After Words with Zachary Karabell

Zachary Karabell talked about his book, The Leading Indicators: A Short History of the Numbers that Rule Our World, in which he argues that gross national product, balance of trade, unemployment, inflation, and consumer confidence should no longer be the primary basis for business plans or monetary policy. He argued that the information revolution has made considerably more data available. He spoke with Wall Street Journal reporter Kimberly Strassel.

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Peace Be Upon You

Zachary Karabell talked about his book Peace Be upon You: The Story of Muslim, Christian, and Jewish Coexistence, published by Knopf. Mr. Karabell traces the historical instances of peaceful coexistence between Muslim, Christian, and Jewish people. The author contended that throughout the past fourteen centuries the different faiths have found common ground; from peaceful debate amongst scholars in the courts of the caliphs in Baghdad to medieval Spain where Jewish sages, Muslim philosophers, and Christian monks translated the meaning of God together. The author argued that the current state of religious tensions are solvable if one studies the past. Mr. Karabell responded to questions from the audience.

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Lesser-Known U.S. Presidents

Historian Arthur Schlesinger, editor of Times Books' “American Presidents Series,” moderated a panel discussion of the lives of some of America’s lesser-known presidents. The panelists were the authors of some of the biographies in the series. Ted Widmer was the author of Martin Van Buren, Jean Baker was the author of James Buchanan, Josiah Bunting was the author of Ulysses S. Grant, and Zachary Karabell was the author of Chester Alan Arthur. All of the panelists answered questions from members of the audience following their presentations.

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