John Maynard Keynes died in 1946, but Keynesianism, in one form or another, is alive and well: the British economist's name has been invoked repeatedly since the global economic meltdown began in 2008. But how much do we really know about Keynes, and what did he really say and write? Peter Clarke has written a new book about Keynes's life and ideas.

In post-apartheid South Africa, social movements are using direct action to fight privatization, displacement and police brutality.  The Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign's Ashraf Cassiem talks about their work opposing neoliberalism on the ground, helping poor people to self-organize to fight eviction, turn back on water and electricity for which they cannot afford to pay, and resist the commodification of basic resources.

In a new set of five one-act plays, Tony Kushner offers a number of ruminations on the value of psychotherapy, the relationship of ideas to suffering, and the uses of Dostoevsky. And playwright/performer Charlie Varon has a new passion: audio collages. Also, Mark Kurlansky shares some thoughts about student activism in 1968.

He's one of the most influential intellectuals of our age -- cited in more academic works than almost any other living scholar -- and yet many progressives are not familiar with his libertarian socialist ideas. Noam Chomsky talks about anarchism, the state, conspiracy theories, science and the Enlightenment.

The Right has very effectively mobilized people on the basis of religion and populism. Could and should the Left learn from this? And could some form of religion serve as the basis for the type of collectivity that could help engender a utopian future? Radical philosopher Simon Critchley talks about the failure of liberal democracy, Obama, neo-anarchism, and his political feud with Slavoj Žižek.

 

Must this nation's founding narrative be premised on white European superiority and their "civilizing" mission? Cari Carpenter finds in Sarah Winnemucca's book Life Among the Piutes both an alternative origin story of the US and a direct challenge to the myth of the vanishing Indian. Also, Andrea Smith talks about the role of indigenous ideas in anti-violence movement theorizing.