular the lives of the women. She has published almost 50 books of poetry, prose and oral history. Since her return to the United States from an extended stay in Latin America, the Immigration and Naturalization Service has been trying to deport her. Randall and her supporters claim that is because Randall's writing is sharply critical of government policy in Central America.

The author's books follow the lives of fictional characters in real historical situations. Several of them have been made into films. Doctorow's newest novel, Billy Bathgate, takes place in the criminal underworld of early-twentieth-century New York City.

Former diplomat Anthony Lake's new book is about the tense relationship between the United States and Nicaragua during the final years of Anastasio Somoza's reign. Book critic John Leonard is impressed by Lake's thoroughness, as well as his recommendations for improved diplomatic relations -- though the author is not without his own political blind spots.

Critic Ken Tucker reviews four home video releases of movies inspired by the antiwar movement. Three of them, about burgeoning romances amid student demonstrations, don't hold up. But Joe, a film that rejects hippy values, is worth watching, if only for star Peter Boyle's excellent performance.

Nair has made a career making documentaries about social conditions in her home country of India. Her new movie, Salaam Bombay!, is her first feature. The film, about street children, won the Palme D'or at the Cannes Film Festival

Naipaul was born to Indian Hindu parents in Trinidad. His international perspective has informed both his fiction and nonfiction, which are often set in post-colonial countries. His newest book, A Turn in the South, explores the culture of the United States' Southern states.

Writer and novelist David Grossman spent time in the occupied West Bank and was shocked by the effect Israel's policies have had on the lives of the Palestinians -- particularly in light of what Jews endured during the Holocaust. His book about this situation is called "The Yellow Wind." He also wrote a novel called "See Under - Love."

Language commentator Geoff Nunberg reviews a new book by James Crawford which examines the history of bilingual education. Despite the contemporary controversy surrounding the issue, Nunberg and Crawford point out that such curricula was once considered a valuable way of helping immigrant children learn English and assimilate into American culture -- a view once shared by conservatives in the 1970s.

Feminist writer Susan Brownmiller wrote a fictionalized account of the Sternberg-Nussbaum child abuse and murder case, case called Waverly Place. She joins Fresh Air to discuss why she avoided writing a true crime book, as well as the sociology of domestic abuse.