Fresh Air, Bernard Lewis and Robert Jay Lifton

Near Easter Studies professor Bernard Lewis and Robert Jay Lifton on this edition of Fresh Air. Bernard Lewis, Ph.D is a Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University. He's just written a new book about the war in the Middle East called What Went Wrong? Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response. The New York Times Book Review has called Lewis the doyen of Middle Eastern Studies. Lewis says that there may be no escape from the "downward spiral of hate and spite...culminating sooner or later in another alien domination." Professor Robert Jay Lifton specializes in the study of extremist religions and cults. He'll talk with us about John Walker, the American captured in Afghanistan fighting for the Taliban. Lifton is Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology at the Graduate School University Center and Director of The Center on Violence and Human Survival at John Jay College of Criminal Justice at The City University of New York. He's written books on many topics, including the Japanese cult which released poison gas in the Tokyo subways, Nazi doctors, Hiroshima survivors and Vietnam vets. (Broadcast Date: December 18, 2001)