Experts in the News | Miller Center

Local book program topics include racial injustice and Cold War

“Slavery by Another Name,” a film, recounts the tragic years following the Civil War, when a brutal criminal justice system created insidious new forms of forced labor in the South.

Douglas Blackmon

As Congress prepares to return, Trump deepens tensions with fellow Republicans

Meanwhile, Mr. Trump’s deep unpopularity among Democrats makes that party’s leadership unwilling to give the President any victories. “There’s no political incentive for any [Democrats] to work with him,” said Chris Lu, a former Obama administration official.

Chris Lu

Guns v. speech

When hundreds of armed white supremacists descended on Charlottesville on August 12th, violence broke out across the city. In this short take, Brian sits down with University of Virginia Law School Vice Dean Leslie Kendrick to discuss the constitutionality of regulating weapons at public protests.

Brian Balogh

Time to address race issues in America

Throughout American history, white supremacists have used brutal and often fatal force: burning, beating, lynching, torturing. The legal system was used to imprison blacks on false charges. Then they were "sold" to American companies for virtual slave labor, a practice which continued to 1945. See the book "Slavery by Another Name" by Douglas A. Blackmon.

Douglas Blackmon

How Trump swallowed a bitter Afghanistan pill

“Obama was suspicious of what the generals were telling him. They were telling him to put in more troops than he wanted to,” said Eric Edelman, who served as undersecretary of defense for policy under George W. Bush. “Trump does recognize that just pulling out is not an option. If the Taliban takes over and then there’s a terrorist attack, that is a big political risk for him,” Edelman added.

Eric Edelman

A hobbled commander in chief tries to rally the country

The speech was in keeping with Trump’s approach to everything, which is to say it was more about him than anything else.” Edelman pointed out that from the effort to recover from the Charlottesville debacle to his ” ‘I wanted to pull out’ instincts to his pathetic whining about the crappy hand he was dealt — it read less like a carefully thought-out strategy and policy and more like an internal monologue.” He added, “It was not a compelling argument to the public for continued involvement and sacrifice.”

Eric Edelman