The Paula Gordon Show |
Conversation 1 Kevin Phillips gives Paula Gordon and Bill Russell a sense of how vital it is to establish the historical context for today's changes. He declares it unsafe to look at American and British history separately, using four centuries of examples. Mr. Phillips describes three R/republican majorities which emerged even before the one he describes in his 1960's book: Lincoln's in 1860, the republican coalition during the American Revolution and the first one under Oliver Cromwell in England. |
Conversation 2 With most of today's countries republics, Mr. Phillips reminds us how unusual a republic was when the United States began. He explores the interrelation of history's inevitability and its randomness, with a bow to luck and flukes. He describes how he discovered the similarities between England's Civil War, America's Revolution, and the American Civil War. He describes the winners of all three as more democratic, adventuresome, entrepreneurial, middle-class, low-church, urban, and hostile to monarchy -- democratic (small-d) and republican ( small-r). He describes how the three conflicts were ladders arising out of each other. Today's critical question, Mr. Phillips believes, is how has the framework changed and how do those changes affect current cultural fights? He describes America's lingering ethic patterns which stretch back to the Protestant Reformation and Catholic Counter-Reformation. |
Conversation 3 Religion, politics, and war were the wheels of 16th and 17th century international relations and internal conflicts, according to Mr. Phillips, who compares that time to this. He assures us our civil conflicts were infrequent and not wasted. He describes how differently wars on the Continent affected various European countries. He notes similarities in the experience of American Germans and Irish. He describes conflicts making each of the three Anglo-American wars inevitable. He wonders if a new culture has evolved out of our current lack of wars, concerned our politics are ineffective in resolving mounting tensions among people. He theorizes about the overall effects of civil wars on countries. |
Conversation 4 Mr. Phillips compares America and Great Britain to the aging Roman Empire of the 3rd and 4th century. He explains why he believes we learn and change only on the margins. He plugs human nature into the equation of what changes, what remains the same. He describes why geography is a vitally important part of the equations he sees, citing examples. He compares his reliance on County Census Data to new yardsticks one needs to understand America's western sunbelt, where "Anglo" takes on an entirely different meaning. He considers the implications of Californians increasing out-migrations. He describes how Americans have always been malcontents. |
Conversation 5 Mr. Phillips focuses on the importance of economics in his three wars: Puritans were eager to replace England's feudal economy; Americans wanted to break free of the Britain's mercantilist system; and the emerging industrial North was pitted against the South's slaveocracy. Mr. Phillips notes how capitalism ran amok after the Civil War, resulting in the populist and progressive movements. He describes today's capitalism as propped up by "financial mercantilism." He sees religious constituencies on the rise. With America the capital of the world's untrammeled entrepreneurialism, he notes criticism both from the political left and right. He characterizes the religion of the Puritans. Mr. Phillips wonders how one keeps the vitality of a mature society when combat is not acceptable. Confident that answers to pressing questions are not available from people in today's political arena, Mr. Phillips describes them in withering terms. |
Conversation 6 Many of the things and people not working in today's political scene are noted, as Mr. Phillips looks out half a dozen years, hopeful that our voting turnout will increase. He anticipates a clarifying crisis which will create a real need and desire to participate in the political system and explains why. Declaring the Protestant God the "God of the Marketplace, of War and of Success," Mr. Phillips expresses his belief that this deity must be redefined in the next 10 or 20 years. |
Acknowledgements We are deeply impressed with Mr. Phillips clear thinking and gracious willingness to share his insights. We appreciate his effective ways of redirecting preconceptions and opening new perspectives. We particularly thank him for the enormous amount of first-rate scholarly work he did in his effort to shed new light on old subjects. |
Related Links:
Our three later programs with Mr. Phillips: Dynasty & Crony Capitalists, American Trinity: Religion/Oil/Debt and Money, Empire and Collapse? |