Bruce Caldwell discusses socialism on WUNC's "The State of Things"

15 November 2009 12:00AM

Tuesday, September 01 2009 by Frank Stasio and Susan Davis | Send this to a friendSend to a friend

You can’t tune into the current health care debate or the ongoing story of the financial crisis without hearing the word “socialism.”  The politically-charged term is being thrown around a lot lately, but what does it mean? It seems that scholars use it one way, policy wonks another and angry taxpayers have their own ideas. Host Frank Stasio convenes a panel of experts to unpack the term, and consider the history and the future of socialism in America.  Joining the program is Robert Toplin, Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington; Bruce Caldwell Professor of Economics at Duke University and the Director of the Center for the History of Political Economy at Duke; and Gary Marks, Burton Craige Distinguished Professor of Political Science at the UNC Chapel Hill and the co-author of the book, "It Didn't Happen Here: Why Socialism Failed in the United States” (Norton/2001).