The Roundtable

The Clintons continue to be major players in American politics despite both being out of elected office. In today’s Congressional Corner, Union College political science professor Brad Hays tells WAMC’s Alan Chartock that Bill Clinton remains a Democratic kingpin.

John Kelly’s new book about the Irish Potato Famine is deeply researched, compelling in its details, and startling in its conclusions about the appalling decisions behind a tragedy of epic proportions.

It started in 1845 and before it was over more than one million men, women, and children would die and another two million would flee the country. Measured in terms of mortality, the Great Irish Potato Famine was the worst disasters in the nineteenth century—it claimed twice as many lives as the American Civil War.

While President James Madison was a brilliant scholar, author of much of the country’s early documents, organizer of the executive branch of government, and astute politician, he was no commander-in-chief.

He relied totally upon appointed commodores and generals to conduct a war for the conquest of Canada on one hand and survival on the other. Often confused by advisors of little military talent, in the end he put his trust and that of the people in the grasp of hacks, sycophants, adventurers, and a few good men.

This is part one of our grant project “Will We Ever Learn?: The Struggle for Equality One Group at a Time.”

Partial support for this project comes from Mass Humanities, State-Based Affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. The Mass Humanities grant is part of their initiative - Crisis, Community, and Civic Culture.

American Guitar Hero, stunning jazz/rock virtuoso, musician's musician, and a note-mongering master - those are some of the praises sung by fans and reviewers of guitarist Jimmy Herring.

The 125-year legacy of Columbia Records is told in the just-released book 360 Sound: The Columbia Records Story. The five-pound tome, written by historian and Princeton professor Sean Wilentz, is a curated collection of anecdotes and images chronicling the storied legacy of the country’s first record label.

President Obama’s reelection could have major repercussions for the future of the Supreme Court. In today’s Congressional Corner, Union College political science professor Brad Hays tells WAMC’s Alan Chartock that the president is likely to make another nomination or two during his second term.

Once America's capitalist dream town, Detroit is one of our country's greatest urban failures, having fallen the longest and the farthest. But the city's worst crisis yet has managed to do the unthinkable: turn the end of days into something of a laboratory for the future. Urban planners, land speculators, and utopian environmentalists have been drawn to Detroit's decaying, nothing-left-to-lose frontier.

WAMC's Ian Pickus speaks with Guitar World editor-in-chief Brad Tolinski, whose new book is Light and Shade: Conversations with Jimmy Page.

Dating from their earliest reviews, which were often harsh and misinformed, the members of the legendary rock group Led Zeppelin have always had a complicated relationship with the press.

In October of 2003, a green phenom named Elphaba took the stage at the Gershwin Theatre in New York City and she’s been defying gravity there ever since.

The multi-award winning musical - based on the Gregory Maguire’s novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West- has music and lyrics by the great Stephen Schwartz and a book by Winnie Holzman. The National Tour of Wicked is a Proctors in Schenectady, NY through November 25th and we are joined now by two actors from the company.