History

TV critic David Bianculli has been following the networks' coverage of Oliver North's congressional testimony on the Iran-Contra affair. While each station uses the same camera feeds, they deploy commentary and supplementary information in different ways, in alternately successful and distracting ways.

David Horowitz and Peter Collier were New Left activists who gradually embraced neoconservative ideologies. They believe their former compatriots were misguided and misinformed; Horowitz and Collier say the United States has consistently served as a stabilizing force in domestic and international arenas.

Film critic Stephen Schiff says that Full Metal Jacket, about Marines training for and serving in the Vietnam War, is bleak and stylized, but suffers from a lack of developed characters -- a Kubrick trademark better deployed in 2001 and Dr. Strangelove.

Nien Cheng and her husband were educated abroad and lived a comfortable, bourgeois life before China's Cultural Revolution. Though Cheng faced persecution, interrogation, and imprisonment, she was mostly able to maintain her lifestyle--and her loyalty to her country. She now lives in Washington, D.C.

Bly's work has dealt with nature, the Vietnam War, and gender differences. He considers the impact living simply in Minnesota has had on his writing.

Writer Roger Bruns discusses hobo culture with Fresh Air's Terry Gross, including migratory patterns, temporary encampments, and social stratification within various communities.

Language commentator Geoff Nunberg considers which phrases and slang from the 1960s endured, and which ones sound dated today.

Film critic Stephen Schiff thinks Brian de Palma's gangster movie showcases both the director's technical prowess and weak character development. Despite its flaws, the film is still enjoyable.

John Nichols' new novel dwells on the horrors of the Vietnam War. Earlier in life, he moved to New Mexico to work as a political activist. Those experiences were the basis of his popular New Mexico Trilogy.

Author Nien Cheng was a wealthy gentlewoman during China's Cultural Revolution. While book critic John Leonard doesn't find Cheng particularly likable, he believes her writing provides a unique and valuable perspective on that history.

Music publicist Derek Taylor was the press agent for the Beatles; he also ghost wrote the memoir of their manager, Brian Epstein. His new book, about 1967 -- when he started working for Apple Records -- is called It Was Twenty Years Ago Today.

The Australian miniseries, about prisoners in World War II, is presented in full in a new home video release. Critic Ken Tucker says it powerfully illustrates the cultural divide between Great Britain and Australia.

Former Democratic congressperson and presidential candidate Eugene McCarthy has a new memoir about his political career called Up 'til Now. He talks to Fresh Air's Terry Gross about the tumultuous Vietnam War years.

The white South African writer hopes that her works have educated her readers about the realities of apartheid in her home country. Her newest book is called A Sport of Nature.

Language commentator Geoff Nunberg tries to untangle the convoluted syntax of the Star-Spangled Banner.

Nicholas Proffitt's book Garden of Stone, inspired by his ceremonial role in the Army during the Vietnam War, was recently adapted into a film by Francis Ford Coppola.

Nadine Gordimer's newest novel, A Sport of Nature, follows a white anti-apartheid worker as she traverses a complicated terrain of sex, race, and politics.

Documentary filmmaker Henry Hampton. He produced the television program "Eyes on the Prize," which documents the history of the civil rights movement -- including the impact press coverage had on the cause.

Art Spiegelman is the author of Maus, a book documenting his father's experience during the Holocaust.

White anti-apartheid activist Helen Suzman identifies ways in which recent reforms passed by the South African government have led to some desegregation. She believes that the recent sanctions advocated by the Reagan administration will have little impact on her home country's racist policies.