TheSocialEdge.com

by Gerry McCarthy

Dominic Sandbrook studied history and modern languages at Oxford University. He holds a master’s degree from the University of St. Andrews and doctorate from Cambridge University. He teaches history at the University of Sheffield....

by Gerry McCarthy

Kristin Ohlson is a freelance journalist, essayist, and fiction writer. Her work has appeared in numerous publications, including: The New York Times, Salon.com, Ms., O., New Scientist, and Poets & Writers. She is also a teacher, who occasionally works with creative writing students at Cleveland State University and women prisoners at Cuyahoga County jail. ...

Risa Shuman is the Senior Producer of Saturday Night at the Movies on TVOntario. She graduated in 1973 from York University with an Honours Bachelor of Fine Arts degree majoring in film. Shuman has worked at Saturday Night at the Movies for almost 28 years.
     Last month we spoke about the Oscars and revisiting old movies. The conversation was so informative, we decided to make it a regular feature in our Arts & Culture section. Here is our latest chat.

Gerry McCarthy: The film director and screenwriter Billy Wilder died recently. I consider him one of the great film directors

RS: I agree

GM: Can you select two of his films that you liked personally?

...

by Maura Hanrahan

The Clancy brothers with Tommy Makem

The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem became the world’s most famous Irishmen when they appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1961.That same year the Newport Folk Festival chose Makem and Joan Baez the two most promising newcomers on the American folk scene. How right they were.

     Makem played with the Clancys –Paddy, Tom, and Liam– until 1969 when he embarked on a solo career. During the 1960s folk renaissance, he shared the stage with Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan. He later reunited with Liam Clancy for 13 years. Among Makem’s many accolades is a recently issued postage stamp in his honor.

     But it all started in his mother’s kitchen in Keady, County Armagh, Ulster. Sarah Makem, Tommy’s mother, did not travel much beyond her hometown, but she knew more than 500 songs. In 1952, Sarah’s songs were collected by Peter Kennedy and Sean O’Boyle and she recorded a signature tune for a popular show on the BBC World Service. Under Sarah’s influence, her youngest son learned to play the pipes, the whistle, the banjo, the drums, the piccolo, and the guitar.

...

by Gerry McCarthy

Sasha Abramsky is a journalist who has written for numerous magazine and newspapers, including: The Los Angeles Times, The Nation, Rolling Stone, The Atlantic, The New York Times, and the London Independent. He is a graduate of Balliol College at Oxford University, and earned his masters from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.

     Currently Abramsky is a Senior Fellow at the New York City-based Demos Foundation, which is a national non-partisan public policy organization. His new book Conned: How Millions Went to Prison, Lost the Vote, and Helped Send George W. Bush to the White House was just published by the New Press.

     I reached Abramsky in Sacramento, California, where he lives with his wife Julie Sze and their daughter Sophia.

Gerry McCarthy: Early in Conned you write about the historical roots of disenfranchisement in the U.S. You explain that: "Felon disenfranchisement, in other words, is not a mere side effect of misguided social policies or strategies of law enforcement. Rather, pruning the voter rolls has been, in the view of a significant portion of the American power elite since the end of the Civil War, a good in and of itself." Do you think there’s more recognition of the importance of putting this issue in historical context?

...

by Gerry McCarthy

Robert Ellsberg is editor-in-chief of Orbis Books. He is the author of numerous books, including the best-selling All Saints: Daily Reflections on Saints, Prophets, and Witnesses for Our Time.

     Two years ago, Ellsberg spoke to The Social Edge about his book The Saints Guide to Happiness. His new book Blessed Among All Women: Women Saints, Prophets, and Witnesses for Our Time was just published by the Crossroad Publishing Company. I reached him in New York to speak about the book.

...

by Gerry McCarthy

Avner Offer is Chichele professor of Economic History at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of All Souls College. He is also a Fellow of the British Academy.

     Prior to his academic career, Offer spent 8 years working as a soldier, farmer, and conservation worker in Israel, where he was born and raised. He has been a research fellow at Merton College, Oxford, Cambridge, Clare Hall, the University of Southampton, Rutgers University, the Australian National University, and New York University.

