Government & Politics

Martin Bauml Duberman was personally selected by Robeson's son to write about the legendary African American actor and activist. Duberman says he brought to bear own experiences in the theater and as a gay man while working on the book. He joins Fresh Air to discuss his research, as well Robeson's political activity and the effect government surveillance had on his mental health.

William Whyte says that dense, urban areas foster social interaction and a sense of belonging. His bases his claim on research dating back to the 1960s. His new book, which outlines his findings, is called Cities.

Leslie Savan, who writes about advertising for the Village Voice, looks at Pepsi's newest ad campaign in the USSR, and reflects on the relationship between Russian culture and American corporatism.

E.L. Doctorow's newest novel, like his past work, incorporates real history into fictional narratives. This time, he focuses on the criminal underworld of New York in the early twentieth century. Book critic John Leonard says the book is superb.

Ruben's new movie is called True Believers, and stars James Woods and Robert Downey, Jr. He joins Fresh Air to talk about how he cast the film, and the logistics of using real prisoners as extras.

Hernando de Soto says that the inefficient and often corrupt bureaucratic system in Peru makes starting a legal business nearly impossible for most people. As a result, a robust, informal, and technically-illegal market has emerged. De Soto explores this phenomenon -- and similar cases throughout Latin America -- in his new book, The Other Path.

Peter Falk reprises his role of the disheveled detective Columbo, twelve years after the series ended. TV critic David Bianculli says the show meets the high standards of the original, and that Falk is as charming as ever.

Director Michael Crichton's latest, a cop thriller called Physical Evidence, stars Burt Reynolds and Theresa Russell, who fail to breathe life into the film's clumsy script. Critic Stephen Schiff wonders if Crichton was having an out-of-body experience when he directed the movie.

Writer Eva Hoffman moved with her family from Poland to the Canada when she was thirteen. Her new book about assimilating into the culture of her new country is called Lost in Translation. Hoffman is also an editor for the New York Times Book Review.

As a reporter, Ward Just covered the Vietnam War and, later, Washington politics. Now, he devotes himself to fiction writing. While his novels often draw on his knowledge of D.C. culture, Just is careful to invent his own characters, rather than use fictionalized versions of real politicians.

Book critic John Leonard reviews the new detective novel Ratking, by Michael Dibdin. Leonard says the narrative, set in Italy, keeps the mystery genre alive by confronting bourgeois life and corrupt politics.

Urban planner and designer Lawrence Halprin designs public spaces which take into consideration how people move through a city -- a process he likens to dance choreography.

Writer Joe McGinniss lived in the Toms River, New Jersey area to investigate how the community reacted to the murder of Maria Marshall at the hands of her husband. Two of Marshall's sons eventually came to believe in their father's guilt; the youngest still maintains his innocence. A book about that experience is called Blind Faith.

Susan Brownmiller's book is based on the murder case of Lisa Steinberger, a six-year-old victim of child abuse. The trial is still ongoing. Book critic John Leonard says Waverly Place weaves through New York's Greenwich Village in ways reminiscent of Balzac and Celine.

Film critic Stephen Schiff says January isn't the best month for movies; screenwriter John Patrick Shanley's latest cop drama is no exception -- the January Man is so quirky that it's hard to take seriously.

For six years, Joseph Pistone worked undercover for the FBI to investigate the Mafia. His testimony helped convict over one hundred people, including those involved with the Pizza Connection heroin operation. His new memoir is titled Donnie Brasco -- the name he used when working with crime families.

Feminist scholar Barbara Katz Rothman says that feminists must confront the cultural shift toward privileging the unborn fetus over the pregnant women. New technologies and the rise of paid surrogacy, Rothman argues, have contributed to this change.

Book critic John Leonard reviews Eva Hoffman's new memoir, Lost in Translation, about the writer's childhood in Eastern Europe and later move to North America. Leonard says the book deserves the same praise as other literary memoirs like Nabokov's Speak, Memory and Kingston's The Woman Warrior.

In an effort to identify a body, Philadelphia police once dressed and photographed the corpse, then distributed the photo to the public. This macabre act inspired Shubin's latest novel, Never Quite Dead.

Janet Levine is a white, liberal South African woman and anti-apartheid activist. She later resigned from public office and exiled herself in the United States; she believed that whites' unavoidable complicity with racist policies undermined the efforts of black activists. Her memoir new memoir is called Inside Apartheid.