From this episode
Recommended books
American War: A Novel
Author:
Omar El Akkad
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A second American Civil War, a devastating plague, and one family caught deep in the middle—this gripping debut novel asks what might happen if America were to turn its most devastating policies and deadly weapons upon itself. From the author of What Strange Paradise "Powerful ...
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A second American Civil War, a devastating plague, and one family caught deep in the middle—this gripping debut novel asks what might happen if America were to turn its most devastating policies and deadly weapons upon itself. From the author of What Strange Paradise "Powerful ... as haunting a postapocalyptic universe as Cormac McCarthy [created] in The Road . " —The New York Times Sarat Chestnut, born in Louisiana, is only six when the Second American Civil War breaks out in 2074. But even she knows that oil is outlawed, that Louisiana is half underwater, and that unmanned drones fill the sky. When her father is killed and her family is forced into Camp Patience for displaced persons, she begins to grow up shaped by her particular time and place. But not everyone at Camp Patience is who they claim to be. Eventually Sarat is befriended by a mysterious functionary, under whose influence she is turned into a deadly instrument of war. The decisions that she makes will have tremendous consequences not just for Sarat but for her family and her country, rippling through generations of strangers and kin alike.
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Jakarta Method
Author:
Vincent Bevins
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR, THE FINANCIAL TIMES , AND GQ The “trenchant” and ”powerful” ( Boston Review ) hidden history of the secret program of mass-killings of left-wing activists, in Indonesia, Latin America and around the world, supported and encouraged by the US. In 1965, the U.S.
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR, THE FINANCIAL TIMES , AND GQ The “trenchant” and ”powerful” ( Boston Review ) hidden history of the secret program of mass-killings of left-wing activists, in Indonesia, Latin America and around the world, supported and encouraged by the US. In 1965, the U.S. government helped the Indonesian military kill approximately one million innocent civilians. This was one of the most important turning points of the twentieth century, eliminating the largest communist party outside China and the Soviet Union and inspiring copycat terror programs in faraway countries like Brazil and Chile. But these events remain widely overlooked, precisely because the CIA's secret interventions were so successful. In this bold and comprehensive new history, Vincent Bevins builds on his incisive reporting for the Washington Post , using recently declassified documents, archival research and eye-witness testimony collected across twelve countries to reveal a shocking legacy that spans the globe. For decades, it's been believed that parts of the developing world passed peacefully into the U.S.-led capitalist system. The Jakarta Method demonstrates that the brutal extermination of unarmed leftists was a fundamental part of Washington's final triumph in the Cold War.
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Overheated: How Capitalism Broke the Planet--And How We Fight Back
Author:
Kate Aronoff
This damning account of the forces that have hijacked progress on climate change shares a bold vision of what it will take, politically and economically, to face the existential threat of global warming head-on. It has become impossible to deny that the planet is warming, and that governments must act.
This damning account of the forces that have hijacked progress on climate change shares a bold vision of what it will take, politically and economically, to face the existential threat of global warming head-on. It has become impossible to deny that the planet is warming, and that governments must act. But a new denialism is taking root in the halls of power, shaped by decades of neoliberal policies and centuries of anti-democratic thinking. Since the 1980s, Democrats and Republicans have each granted enormous concessions to industries hell bent on maintaining business as usual. What’s worse, policymakers have given oil and gas executives a seat at the table designing policies that should euthanize their business model. This approach, journalist Kate Aronoff makes clear, will only drive the planet further into emergency. Drawing on years of reporting, Aronoff lays out an alternative vision, detailing how democratic majorities can curb polluters’ power; create millions of well-paid, union jobs; enact climate reparations; and transform the economy into a more leisurely and sustainable one. Our future will require a radical reimagining of politics—with the world at stake.
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New Gods
Authors:
Jack Kirby,
Mike Royer,
Vince Colletta,
D. Bruce Berry,
Don Heck
Jack Kirby reinvented the superhero genre with his sprawling saga of the Fourth World--a bold storytelling vision that was decades ahead of its time. In honor of this extraordinary talent's centennial, DC Comics is proud to re-present the groundbreaking work of the King of Comics in a brand-new series of trade paperback editions collecting his classic DC titles in all their four-color glory!