     Offer is the author of numerous books, including In Pursuit of the Quality of Life (1996). The subject he’s currently working on is "From Social Democracy to Market Liberalism." His most recent book The Challenge of Affluence: Self-Control and Well-Being in the United States and Britain since 1950 was published recently by Oxford University Press. I reached him in Oxford, England to speak about the book.

...

by Gerry McCarthy

Ramsay Cook is considered one of Canada’s first public intellectuals. He’s been the recipient of the Governor General’s Literary Award for non-fiction (1985) and was awarded the Canada Council Molson Prize in the Humanities and Social Sciences in 2005.

     Some of his numerous books include: Canada and the French-Canadian Question, The Maple Leaf Forever, and Canada, Quebec, and the Uses of Nationalism.

     Currently Cook is adjunct professor of history at the University of Toronto and professor emeritus at York University (where he taught for 25 years). His book The Teeth of Time: Remembering Pierre Elliot Trudeau was recently published by McGill-Queen’s University Press. I reached him in Toronto to speak about the book.

...

by Gerry McCarthy

Richard King is a scholar of Indian philosophy and religion. He’s taught in several British universities. This fall he assumes a teaching position at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.

     King is the author of several books, including: Orientalism and Religion. Along with Jeremy Carrette he is co-author of Selling Spirituality: The Silent Takeover of Religion published recently by Routledge. I reached him in Paris, France, to speak about the book.

...

by Gerry McCarthy

Dr. Roger Haight has taught for over 30 years in Jesuit schools of theology in Chicago, Toronto, Manila, and Cambridge (Massachusetts). He currently teaches at Union Theological Seminary in New York City.

     Dr. Haight is Past President of the Catholic Theological Society of America. His book Jesus Symbol of God (Orbis) won first place in the Catholic Press Association’s 2000 Book Award for Theology. Some of his other books include: Dynamics of Theology and Christian Community in History (in two volumes).

     His most recent book The Future of Christology was published by Continuum. I reached him in New York City to speak about the book and other matters.

Gerry McCarthy: In The Future of Christology you write that: "This culture of postmodernity, as I have depicted it, appears threatening to Christian faith in its catechetical form. But it is no more challenging than Hellenistic culture appeared to the Christian movement at the dawn of the second century. This culture should not be viewed only as a threat, but also as a lure to create new construals of Jesus Christ and the church that meet the temper of the time." Do you think postmodernity is misunderstood today? Why does the Vatican view it as a threat?

...

by Gerry McCarthy

Huston Smith is recognized internationally as a leading public scholar of world religions. He has taught at Washington University, MIT, Syracuse University, and was recently visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

Dr. Smith is the author of two best-selling books entitled The Religions of Man (re-published as The World’s Religions in 1991) and Why Religion Matters (2001). His forthcoming book The Soul of Christianity: Retrieving The Great Tradition will be published this summer by HarperSanFrancisco. I reached Dr. Smith in California.

...

by Gerry McCarthy

Mary Grey is a leading British theologian and social activist. She is currently the D.J. James Professor of Pastoral Theology at the University of Wales. Some of her numerous books include: The Outrageous Pursuit of Hope, Beyond The Dark Night: A Way Forward for the Church, Prophecy and Mysticism: The Heart of The Post Modern Church, Redeeming The Dream and Feminist Images of The Sacred....

Rabbi Sandy Eisenberg Sasso is an award-winning author of books for children of all faiths and backgrounds. She has been rabbi of Congregation Beth- El Zedeck in Indianapolis since 1977.

     Sasso was the second women to be ordained a rabbi (in 1974) and the first women rabbi to become a mother. She and her husband, Dennis, were the first rabbinical couple to jointly lead a congregation.

     Rabbi Sasso has published ten books, including: But God Remembered and A Prayer for the Earth. She writes a weekly column for the Indianapolis Star on religious and spirituality issues. Her new book Cain and Abel: Finding the Fruits of Peace was published last fall. I spoke with Sasso while she was visiting Toronto recently for an event celebrating "Thirty Years of Women as Rabbis."

...

by Gerry McCarthy

Abel Laurent is a Peruvian medical doctor. He works with one of the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace’s Latin American partner agencies, the Guaman Poma de Ayala Centre. The mission of the centre is to improve the quality of life for Peruvians who have been marginalized and excluded from the socio-economic and political process.
...