Women didnt even have legal rights in the United States until pretty recently. My question is like two workers have the authority for example to take over . Do they have the authority . Yeah why not . They built the plant and they made the products and they did the work. Why should they be tools rented by some bank or somewhere else . That is the way our institutional structure happens to be as formulated but it doesnt mean its legitimate. When you talk about authority youre asking questions about legitimacy do people have the right to run their own lives or do they have to be sort of the tools in the hands of foreign masters . Will you now that is a question of legitimacy not authority. You mentioned the civil war and there is ample evidence by now that there were dairy significant slave initiatives in the civil war and there is more to say about that a lot more so take the american revolution. To a large extent that was a revolution carried out in order to maintain slavery. If you look back at the history around 1770 in britain the legal system was he getting to undertake strong condemnations of slavery. That was the somerset case in 1772 were slave owners from United States brought their slaves with them to angle and. One of them escaped and his owner wanted him back. Its my property and it went to court and went to lord mansfield famous jurist who ruled slavery so odious that was a term he used that it cant be tolerated on english soil. It could be tolerated in the colonies but thats another story but not on english soil. The United States, the founders of the country were almost all slaveowners and they could see the handwriting on the wall. If the colonies remained under british rule, probably these laws would apply here and they would lose their property. That was surely a significant element of the revolution and it runs right to the present. I mean right to this moment the civil war is still being fought. Simply take a look at the electoral maps. Save the map of the election of 2012 red states and blue states. Its almost identical to the civil war. Its a confederacy which now call themselves republicans. They shifted names and the rest which was the north. Its a large part of the motivation behind the effort to shut down the government is just revenge. We want to shut down washington and win this war finally. The United States never developed class parties like labor parties. They didnt amount to much but elise they were something. The u. S. Never have been. Its always had sectional parties and its a reflection of the civil war which never ended. It hasnt ended in the prisons and elsewhere. Its a very deeplyrooted thing in society and hard to extrapolate. I hope you all will join me in thanking noam chomsky once more. [applause] thank you all so much for coming. There are books available in the back. This spill announces the opening of thanksgiving day at the 27th annual sale. This universal declaration of civil rights made well become the international magna carta of all men everywhere. The equal rights amendment when ratified poe be an instant solution to womens problems. Im trying to find my way through it and trying to figure out how best to be true to myself and how to fulfill my responsibilities to my husband and my daughter and the country. What they may not imagine looking at the white house from the outside is that its actually a very normal life upstairs. I try to bring a little bit of Michelle Obama into this but it at the same time respecting and valuing the tradition that is americas. A few months ago in the materials of war it went up. Above the clamor of heavy cranes along a thousand docks warships awaited corvus held up by the labor shortage the call persisted, that was the call for help at going in the detroit area when women began to respond. Anything within their strength that man could do for uncle sam. Listen to the wings overhead. Your sisters are singing. It is the song of women, american women on the warpath. Next fred siegel talks about his book the revolt against the masses how liberalism has undermined the middle class. Mr. Siegel is a history professor at the cooper union for the advancements of science and art in new york city. This is an hour. [applause] thank you. If you dont mind im going to sit rather than go to the podium. Ive had a few Health Problems and i would just as soon not test myself. Thank you for coming tonight. In thinking about the problem of liberalism i have to start off with a simple problem. Most people including most people who think they have studied the subject have a very weak idea of the history of liberalism whether it be on the left or the right. There is an idea that you started with progressivism, you move done to no, im teasing. [laughter] you started with progressivism. He proceeded to the new deal and then you went into the Great Society as a continuous flow. The trouble is its simply not true. Most progressives did not become new dealers. Very few republican progressives you have to remember progressivism was a bipartisan movement. Very few republican progressives became new dealers and not surprisingly enough im on the democratic regresses the group most likely to become new dealers were social workers, lowly social workers and they saw what they wanted and what they hoped for in the new deal. Part of the reason for this is their is a kusair him around world war i and has to do with personality. Personality of Woodrow Wilson. A great deal has been written about the personality of Woodrow Wilson but in my opinion not enough. He had an extraordinary effect. But before i get to Woodrow Wilson i just want to lay out the broad argument and then i will come back to wilson. When we think of liberalism today top and bottom coalition we associate with barack obama. This began not with progressivism and the new deal but whether the wake of the postworld war i disillusioned with american society. Most americans were happy to get back to the harding