Susan Neiman, "Learning From the Germans" (with Diane McWhorter)

Susan Neiman discusses her book, "Learning From the Germans", at Politics and Prose.

Author of the classic study, Evil in Modern Thought, Neiman in her new book looks to the past for lessons in how we can mitigate today’s resurgence of hatred and divisiveness. Combining philosophy, stories—including her own experiences as a Southern white raised in the civil rights-era and a Jew who has lived for extended periods in Berlin—and interviews with American and German activists such as James Meredith, Bryan Stevenson, Jan Philipp Reemtsma, and Friedrich Schorlemmer, Neiman considers how we can recognize and defuse evil. Neiman will be in conversation with Diane McWhorter, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Carry Me Home.

Susan Neiman is the director of the Einstein Forum. Her previous books, which have been translated into many languages, include Why Grow Up?: Subversive Thoughts for an Infantile Age; Moral Clarity: A Guide for Grown-Up Idealists; Evil in Modern Thought: An Alternative History of Philosophy; The Unity of Reason; and Slow Fire: Jewish Notes from Berlin. She also writes cultural and political commentary for diverse media in the United States, Germany, and Great Britain. Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Neiman studied philosophy at Harvard and the Free University of Berlin, and was a professor of philosophy at Yale and Tel Aviv Universities. She is the mother of three grown children, and lives in Berlin.

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Produced by Tom Warren