and mister talbot is also in the u. s. capital tonight to both of you. welcome to the program. i'm glad that you can take the time with us this evening to talk about the life and legacy of mikhail gorbachev. his death became known public knowledge about 24 hours ago. the west has been emoting ever since about a great statesman inside russia. we've had a telegram from the kremlin, sent to the family, and that's about it. we in the west, it seems wish that we had had more gorbachev. and in the kremlin, you get the sense that they are wishing that they had never had any gorbachev. professor stent. let me start with you. what do you say to that? is that how the, the dividing lines or tonight? well, they carry a certainly like that in western europe and the united states. gorbachev is a great statesman who and ended the cold war, allowed germany to unify peacefully and really liberated millions of people inside the soviet union, free political prisoners. and then in eastern europe, who have been part of the soviet block, that's not how you see clearly either in the kremlin or among

it was co-authored to the sister margaret talbot. so david is a neighbor of ours here at city lights is offices are just down the street from us so you can easily say all in the family tonight, so please join us now in giving a warm welcome to our evening's guests peter richardson david talbot it is a great pleasure to have you both gracing our virtual halls welcome. to city lights live well, thank you here. many peters tonight. we have peter richardson peter maravillas from city lights, and it's a great honor for me to be here with the author of savage journey peter richardson. i'm very pleased to be here tonight. i've been a big fan peters for some time now i read with great interest his history of ramparts magazine, which played a big role in my development as a young journalist and hunter thompson did too i have to say i first read hunter thompson when i was a student at santa cruz you see santa cruz back in the early 1970s and his fear and loathing in las vegas and then later his coverage of the 1972 presidential campaign had a

the talbot picked up, or they left off after being toppled by the u. s. military undoing 20 years of reforms and between afghans experienced democracy and a chaotic effort to build social institutions. so what went wrong? this was afghanistan in 2001 after the september 11th terror attacks in new york and washington, a u. s. lead, military coalition invaded and top of the taliban in a matter of weeks, the group fled to neighboring pakistan. the u. s. in its allies, introduce democratic reforms, help set up elections. they kept tens of thousands of troops in the country to provide security causes and spent billions to build up infrastructure and education, all thought but much of the money did not go where it was supposed to. corruption was wide spread and western contractors also pocketed fat profits. meanwhile the taliban regrouped and struck back. it waged a campaign of terror attacks, including truck bombs and suicide bombers that killed thousands over the years. with elections in 2014 turned into a stalemate. the us had to negotiate a settlement af

while afghan president asher kani fled the country, when the talbot rolled into cobble his predecessor hammond cars, i chose to stay in the capital. he hoped to be able to act as a mediator with the militants. the new rulers restricted his movements and placed them under effect of house arrest and an exclusive interview. he spoke to d. w about the vital role of education in afghanistan's future development. lack of education means poverty. lack of education for girls means lack of abilities. lacoff education for girls means half of the suicide. at least half of the society, at least because of girls are not educated. men are also undermined abilities. therefore, at least off of society, not being able to produce and participate better sex sexually weakened, weaken, and deprived of garrison. and he's launched the full exclusive interview with former ask, i'm president on a car, is i on our youtube channel. the address should be here on your screens. and returning to our top story today, the much anticipated election results in kenya. william router has been declared winner of elections

when you read, like, david talbot's volk on accounts of the incident, not to make light of the issues here, the gay rights issues and civil rights issues and the homophobia of, you know, the homophobia of the times that fuels, possibly fuels his actions, but it's when, talbot writes about it like this crazy thing that happened, this thing that happened in the 70's. when you don't have it in the context of the total history of san francisco it seems like an aberration and it should. it's a terrible, terrible tragedy. when you look at it in the timeline of san francisco history is like the violence of the vigilante days for the violence of the deyoung feud coming back in the 70's. this is the way things were done in san francisco for 50 years. one guy on one side of a political argument, like david brodrick and samuel perry, they shoot it out in daly city. this stuff is happening all the time. it doesn't happen so much in the 20th century but it does in 1978. we have other patterns of san francisco history reasserting themselves. so, you know, dan white goes to trial and people think he

he's on be joined tonight by none other than david talbot.i can't think of anyone better to be doing the honors. david is the esteemed author of popular history books and the founder original editor in chief of salon magazine. former senior editor of miller jones magazine, he has it journalist, a columnist concert for the new yorker, times, "rolling stone", guardian much, much more. he is of course legendary san francisco chronicle bestseller for many years. his most recent book is titled by the light of burning juicy triumphs and tragedies on the second americaned revolution of co-authored with his sister so david is a neighbor of ours at city lights is officer just on the street from us. you can easily say it's all in the family tonight. please join us now giving a warm welcome to our evening guest, peter richardson, david it is a great pleasure to have you both gracing our virtual halls. welcome to city lights live. >> thank you peter. we have peter richardson, peter maverick from cityit lights. and it is a great honor for me too be here w

light of o-waiting dreams, the tragedy of the second american revolution co-authored with margaret talbot. his offices are down the street so you can easily say it is all in the family. join us in giving a warm welcome to our evenings guest peter richardson, david astalbot. it's a great pleasure to have you both gracing our virtual halls. welcome to city lights live. >> thank you peter. many peters tonight. all of us from city lights and it's a great honor for me to be here with the author, peter richardson. i'm very pleased to be here tonight. i've been a big fan of peters for some time now. i read with great interest his history of ramparts magazine which played a big role in my development as a young journalist and hunter thompson did too i have to say. i first read hunter thompson when i was a student at santa cruz back in the early 1970s. and his fear and loathing in las vegas and later his coverage of the 1972 presidential campaign had a huge impact on me as a young journalist. so i read with great interest peter richardson's new book about hunter. i knew hunter a little bit myself