May 14, 2015
Robert Neer is the guest on this week's episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show.
He is a historian at Columbia University and the author of Napalm: An American Biography.
Robert's work is a incisive and unique example of the history of
objects and how that type of social history can illuminate broader
questions of politics, life, and society.
Napalm: An American Biography is
more than the history of a horrific weapon: it is an insight into
American war fighting, inventions, and foreign
affairs.
Dr. Neer and Chauncey talk about the history of napalm, its
inventors, the moral questions that (should) govern the use of
technology and science, the Vietnam War, American power, and the
symbolism and meaning that have been constructed around such an
iconic and terrifying weapon in both the world's and America's
public imagination.
Chauncey also shares his thoughts on Tom Brady and "Deflategate",
the Oklahoma tornadoes and the Amtrak train crash, how Republican
racism has hurt America's infrastructure in the Age of Obama, and a
frightening encounter with an entitled student who was moved to
gross anger by a discussion of wealth inequality and
consumerism.