History

Peter Singer's new book, Children at War, takes a look at the use of children as soldiers -- which happens much more than many of us would like to think. From Afghanistan, Thailand and Lebanon to Sudan, Kosovo and Sierra Leone, Singer examines how children are recruited and indoctrinated into warfare.

Director Jean Pierre Jeunet's new film A Very Long Engagement is set during the end of World War I and is based on the novel by Sebastien Japrisot. It stars Audrey Tautou, who also played the title role in Jeunet's previous film, Amelie.

Bandleader and clarinetist Artie Shaw died Dec. 29 at the age of 94, apparently of natural causes. In the 1930s and '40s, Shaw's band ranked with the Goodman, Dorsey and Miller bands in popularity. But he largely rejected pop tunes and stuck with music by composers like Porter, Gershwin and Berlin. We remember Shaw.

Filmmaker Robert Stone's new documentary tells the story of the Symbionese Liberation Army, the radical group that kidnapped heiress Patty Hearst in 1974. We speak with Stone and with reporter Tim Findley, who covered the kidnapping for the Hearst newspaper The San Francisco Chronicle.

The new book Living With Jazz: A Reader, is the first collection of Dan Morgenstern's writing, including liner notes, record and concert reviews, critical essays and other writings. Morgenstern has been on the jazz scene for more than 40 years, from his earliest days as an editor of the jazz magazine Down Beat. Since 1976, he has been the director of the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University in Newark, N.J. The institute is billed as the largest collection of jazz-related materials anywhere. Morgenstern has won four Grammy Awardss for liner notes.

New York Times reporter Dexter Filkins recently accompanied the Marines of Bravo Company of the 1st Battalion, 8th Marines for eight days in November as they took over Fallujah.

A new documentary from filmmakers Calvin Skaggs and David Van Taylor describes the emergence of evangelical Christianity as a powerful political force. With God on Our Side: George W. Bush and the Rise of the Religious Right is being broadcast on the Sundance Channel. Van Taylor and Skaggs run the documentary company Lumiere Productions.

James Bennet is the former Jerusalem Bureau chief for The New York Times. He recently returned to the Middle East to cover the death of Arafat and the jockeying for power among the Palestinian factions.

Mark Bowden's article about the 25th anniversary of the Iranian Hostage crisis will be featured in the December issue The Atlantic Monthly. On Nov. 4, 1979 a group of Iranian students stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and took hostage the entire American diplomatic team — which resulted in a 15-month international crisis that still has reverberations today. Bowden interviewed the former hostage-takers for his article.

Rushing was a press officer stationed at Centcom (United States Central command) presenting the American military point of view on the war to the world press. He was featured in the documentary Control Room which was filmed inside the Arab network Al Jazeera. Rushing decided to leave the military after the Pentagon ordered him to stop commenting on the documentary.

Chicago is considered to be a Democratic city, yet The Chicago Tribune is endorsing President Bush. The paper received thousands of letters and e-mails in response. From the Tribune we speak with editorial page editor Bruce Dold, and letters editor Dodie Hofstetter.

The new documentary Tarnation chronicles writer and director Jonathan Caouette's turbulent childhood with a mentally ill mother. He made the film on his home computer for just a few hundred dollars. Critic David Edelstein has a review.

Michael Moore's controversial film Fahrenheit 9/11 won best picture at Cannes and broke box office records for a documentary. It's now out on DVD and video. Moore's other films include Roger & Me and Bowling for Columbine. He's also authored Stupid White Men and Will They Ever Trust Us Again?

He's run for president three times, twice as a Republican and most recently, in 2000, as the Reform Party candidate. His new book is called How the Right Went Wrong: How Neoconservatives Subverted the Reagan Revolution and Hijacked the Bush Presidency.

His new book The Plot Against America imagines a world in which Franklin D. Roosevelt loses the presidency to America's biggest hero and celebrity, Charles Lindbergh. Lindbergh then forms alliances with Germany and Japan.

We broadcast excerpts from a recent panel presented by The New Yorker magazine. On the panel were network news anchors Peter Jennings, Tom Brokaw and Dan Rather. They discuss the presidential campaign and network news. The panel was moderated by Ken Auletta, a contributor to The New Yorker who writes the Annals of Communications column for the magazine.

Bonanno and his friend Andy Bichlbaum decided to go around the world posing as World Trade Organization representatives giving bogus talks to groups of experts. They fooled many. At their last fake WTO gathering, they rolled the camera, and made The Yes Men a documentary film that has received critical acclaim.

Rock critic Ken Tucker reviews End of the Century, a new documentary film about the Ramones. All members except the drummer have passed away; Johnny Ramone, the lead guitarist, died Sept. 15, 2004.

Clarke, a former member of the National Security Council says the Bush administration missed opportunities to avert the Sept. 11 crisis. His controversial book, Against All Enemies: America's War on Terror, is now out in paperback.

Anderson writes the Letters from Baghdad column for The New Yorker magazine. His new book is The Fall of Baghdad. Anderson's conversations with people in Iraq, including an artist, a driver and a plastic surgeon, as well as his travels around the country, formed the basis of his new book.