This fun and unusual book shares the experience of participating in one of Harvard's most popular courses, Personal Choice and Global Transformation, led by lecturer Brian Palmer and three teaching fellows.
As detailed here, the course centered around three themes: How do we live in a world with gaping inequalities? What do we do when others are being hurt? What are the obligations of those who are comfortable to those who suffer? Eschewing the traditional lecture format, the course invited students to prepare interview questions for a variety of prominent guests. The resulting book compiles the classroom interviews with some of today's top intellects, such as linguist Noam Chomsky, physician-activist Dr. Paul Farmer, and theologian Harvey Cox, who urged students and thus readers to become more cognizant of their role in a consumerized, market-driven society.
One interviewee of note is Robert Reich, Secretary of Labor during the Clinton Administration. Reich talks about the importance of grassroots politics and the dangers inherent in American campaign finance. “We cannot have a democracy that is dominated by rich people,” he says, reflecting on his failed bid to become Governor of Massachusetts. Reich goes on to field questions about immigration and what needs to be done to reinvigorate the U.S. Democratic Party (there really isn’t one, Reich says).
These are not highly edited pieces. They adhere to the class’s question-and-answer format with results that are in many ways more interesting than a polished essay. In its totality, Global Values 101 promotes citizenship, a concept often considered trite in modern American culture. A smart book.
- Manda Salls