72. David Huyssen speaks on inequality and a new Gilded Age

Free City Radio

Free City Radio 72 A conversation with historian, writer and professor David Huyssen. David wrote the book "Progressive Inequality" out via Harvard Press. This conversation locates the contemporary moment of extreme wealth inequality within a historical context, looking at the likes of Amazon and figures like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk within a historical context. Looking at the economic situation pre New Deal in the US and globally, during what many refer to as the Gilded Age. I ask David about this new gilded age, and how it compares, while also exploring the central role of progressive social movements historically in challenging extreme wealth inequality, and bringing about the grassroots political context that created the possibilities for things like the New Deal to happen. Social movements are often written out of mainstream historical narratives as central to the process of such major policy shifts, like the New Deal, but in fact radical social movements for gender justice, and against systemic racism and economic inequality played a central role in shaping history. David is currently working with the Institute for North American Studies at the Free University in Berlin and also teaches at University of York in the UK. Music on this show is the track "Passage" from the new @anarchistmountains album out on Alien Garage records. Free City Radio comes out twice a week and is hosted / produced by Stefan Christoff, broadcasting on @radiockut and accessed globally through the Free City Radio podcast.