« Europe |
Main
| Flu »
Carter "crisis of confidence" retrospective this evening
Thirty years ago this summer, Jimmy Carter delivered his famous "Crisis of Confidence"
adddress to the nation, generally mis-identified as the "malaise" speech -- a word he didn't use. I was gone from the Carter speechwriting empire by then. My successor and longtime friend Hendrik Hertzberg was in the hot seat that time. (Below, screenshot of Carter at the start of the speech.)
Recently Kevin Mattson, of Ohio University, published a book about that speech, its origins, and its aftermath, called
What the Heck Are You Up to, Mr. President? This evening, October 7, I'll be joining him in Washington for a discussion of the speech, the book, and the general phenomenon of political calls, like Carter's, for "higher purpose" and "rebirth of citizenship." A live stream of the program, from 6:30pm to 7:30pm Eastern time, will be
here.
Other details about the event, including the many political worthies who will be on hand, and sponsorship by the Progressive Book Club and the Center for American Progress, are
here. As Mattson knows, I have some quarrels about first-hand details of his reconstructed account. But I certainly support the larger case he is making in his book.
More from the F'DOH: Summers, Schmidt
Another day, a lot more stimulation, at the "
First Draft of History" event, as previously reported
here.
I was the Atlantic's assigned chronicler/blogger for the interview with Lawrence Summers. First installment
here; full wrapup, with clips,
here. Then I got to interview Eric Schmidt of Google, who put on a real tour de force. The Atlantic's writeup by Derek Thompson, with clips,
here.
Tomorrow back to reading, interview, writing -- you know, the stuff of getting the next issue of the magazine produced. But this was a worthwhile two days.
If you're in Princeton this afternoon....
... go hear Zhang Yue, the environmentalist-mogul who was the subject of my story "
Mr. Zhang Builds His Dream Town," give a talk at the university. Time and place details
here.
Zhang Yue, in sunglasses, when I first visited "Broad Town," his surrealistic factory town in Changsha, Hunan province. More pictures and narrated slideshow
here.
For you fans of Chinese reality-TV
In the spring of 2007 I
wrote about a campy / idealistic Chinese reality show called
Win In China, which was designed to select, train, and motivate future entrepreneurs. The film maker Ole Schell has produced a documentary about the program and its aftermath, which will be shown at the Asia Society in New York on Tuesday evening, June 2. Details
here.
I haven't seen the film, though I was one of the "what it all means" interviewees, but I watched Ole Schell getting lots of background footage as the show was underway. I think this should be very interesting. Make your Gotham travel plans accordingly!
JFK Library event, Boston, January 25
On Sunday, January 25 (tomorrow as I write), I will be at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston for a Kennedy Library Forum presentation moderated by Dr. Lincoln Chen, at 2pm. Discussion about China, my recent
book, Presidential speeches, and so on. Information
here. See you there.
If you're in the DC area on Wednesday night...
... you can meet the
people responsible for the book that I
keep on
lauding,
America's Defense Meltdown -- plus get a free copy of the book, by coming to a book-launch reception. You have to pay for your own beer, but it's at a place I have been many times and whose beer quality I can vouch for.
Details: Wednesday, December 3, 6pm, at the Officers' Club at Fort Myer, across the river from downtown Washington in Rosslyn, Va. This same site has for several decades been the location for weekly beer sessions among the defense-reform community that originally featured the famous, late Col.
John Boyd. Further info about the event, including instructions for RSVPs, at the Center for Defense Information site
here. I'd be there if I weren't on the other side of the world. Have a beer and get a book for me.
Something I had forgotten....
.... in the seven years since my wife and I moved away from Berkeley, CA:
This really is the nicest place on earth.
Yes, you have your Tuscanys and your Cape Towns and your Vancouvers and all the rest (including
Duluth!). But when it comes to a locale that is actively beautiful and human-scaled and full of creature comforts and with mild climate,
and where first-rate work of importance to the world is also underway, Berkeley is hard to beat.
Which leads me to: if you happen to be in Berkeley today, Thursday, Sept, 25, I will be there too. Barrows Hall, 4pm,
talking about US-China relations. Then.... back to Beijing to keep learning about that topic.
If you happen to be in Claremont, CA today...
... that's Tuesday, Sept 23, I will be there too. Will be speaking from 6:45pm to 8pm at the Marian Miner Cook
Athenaeum at Claremont McKenna College. Free and open to all comers; location here. Stated topic is the right foreign policy for whoever succeeds GW Bush. Also intend to talk about recent news out of my current homeland of China (Claremont being part of my original homeland of the SoCal "Inland Empire"), and even the upcoming presidential debates. See you there.
If you happen to be in Beijing this evening (May 27)
I'm going to be at the Beijing Bookworm at 7:30pm to talk about the Atlantic, the U.S. media, politics, writing projects, and so forth. This is part of the Bookworm's long-established and active program of presentations by writers in the vicinity.
(Address: Building 4, Nan Sanlitun Road, Chao Yang District.)
