What is America for?
The intellectual tensions behind the American dream: What connects the Monroe, Truman and Trump Doctrines; Rugged Individualism, American exceptionalism and Pax Americana?
America has long believed that it stands for more than itself, but can a common idea still hold the country together? Its traditions of exceptionalism, from American innocence to America First, sit alongside its role as a global superpower promoting liberal democracy through free markets, cultural influence and military power. What is America for, and can Americans and the rest of the world still agree on the answer? Anne McElvoy is joined by leading thinkers for Radio 4's Friday night round table discussion programme about ideas past and present.
Producer: Ruth Watts
On radio
Broadcast
- Fri 13 Nov 202621:00BBC Radio 4
Discussions and talks from the Free Thinking Festival 2019
Angry politics, what we can’t say, being diplomatic, weeping, emotion in music, film & TV
Click to listen to discussions, talks and music as the Free Thinking Festival 2019 Gets Emotional
Angry politics, what we can’t say, being diplomatic, weeping, emotion in music, film & TV
CLICK to LISTEN & SEE programmes from the Free Thinking Festival 2018: The One & the Many
We examine the fast-changing relationship between the individual & the crowd
CLICK to LISTEN & SEE all programmes, images, clips & features from 2017's festival
Free Thinking Festival 2017: The Speed of Life
Podcast
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Free Thinking
The ideas shaping our lives today - with artists and thinkers in debates and interviews.
