Berliner Korrespondenzen#7 digital: One face, many crises with Masha Gessen & Harold James

One face, many crises: The US-elections and the fight against autocracy
From the series: »(Dis-)Orders in global Europe«
With Masha Gessen and Harold James
Moderation: Catherine Newmark
In English

Filmed at Maxim Gorki Theater Berlin

1 November 2020

On the occasion of the upcoming US presidential election, Berliner Korrespondenzen will stream a digital special edition live. Increasing Corona-numbers, racism and police violence, fires and storms, a tanking economy and quarrels about the supreme court: Numerous crises seem to reinforce and complicate each other. What is at stake in the race Biden vs. Trump? Together with Masha Gessen and Harold James we want to discuss the state of transatlantic relations and debate what constitutes the “system Trump” in political, social and economic regards and what are the odds to prevent four more years of his presidency.

According to the Washington Post, Masha Gessen has written “the platonic ideal of an anti-Trump book” with 2020’s "Surviving Autocracy". Here as well as in weekly columns for the New Yorker, Gessen analyses US-politics in unique and illuminating ways by putting them in relation to historical and contemporary developments in Russia and Europe Born 1967 in Moscow, Gessen rose to fame with books like "The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin (2012)" and the National Book Award-winning "The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia". Masha Gessen teaches at Bard College and lives in New York City.

Harold James is one of the world’s leading experts on transatlantic economic history, German history and globalization. Like few other historians he manages to shed light on contemporary developments like the crisis of the European Union (Europe Contested: From the Kaiser to Brexit, 2019) or the social and political effects of globalization (The End of Globalization: Lessons from the Great Depression, 2002) by contrasting them to past events. James’ personal biography also bears the traces of his transatlantic orientation: Born in Great Britain, he teaches at Princeton University and lives between Germany and the US.

Philosopher and cultural journalist Catherine Newmark deals with questions of power, inequality and gender in philosophy. Her latest book Warum auf Autoritäten hören? (Why Listen to Authorities?) analyses the question of how authority is socially constructed - a question that has become pertinent in times of Corona. Newmark is a radio journalist for Deutschlandradio Kultur and editor for Philosophie Magazin.

The Berliner Korrespondenzen is a discussion series - gone #digital - of the Gorki Forum and the Allianz Cultural Foundation in cooperation with the Humboldt University of Berlin and the Federal Foreign Office of Germany.

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