neoliberalism was brought into england and then most importantly for my book is the importance of neoliberalism for east europeans. east europeans, russia, poland, hungary were influenced fundamentally by neoliberalism. >> is this your first book? >> yes, it is. >> why did you choose this topic? >> um, i -- in 1988 i was an exchange student in budapest, hungary -- >> before the wall fell. >> before the wall fell. and i didn't really know. i just picked a place t

and also neoliberalism is related to capitalism. >> where did the term neoliberalism come from? >> the term is often seen as to read from the end of world war two. the idea of rethinking liberalism. after all the trouble of world war one and two and things like that they needed to rethink liberalism and make a new kind of liberalism. when it came out of their ideas there were involved with this rethinking. >> and was it to make government less powerful? with that part of the goal? >> because especially coming in from the time of fascism there was this concern. >> now, what is the neoclassical economics? >> the of classical economics is generally what we understand as mainstream american economics. most people that win the nobel prize, people from other strands, they're different, but the majority of economists practice neoclassical economics in one way or another. it is based on the idea, classical economics was the economics of adam smith, economics based on certain things, but particular things. they wanted to create something new or believed that the ideas of understanding ho

markets in the name of socialism: the left wing origins of neoliberalism. thank you for talking to us on booktv. >> thank you very much. >> and now on booktv robert jay lifton talks about his work such as it is nazis, the dropping of the atomic bomb in heosheepa, china and the vietnam war. this is about an hour and a half. >> here at the columbia school of journalism, welcome on behalf both the dart center and columbia. the dart center is a ideal lab resource center, networking mechanism for journalists as well as clinicians and scholars and others concerned about news coverage of violence around the world. everything from street crime and family violence up to war crime and human rights. i'll talk more about the dart center in a few minutes. we're here tonight, though, for a conversation and a celebration, a conversation with robert j. lifton, psychiatrist, public intellectual, historian, activist and a celebration of his wonderful and beautiful new memoir "witness to an extreme century." this event is cosponsored by the dart center but also by the "nation

international monetary fund has over the past several decades been pressing very hard the so-called neoliberal programs which have been a social and economic disaster almost everywhere. and not for everyone. take each of which is right on the front pages. a part of the source of the uprising in egypt, qatar for a long time, but is peaking because of the disastrous effects of imf structural adjustment programs, which have increased growth, but kind of the way they do here with well for going into very few pockets. and most of the population suffering. and that's been true in place after place to going, latin america, as long as accepting these programs, i went through several decades of sharp decline, economic decline, that is now cast out to programs and is a quite successful growth. that we see the same thing here. we have been through, it's not as rigid here as it is important is, but because, the wealthy protect themselves. it's part of the reason why over the past essentially 30 years the u.s. has become, has been in a vicious cycle of sharp concentration of wealth, really in one-tenth of

once prices were freed, that meant that you had neoliberal capitalism and one of the effects of that, he told me, he said a few days after freeing prices up at the end of 1991, he was walking along the street and he saw a line of people that he thought was just another coup and then he realized what it was. of his people for the first time were allowed to engage in the private sales. these were people standing along the road, selling things that they had to try and make some money. this day, december 25, 1991 publicly marks the last point in the lives of most russian people with nothing on their shelves. >> host: meaning in economic terms? >> guest: it was a miserable time for them. one of the commentators on the radio advised people, don't look for things in shops. look for a coup and join it and count yourself lucky. that is how bad things were. another commentator described the scene in the shops is a war zone. people were so desperate to get basic necessities. >> host: how much of that was driven by the revolt of the nomenclature in effect, the effort you describe in the book. you

once prices were freed, that meant that you were into neoliberal capitalism. and one of the effects of that, hugo told me, he said a few days after freeing prices up at the end of 1991 he was walking on the street, and he saw a line of people. and he thought it was just another coup, and then he realized what it was was people for the first time were allowed to engage in private sales, and these were people standing along the road selling things that they had to try and make some money. because this was, this day, december 25, 991, probably marks the lowest point in the lives of most russian people. there was nothing on the shelves -- >> host: meaning in economic terms. >> guest: in economic terms. it was a miserable time for them. one of the commentators on radio advised people don't look for things in the shops, look for a coup and join up and count yourself lucky. that's how bad things were. and another commentator described the scene in the shops as a war zone with the counter at the front tier. frontier. people were so desperate to get basic necessities.

published by stanford university press, "markets in the name of socialism: the left-wing origins of neoliberalism." thank you for talking with us on booktv. >> thank you very much. >> thomas friedman and michael mandelbaum argue that the is facing four major challenges that need to be addressed immediately if we're to continue leading the world. they explain what those are next. this is about an hour and a half. [inaudible conversations] >> we're going to have some real substance, but we're also going to have some great theater, so i hope that in the spirit of theater you will all turn off your cell phones, your pagers, your phones and everything else that's electronic and that can be -- i know our speakers will appreciate it, and i'd like to see that happen. so i'm jessica einhorn, i'm dean of science, and i thank you all for joining us this evening. it's my pleasure to welcome you, the students, the alumni, the friends and faculty to celebrate the book launch of our distinguished professor of american foreign policy, michael mandelbaum, here with his esteemed co-author, new york times columnist

people on the street can talk about neoliberalism. there are protests about neoliberalism. latin america also very, very possible about neoliberalism. it can generally be seen as we think of ronald reagan ideas. the idea of being promarket and antistate. people generally identify that with ronald reagan or margaret thatcher and so these ideas are promarket, antistate. they also have other qualities to them that i talk in the book that are slightly different than other people expect. >> such as? >> even though they are antistate, also they have a strong state. it's just a smaller state. a state that protects things like private property. protects the market to be competitive. and also neoliberalism also is often related to capitalism as opposed to any other economic system. >> where did the term "neoliberalism" come from? >> the term neoliberalism is often seen right around world war ii. there were people in europe talking about an idea of rethinking liberalism. after all the troubles of the war and world war i, world war ii and things like that, they needed to rethink liber