Added 2.21.19. Milt in this 2011 conversation with rancher, author, historian and Hoover Institution scholar Victor Davis Hanson, applies a historical filter to present-day controversies over U.S. engagement in the Middle East, and our domestic rhetoric of redistribution, among other things. Hanson had just authored a historical novel titled, “The End of Sparta.”

Added 2.5.19. In this vintage 1993 episode Milt and two classicists examine how the Ancient Greeks endured a not-entirely hostile takeover by the nascent Roman Empire, and what happened after that. How, within several centuries, did a bunch of Roman provincials dwelling on seven hills and embroiled in feuds with other narrowly-focused rivals, gain control of southern Europe and develop a polity encompassing something like universal citizens’ rights and reasonably bright expectations for the future? And how was it – other than their well-known foibles and indulgences – that the Romans could not maintain their primacy? Driving this lively discussion along with the host were Daniel H. Garrison and Edwin P. Menes. Garrison was a classics professor at Northwestern University and Menes a classics scholar at Loyola University, Chicago.

Added 1.8.19. Italian immigrants with anarchist leanings are arrested with no warrant; tried based on no real evidence; and convicted and executed for a 1920 Massachusetts payroll heist that resulted in two deaths. How did authorities, the press, and the public see their way clear to this seemingly stunning miscarriage of justice? Milt explores the troubling tenor of the times with attorney and historian Theodore W. Grippo, author of, “With Malice Aforethought: The Execution of Nicolo Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti.”

Added 12.5.18. Guest Richard Epstein – a legal and political scholar – lays out the tenets of classical liberalism versus modern day progressivism. The differences are fairly vast, and instructive. He was, at the time of this interview, the author most recently of “Why Progressive Institutions Are Unsustainable.” Epstein is a professor of law and director of the Classical Liberal Institute at New York University, and a senior lecturer at The University of Chicago. His book, “Takings: Private Property And The Power Of Eminent Domain,” proved controversial for its arguments about limits on the government’s power, but has been cited in several Supreme Court rulings. He is also the author of “Simple Rules For A Complex World,” in which he argues for more limited and clear government rule-making.

Added 11.6.18. It’s been said that to be a U.S. Presidential contender requires “ambition, stamina, and pure shamelessness.” There’s a tradition among writers and political analysts of putting successful – and unsuccessful – U.S. Presidential campaigns under the microscope. It dates back at least as far as Theodore White’s classic of the genre titled “The Making Of The President 1960,” on JFK’s White House conquest; and includes Richard Ben Cramer’s classic “What It Takes,” on the ’88 contest. Mark Edward Taylor, an ordained minister with a doctorate in communications from Northwestern University, in his 2011 analysis “Branding Obamessiah: The Rise Of an American Idol,” posits – and seeks to painstakingly document – that President Barack Obama won his first term in office in an especially remarkable manner. It was, Taylor argues, with a carefully calibrated communications strategy inspired by religious images; religious words; a creation story; sacred rituals; true believers; and “an exceptional chief” defined as “an inexplicably impressive solution to all the nation’s problems” and by his “sense of hope in himself and the nation.” Milt and frequent guest Charles Lipson, a prolific author and professor emeritus of political science at the University of Chicago, sit down here in late 2011 with Taylor to dive deeper.