years the subject of braun alices new book but that was not true of intellectuals. And it was not true of writers of fiction. Those people, let me people that im referring to. H. G. Wells, h. L. Mencken Sinclair Lewis and randolph bruin. My suspicion is most of the people in the room dont know who Randolph Warren is. After you read a book i hope you will have a better idea because he has an enormous and i mean enormous impact on the 1960s. Many of the ideas of the 1960s are his ideas. H. G. Wells as you all know you think of him as the writer of great science fiction. Wells was an enormous political influence on both sides of the atlantic. He met with Teddy Roosevelt. They talked about his fictions. He met with president taft. He met with fdr repeatedly. He was the worst to be reckoned with. Sinclair lewis if you are over 50 you are ready know who he is from the novels main street and it cant happen here. Which is still, are still part of the Political Landscape of america. And mencken. Many of you know or expect all of you know who mencken is that you probably dont know that rankin was the most influential liberal of the 1920s. You dont know this because in the 30s he was enormously hostile to fdr and he was cast into perfidy. But in the 1920s no one and i say no one was more influential among liberal thinkers. Young advanced thinkers on the campus todays equivalent of the Creative Class god help us. No one was more influential than mencken. Like communism fabianism and fascism modern liberalism was a Vanguard Movement born of a new class of politically selfconscious intellectuals. Let me repeat that because it may sound odd. Like communism atheism and fascism was a Vanguard Movement born of a new class of politically selfconscious and righteous. Im not suggesting that liberals are fascists communists or fabians. None of the love. Im saying there are great similarities end there created by the vanguard of intellectuals. Critical of mass democracy middle class capitalism liberals despise the individual assessments pursuit of profit as well as the conventional individual selfinterested or suit of success. Both of which thrives in the 19th century in new york. Snobbery is not new to liberalism but the actual history of liberalism will be new to most readers. Liberalism like his rivals including communism fascism and fabianism emerged as part of the 20th century response the newly emergent worlds mass politics and mass culture. Like fascism and communism and i should add here fabianism liberalism strongly influenced by their writings of nietzsche. The first book in america written about nietzsche was written a h. L. Mencken. The first book on George Bernard shaw and american was written by the same man, mencken. Mencken made shah famous in america before shot was famous in england. I wont go into shock today just suffice to say he plays an Important Role in the book. What people found appealing in nietzsche was the sense of his call for new aristocracy. Old aristocracy aristocracy crumbled under the impact of modernization. He wanted a new aristocracy and h. G. Wells writing if you remember was full of this. Remember he is calling for the new samurai. He is calling for this new elite to run their world. He never really stops and he has picked up, when youre reading al gore and i hesitate to mention his name here but when you are reading al gore on Climate Change you are reading h. G. Wells. Core solutions to Climate Change are well Solutions Creating a global governing body. The set of liberal and emotional attachments that political libido and we emphasize that phrase the political libido of liberalism coalesced in the wake of world war i and its anger and repudiation of progressivism and Woodrow Wilson. The very term liberal in its modern usage was coined by writers intellectuals who define themselves by their hostility to the middle class and were listed progressives. And you hated prohibition. I suspect many of you are aware of that prohibition was not the product of rightwing cranks. Prohibition was the product of repressiveism. It was a way of preserving peoples paychecks. And progressivism was a movement of social uplifting. It wasnt just about dollars and cents and reducing bosses him. It was about uplifting america. The new deal breaks with all of that area and the new deal begins when roosevelts first act is to appeal prohibition. Which briefly sets roosevelt and mencken off on the right foot. [laughter] mencken was a great drinker of german beer. The best short summary of what liberalism is came from the once canonical literary. Just for my knowledge how many people today know who burn in perinton is . Very few. He was once a very widely known a year and i suspect those of you raising your hand are historians. Anyone who is not a historian raising your hand . One person. Michael you are an historian. You cannot escape that. Harrington said the following in the late 20s. Rid society of the dictatorship of the middle class and yes he used that term. He insisted and the artists and scientists will erect a civilization and become what civilization was in earlier days the thing to be respected. This alienation from american life, the sense that america was the worst of all places was essential to liberalism and its inception. In the 1950s in a brief moment when liberals reconciled with America Lionel trilling noted that quote for the first time in history of modern american on flecha Life American is not to be conceived of as a party the stupidest nation in the world. This novelty soon pass. [laughter] just a brief word to break up the narrative. Crowley was the founder of the new republic. Sometimes you have heard this phrase im sure in college from some dimwitted professor. He wanted to achieve hamiltonian ends. Excuse me wanted to achieve jeffersonian ends by hamiltonian means. He had no use for hamilton or jefferson. He was a francophile of the first order. His parents were part of the quasicatholic