American Politics

Professor Michael Kazin's new book, "The Populist Persuasion: An American History," explores the rise and change of populism and its effect on the political structure. He examines populism's roots as a leftist, liberal movement, and how populist ideas came to be used as rhetoric of conservative Presidents Nixon and Reagan.

New York Times defense correspondent Michael Gordon and retired Marine Corps General Bernard Trainor. They have collaborated on a book about the Persian Gulf War, called "The General's War: The Inside Story of the Conflict in the Gulf." The book examines why the war was "an incomplete success."

House speaker Newt Gingrich has called for abolishing the National Endowment for the Arts. We discuss the pros and cons of federal funding of the arts with two guests. Art critic Hilton Kramer is the founder of the Arts Magazine, "The New Criterion," and is former chief art critic for The New York Times. He's against federal funding for the arts. John Brademas is Chair of the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities, and former Democratic Congressman from Indiana. He also helped write the legislation that created the NEA.

We explore the current controversies over the NEA with Lynn Munson, former Special Assistant to Chairman Lynn Cheney at the NEA and current Research Associate at the American Enterprise Institute, and Paul Goldberger, The New York Times' Chief Cultural Correspondent.

Carter has written eight books since his presidency, including several memoirs. His newest book is a collection of his poems, "Always a Reckoning: and other Poems." Terry will talk with him about his poetry, and about his diplomatic work, including the recent agreements he brokered in Bosnia and Haiti.

The health care analyst and substance abuse expert was LBJ's assistant for domestic affairs from 1959-65 and Secretary for Health, Education and Welfare under Jimmy Carter from 1977-79. He has written a book about health care reform called "Radical Surgery," and is president of the Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, a research and experimental care facility at Columbia University. Terry will be talking to him about health care reform, welfare reform and substance abuse.

Terry discusses the recent murder of abortion doctors with Dr. Susan Wicklund, who provides abortion services; National Director of the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue Reverend, Flip Benham; and Director of the Christian Defense Coalition, Pat Mahoney.

Journalist Verlyn Klinkenbor's article "Violent Certainties" appears in this month's edition of Harper's Magazine. He reports from a Milwaukee abortion clinic from the perspectives of both abortion providers and protestors.

We'll hear from Jason DeParle. He covers anti-poverty policy for the New York Times. With the new Congress in session, a major debate over America's social welfare policy is expected. DeParle talks about what proposals we're likely to see from the Republicans and from the Clinton Administration, and how these might affect women and African Americans in particular.

The former congresswoman became Louisiana's first woman member of Congress in 1972. She was elected after her husband, then House majority leader Hale Boggs, died in a plane crash. Boggs was an advocate for civil rights and women's issues before her retirement in 1990. She is the mother of NPR and ABC-TV's Cokie Roberts, Washington lobbyist Thomas Hale Boggs, and the late Barbara Sigmund, who was mayor of Princeton, New Jersey. Boggs has new autobiography is called "Washington Through a Purple Veil: Memoirs of a Southern Woman."