Photo, above: The dusty village where Barack Obama’s father was raised, Kisumu is a sleepy provincial city that sprawls along the eastern shore of Lake Victoria.

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW

Hour One

Sunday 17 November  2013 / Hour 1, Block A: Sid Perkins, Supervolcanoes; the Yellowstone caldera: 500 years' notice?

Sunday 17 November  2013 / Hour 1, Block B: A Death in Belmont (Hardcover) by Sebastian Junger

Sunday 17 November  2013 / Hour 1, Block C: The Other Barack: The Bold and Reckless Life of President Obama's Father by Sally H. Jacobs (1 of 2)

Sunday 17 November  2013 / Hour 1, Block D: The Other Barack: The Bold and Reckless Life of President Obama's Father by Sally H. Jacobs (2 of 2)

Hour Two

Sunday 17 November  2013 / Hour 2, Block A: Herald Square: A Novel of the Cold War by Jefferson Flanders (1 of 2)

Sunday 17 November  2013 / Hour 2, Block B: Herald Square: A Novel of the Cold War by Jefferson Flanders (2 of 2)

Sunday 17 November  2013 / Hour 2, Block C:  Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife by Eben Alexander III M.D. (1 of 2)

Sunday 17 November  2013 / Hour 2, Block D:  Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife by Eben Alexander III M.D. (2 of 2)

Hour Three

Sunday 17 November  2013 / Hour 3, Block A: Civilization: The West and the Rest by Niall Ferguson (1 of 4) This is a difficult time in which to present an account — and what amounts to a defense — of the West’s rise to pre-eminence and its unequaled influence in shaping the world today. The West is on the defensive, challenged economically by the ascent of China and politically and militarily by a wave of Islamist hatred. Perhaps as great a challenge is internal. The study of Western civilization, which dominated American education after World War II, has long been under attack, and is increasingly hard to find in our schools and colleges. When it is treated at all, the West is maligned because of its history of slavery and imperialism, an alleged addiction to war and its exclusion of women and nonwhites from its rights and privileges. Some criticize its study as narrow, limiting, arrogant and discriminatory, asserting that it has little or no value for those of . . .

Sunday 17 November  2013 / Hour 3, Block B: Civilization: The West and the Rest by Niall Ferguson (2 of 4)   . . . non-European origins. Or it is said to be of interest chiefly as a horrible example.

Niall Ferguson thinks otherwise. A professor at both Harvard University and the Harvard Business School, quite aware of the faults and blemishes of the West, he flatly rejects the view of those who find nothing worthwhile in it, calling their position “absurd.” He recognizes both good and bad sides and decides that in comparison with other civilizations, the better side “came out on top.”  . . .

Sunday 17 November  2013 / Hour 3, Block C: Civilization: The West and the Rest by Niall Ferguson (3 of 4)   . . . Many of the observations in Civilization: The West and the Rest will not win Ferguson friends among the fashionable in today’s academy. He upbraids critics who speak scornfully of “ ‘Eurocentrism’ as if it were some distasteful prejudice.” “The scientific revolution was, by any scientific measure, wholly Eurocentric.” Ferguson pays due respect to the intellectual and scientific contributions of China and Islam, but makes it clear that modern science and technology are fundamentally Western products. He asks if . . .   [more]

Sunday 17 November  2013 / Hour 3, Block D: Civilization: The West and the Rest by Niall Ferguson (4 of 4)

Hour Four

Sunday 17 November  2013 / Hour 4, Block A: American Original: The Life and Constitution of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia by Joan Biskupic (1 of 2)

Sunday 17 November  2013 / Hour 4, Block B: American Original: The Life and Constitution of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia by Joan Biskupic (2 of 2)

Sunday 17 November  2013 / Hour 4, Block C: Sid Perkins, Supervolcanoes; the Yellowstone caldera: 500 years' notice?

Sunday 17 November  2013 / Hour 4, Block D: : A Death in Belmont (Hardcover) by Sebastian Junger