The On The Bookshelf Podcast

interview--Acclaimed author Dan T. Carter exposes a vicious racist

“Unmasking the Klansman: the Double Life of Asa and Forrest Carter” by Dan T. Carter (NewSouth Books, an imprint of the University of Georgia Press)

There were once a vicious racist, who was convinced that there was an actual Jewish-Communist conspiracy to overtake the world (despite the fact that the Jews were routinely persecuted by the atheist communist government of the USSR). Asa. Carter was a radio commentator, public speaker, and Klan organizer, who had a way with words and could be an excellent storyteller. He also thought all people of color threatened the “real white Americans” who built the USA.

Because of his skill and his dedication to segregation, Asa Carter secretly wrote the inaugural speech for new Alabama Governor George Wallace in 1963. Earlier, he put together a special guerilla force of ruthless and determined Klansmen who would do anything he ordered them to do, from bomb buildings to kill civil rights activists, to viciously assaulting a black man walking along a road and cripple him for life by castrating him. Carter always managed to keep himself from being arrested, but the FBI began to keep track of him.

When it got too dangerous to stay in Alabama (and he could not keep a job) Asa Carter moved to Florida, lost 20 pounds, got a nice tan, grew a moustache, and reinvented himself as a part Cherokee Indian named Forrest Carter (after his hero, Nathan Bedford Forrest). He then became a successful novelist, generating a novel that became the Clint Eastwood movie, “The Outlaw Josey Wales”, and creating an imaginary Indian childhood account that that was a best-seller for years for the University of New Mexico Press!

But he had a terrible problem with alcohol, and it got worse as Carter became convinced someone would discover his true identity. He even came up with an elaborate ruse that Asa died and his “widow” married Forrest, a relative who adopted Asa’s five children. However, when he was drunk, he revealed his animosity for black people, Mexicans, Jews and communists. Asa Carter never apologized for his attitude, changed his mind or repented of his rabid bigotry.

Everyone in the family kept the secret, even on his tombstone. Years later, his wife changed the stone to have his real name on it and was buried next to him.

short interview-Renowned Animator Jim Capobianco & The Inventor

Directed and written by Jim Capobianco (the Academy Award®-nominated screenwriter of "Ratatouille") and co-directed by Pierre-Luc Granjon, THE INVENTOR is a stop-motion adventure film about the life of Leonardo da Vinci featuring the voices of Stephen Fry, Daisy Ridley, Marion Cotillard, Gauthier Battoue, and Matt Berry.

The insatiably curious and headstrong inventor/artist Leonardo da Vinci (Fry) leaves Italy to join the French court where he can freely experiment, invent flying contraptions and incredible machines, and study the human body. Joined in his adventure by the audacious Princess Marguerite (Ridley), Leonardo attempts to uncover the answer to the ultimate question: "What is the meaning of life?"

Here's the trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7k95b1s6XoE

 

interview-Sociologist analyzes reason for Racial housing disparity in DC

Before Gentrification: The Creation of DC’s Racial Wealth Gap” by Tanya Maria Golash-Boza (University of California Press)

It’s not a secret that Washington DC has a lot of problems, but this not a book about politics. This is a book about people, the ones who live in DC, the ones whose families lived in better housing than where they live now, because their Black families managed to own decent houses in formerly-all-White neighborhoods but their grandchildren live in state-owned-and-run housing projects. You might think that these projects are well-maintained, since they are in the seat of American government. Sadly, you would be mistaken.

 

 

interview-Three shorter ones into a 30 minute segment

Jim Caobianco on his new animated feature "The Inventor",

Leslie Iwork on her latest documentary ("Superpowered! The DC Story"), and

Fake Janssen on her latest movie (Knights of the Zodiac)

interview-Bill Holstein brings a chilling and sobering account of Cyberwar

“Battlefield Cyber: How China and Russia are Undermining Our Democracy and National Security” by Michael G. McLaughlin and William J.Holstein (Prometheus Books, an imprint of Globe Pequot)

The Chinese and the Russians are using our own technology to defeat us in a cyber war we ignore at our peril. We can still prevail, but the time to act is now!