quasiscientist religion of comps the french thinker, and he was one of the first to be baptized in kantian faith, whatever that was. Its not entirely clear. His mother by the name of jennie june was an early feminist and his father in this unhappy marriage was a futurist. He saw kantian future and crowley himself had always admitted he was basically a francophile. He wanted to make america more like france. Depending on whats going on whether a lot of you agree or disagree with that. In other words, what he was hoping for, what brooks saw in wells was hope for clarity. A semisecular, in some deep sense, religious group whose underlying values would define the country, and im not going to get into it today, but if you think about members of lbjs cabinet or ph. D. Es, how many come from the universities, theres a famous moment when John Gardener supposed by jokingly had a faculty meeting, saying, welcome, faculty. Thats what it was, literally, not just metaphorically. Now, the book by wells, let me try those same two people again. The book by wells that had the most influence was not the time machine, which is what he talked to Teddy Roosevelt about, but where we all are destined to become either beasts or loci was a small book called anticipations, anyone familiar with the book . Okay, not even our two. [laughter] this was a fascinating book. Let me just read a little bit about it. The book explained wells was defined to undermind and destroy moo monogamy, faith in god, and respectability all with cars and electrical heating. Thats exactly right. For many young americans, wells writing were a passport. Now, what all the peoplemented was a secular priesthood. Including born. Secular priesthood that was this is words, sets aside slobbingly americans. Born and making it in particular were german, and world war i. Make it right, atlantaic calling for german victory, and he writes an article, which is never published to his every lasting luck calling for the german conquest of america. The proof exists somewhere in the making connection letters wrote to oath people. Ill come back to it in a bit. Let me turn here to 1919. We fought a war. Prohibition has been imposed. During the war, theres a good deal of repression. Worlds war i is egg ugly. American leftist, people like sister crystal, who are part of the pass vies groups who visit the washington were enamored at Woodrow Wilson, and youll see others enamored of Woodrow Wilson. Well get to that. They see him as one of them, and he sounds like one of them. Hes opposed to the war, many of the same grounds they are. He doesnt want to see european imperialism triumph. He studied socialism. Hes not a socialist. He studied socialism. He sees in American Progress vism and american form of socialism. But in the years of 1918 and 1920 were traumatic. In 1916, many left and embraced wilson as a form of a leader. By 1919, heavers seen as one whose rhetoric despised as mere mum ri. The 14 points, message of good luck to the republic of labor unions, the ussr, and warning to the allies their treatment of russia would be the acid test of their good will, intention, and unselfish sympathy, and mentally impressive to us explains matt eastman. Speaking for many leftists and progressives. This was the extraordinary moment, extraordinary moment when russias war connoisseur, referring to the now famous con cement of the fellow travel. Its wilson who is the model for coining the term fellow traveler, and using that term later, its not true, but for a time, this appears to be the case. The metaphor based on the belief that the american president shared a critique of imperialism and hope for reform in less capitalist u. S. This could sound like the 1980s who still thought russia was going to catch up and wed converge, but theres no reason to did over old garbage. Liberals with those progressives would renamed themselves so to repudiate wilson. Ill repeat it. Liberals, progressives who renamed themselves so as to repudiate wilson. The word liberalism who wrote whitman in 1919, was introduced to the american politics by a group in 1912, and wilson democrats from 19161918. The new liberalism was a decisive cultural break with wilson and progressivism while the progressives inspired by faith and democratic reforms as the wounds of industrial civilization and power politics. The newly selfdefined liberals saw the American Democratic ethos as danger to freedom at home and abroad. Sound familiar . A society at large, not just the bible belters, blaming for their sub geek gages. Although writers prospers as never before, they feel oppressed as never beforement you all met people like this. Not here in washington. If you come a few hours north, and you attend a dinner party, i guarantee youssef mejri bump into those people. They always refer to most americans as the herd. This very my mentor, had the good sense to repudiate this. Heres brooks talking about coney island. The new Popular Culture broadway shows, movies k baseball, he said, were all makeshifts of dispair, proof that america was a joyless land. This takes a leap to think coney island and baseball represents joylessness. Maybe if you spend time with alex rodriguez, but that would be a long time in the future. Brooks compared the United States to a, quote, prime evil monster concentrating on the appetite of the moment, knowing nothing of its own vast body, encrusted with pair sites, half indistinguishable from the slime in which it moves. Half indistinguishable from the slime of which it moves. Its not a positive picture. [laughter] these writers wrote the chronicle, and united in one crew saiding army by the revolt as they understood it, and in the exciting years, 1919 and 1920, they seize power in the literary world like russia. They seize power. Thats exactly right. Lets go back if we can to Woodrow Wilson, the seizure of power. Wilson understands an attempt to impose uniformity in the midst of war, the antigerman hostility, you know, banning