Jack Kirby reinvented the superhero genre with his sprawling saga of the Fourth World--a bold storytelling vision that was decades ahead of its time. In honor of this extraordinary talent's centennial, DC Comics is proud to re-present the groundbreaking work of the King of Comics in a brand-new series of trade paperback editions collecting his classic DC titles in all their four-color glory! At the heart of the Fourth World is The New Gods , a series whose scale and grandeur have astonished readers for generations. And at the center of Kirby's startlingly original pantheon of larger-than-life characters are two of comics' greatest adversaries: Orion of New Genesis and Darkseid of Apokolips! Ranging across space and time, these implacable foes are locked in a ceaseless struggle to control the fundamental forces of the universe. But this pair are more than mortal enemies--they are also father and son! Raised in exile as a living instrument of peace between Apokolips and New Genesis, Orion swore to uphold the life-affirming values of his adopted world. But the bottomless rage and thirst for combat that course through his veins cannot be extinguished. In the end, will he defeat Darkseid and thwart his quest for the Anti-Life Equation--or will he forsake his vow and seize the ultimate power for himself? See cosmic fury unleashed--and thrill to the imaginative power of one of the medium's greatest masters--in New Gods by Jack Kirby , collecting issues #1-11 of the legendary series together with the King's two concluding tales, "Even Gods Must Die!" and "The Hunger Dogs!"
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Lazarus: The Third Collection
Authors:
Greg Rucka,
Michael Lark
There are sixteen families fighting to control the world. That's fifteen too many.
There are sixteen families fighting to control the world. That's fifteen too many. The time has come for the Cull. So begins the next phase of the Conclave War that has plunged the entire world into chaos and instability, in the critically acclaimed New York Times bestselling series by Eisner winners MICHAEL LARK and GREG RUCKA . But Forever Carlyle, the Lazarus of the Carlyle Family, has been sidelined, and her loyalties are thrown into question as she struggles to come to terms with who and what she is. To win her trust, her sister Johanna must reveal the Family's most closely guarded secret-the truth of Forever Carlyle. Meanwhile, the effects of the war are felt around the globe in six individual stories focusing on Lazari, Serf, and Waste, all struggling to find their way in a world that refuses compromise and demands complicity. Collects LAZARUS #22-26 and LAZARUS: X+66 #1-6
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Rise of the Black Panther
Authors:
Evan Narcisse,
Ta-Nehisi Coates,
Paul Renaud,
Javier Pina
Witness the early years of the man who will come to rule one of the most scientifically advanced countries in the world! Wakanda has always kept itself isolated from Western society, but that's all about to change.
Witness the early years of the man who will come to rule one of the most scientifically advanced countries in the world! Wakanda has always kept itself isolated from Western society, but that's all about to change. Young T'Challa knows he is destined to become king, but when his father is brutally murdered by outsiders, he'll find himself taking up a mantle he may not be ready for. Experience never-before-seen drama from the reign of T'Chaka, the king whose death changes a nation's history forever. Learn about the mother T'Challa never knew. See how the world learns about this wondrous nation for the first time. Will the power of the Black Panther be enough to keep his country safe? Journalist Evan Narcisse makes his comics debut alongside acclaimed writer Ta-Nehisi Coates as they chronicle T'Challa's rise to the throne - and to the Panther legacy that made him an Avenger. COLLECTING: RISE OF THE BLACK PANTHER 1-6
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Episode overview
The Sept, 11 attacks might have taken place almost 20 years ago, but we’re still living in the America that the war on terror built. Its legacy is not just mass surveillance and drone strikes but birtherism, nativism and Donald Trump. And much of it has been — and continues to be — a bipartisan effort.
That’s the argument of Spencer Ackerman’s new book, “Reign of Terror.” Ackerman is the author of the newsletter Forever Wars, a contributing editor at The Daily Beast, and a member of the Pulitzer Prize-winning team at The Guardian that reported on Edward Snowden’s surveillance revelations. In “Reign of Terror,” Ackerman takes all he’s reported on and wraps it into one sweeping argument: We are still in the 9/11 era, and that’s all the more true because we’ve come to take so much of it for granted.
We discuss the connection between Sept. 11 and birtherism, the scope of mass surveillance, the ethics of drone strikes, how Trump understood the war on terror’s moral core better than its architects did, the messy choices of national security, the ways America’s belief in its own innocence makes it less safe, Barack Obama’s complicated relationship with the fight against terrorism, the emergence of a genuinely left-wing foreign policy movement, the coalescing bipartisan consensus around a cold war with China, and much more.
Book recommendations:
American War by Omar El Akkad
The Jakarta Method by Vincent Bevins
Overheated by Kate Aronoff
The New Gods by Jack Kirby
Lazarus by Greg Rucka and Michael Lark
Rise of the Black Panther by Evan Narcisse and Ta-Nehisi Coates
You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of "The Ezra Klein Show" at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast, and you can find Ezra on Twitter @ezraklein.
Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at [email protected].
“The Ezra Klein Show” is produced by Annie Galvin, Jeff Geld and Rogé Karma; fact-checking by Michelle Harris; original music by Isaac Jones; mixing by Jeff Geld, audience strategy by Shannon Busta. Special thanks to Kristin Lin.