Government & Politics

Film critic Stephen Schiff reviews Sylvester Stallone's new movie "Oscar," a 1930s gangster comedy that feels like a 1960s French stage play. Schiff says it lacks the over-the-top approach needed to make farce succeed.

Marin is writing a long essay on the moral basis for pacifism, nationalism, and war. His reflections were precipitated by the war in the Gulf.

Garbus recently defended Peter Matthiessen's controversial book, "In the Spirit of Crazy Horse," against two separate libel suits. Among many other projects, Garbus is currently helping to write a new constitution for Czechoslovakia.

Emerson has covered wars in Nigeria, Northern Ireland and Zimbabwe. She has a new book about the intifada in the Gaza strip, called Gaza.

Anthropologist Richard Parker went to Brazil a decade ago to do field work. He's written a book about the fluid ideas of gender and sexuality in that country, called "Bodies, Pleasures, & Passions."

Kinzer has been covering events in Nicaragua since 1977, from revolution to economic collapse, and has lived in the country since 1980. His book about Nicaragua is, "Brothers & Blood."

Journalist Robin Wright of the L.A. Times talks with guest host Frank Browning about the reconstruction of post-Gulf War Iraq and autonomy for the Kurds. Wright has written several books about the Middle-East.

Book critic John Leonard reviews Alberto Manguel's novel, "News From a Foreign Country Came," about families and terrorism in cities around the world.

Soviet editor Vitali Korotych of the Soviet Magazine "Ogonyuk," the first magazine that reflected the Soviet Union's new openness. Despite recent governmental reforms, it still has a contentious relationship with the State.

Documentary filmmaker Ross McElwee and editor Marilyn Levine. He made the film, "Sherman's March," in which he set out to trace William Tecumseh Sherman's march to the sea -- but it really traces his entanglements with Southern women along the way. During the editing of that film, he and Levine fell in love. McElwee's new film, "Something to Do With The Wall," began as a story about the eternal presence of the Berlin Wall, but ended up a story of the wall's breaking down.

We examine how the Gulf War has changed the arms race with journalist James Adams. He's the Defense Correspondent and Associate Editor of The Sunday Times of London, and the author of "Engines of War: Merchants of Death and the New Arms Race."

World music critic Milo Miles profiles Ray Lema. He's a singer, songwriter, and bandleader from Zaire.

Faith Sale of PEN, the international writers group, and Christine Serfaty, whose husband is the Moroccan writer, Abraham Serfaty. He's been in jail for 17 years because of his writing. PEN just gave Serfaty its "Freedom to Write" award to call attention to his plight.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan review Kitty Kelley's salacious Nancy Reagan: The Unauthorized Biography. Corrigan, who is no fan of the former first lady, says it's perversely entertaining.

We discuss free speech on college campuses with ACLU counsel Ed Chen, Nat Hentoff, University of Wisconsin legal counsel Pat Hodulik, and Brown University President Vartan Gregorian.

Barney Rosset published such controversial works as "Tropic of Cancer" and "Last Exit to Brooklyn," as well as Victorian literature considered by some to be pornographic Several years ago he was forced out of Grove and started his own publishing house, Blue Moon.

The Polish documentarian chronicled the fall of Communism and rise of democracy in Poland, an activity that caused him repeated trouble with the Polish authorities.

We speak with two reporters about the aftermath of the Gulf War:

Galeano wrote the trilogy, "Memory of Fire," a surrealistic history of the Americas. Galeano comes from Urugua; he fled to Argentina when the dictatorship took over, and later fled Spain. His new book is "The Book of Embraces," and draw from his own life.

Journalist Alex Kotlowitz won the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for a series of articles he wrote for the Wall Street Journal chronicling the lives of two children in a housing project in Chicago. He's expanded those articles into the new book, "There Are No Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up In the Other America."