Season 5, Episode 12 | James Traub

In this episode journalist and historian James Traub delves into the paradoxical nature of liberalism in the postwar years. The continuation of New Deal social and economic reforms characterized a society of consensus in fulfillment of democratic ideals in the Cold War years. However, The illusory impression was built on the continuation of Jim Crow systems in the South and deepening racial inequity in the rest of the country. Resistance stirred underneath consensus and the illusion of an expanding liberalism and democratic enhancement.

James Traub is an American journalist and scholar specializing in international affairs. He is a columnist and contributor to the website foreignpolicy.com. He worked as a staff writer for The New Yorker from 1993 to 1998 and as a contributing writer to The New York Times Magazine from 1998 to 2011. He has also written extensively about national politics, urban affairs, and education. His new book, What Was Liberalism? The Past, Present and Promise of Noble Idea, will be published in September. His works include What Was Liberalism? The Past, Present and Promise of Noble Idea; John Quincy Adams: Militant Spirit; and The Freedom Agenda, on the American policy of democracy promotion. He teaches classes on American foreign policy and on the history of liberalism at NYU Abu Dhabi and at NYU.

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