[inaudible conversations] good afternoon. My name is jerry fowler, and im a senior policy analyst here at the open Society Foundations, so im pleased to welcome you to this event thats hosted by open society and by our friends at politics and prose. To hear about ben rawlences new book, city of thorns. Were very proud, actually, because ben did part of the work for this book while he was an open society fellow, and so were happy to have made that particular contribution to the work. Were also pleased this afternoon to have karen atilla who is an editor at the Washington Post and who is going to be interviewing ben. Shell say a little bit more about bens background, but let me tell you about karen. She, before joining the Washington Post, reported for the Associated Press from cure sow, and her work has appeared in publications across the world including can i have a list here, i wont go through the whole thing but salon, the haitian times, morningside post. Shes also made Television Ap
Head. Guest it got lucky with the timing. Somebody said i should buy a Powerball Ticket because i can see the future. When do you start writing black . When you write the proposal or turn in the manuscript . I would say five years ago i start writing columns and around the time sarah palin went rogue. I thought after the race she got radicalized and changed, and i started seeing candidates like Christine Odonnell and sharon anle saying thing is felt uncomfortable with as a conservative. They were casting themselves as a victim, playing the victim card, which struck me as unconservative, and it was short of a populist tone that got me writing about the topic, and the week my book comes out, sarah palin endorses donald trump. I couldnt have planned that. Amazing time. Let get back to back lex, firstd poem of the intellectual history of conservatism. I know when i go to colleges i tell students, youd be surprised to learn that the rock stars that the manhattan cometail parties used to be
first, the slave trade was central to the development of europe and the americas. second, it was central to the underdevelopment of africa. and finally, it was through the slave trade and related economic activities that five continents, europe, africa, north, central and south america which colombian voyages were isolated from one another were knitted into a system of mutual independency in which europe emerged as dependent on africa and the americas as europeans like to say that slaves were dependent upon their masters. this system has continued down through the present day. they remain dependent and economic relations to europe and your america. this is the nature of the modern world in which we live. and even the cursory reading of the evidence establishes its origins in the transatlantic slave trade. now i just like to make two or three points about the book and then i m going to be sitting with my colleagues to have some conversation with them. the book is basically div