In his book "American Contradiction," Paul Starr seeks to explain how America came to be the country that could elect Barack Obama, twice—and then Donald Trump, twice. Starr argues that this kind of turnabout is no anomaly, but rather a manifestation of deep‐rooted tensions or “contradictions” in the nation’s character and institutions.
Starr is in conversation with Harvard Law School Professor Randall Kennedy.
Randall Kennedy is a professor at Harvard Law School where he teaches courses on contracts, freedom of expression, and the regulation of race relations. Mr. Kennedy was born in Columbia, South Carolina. For his education he attended St. Albans School, Princeton University, Oxford University, and Yale Law School. He served as a law clerk for Judge J. Skelly Wright of the United States Court of Appeals and for Justice Thurgood Marshall of the United States Supreme Court. He is a member of the bar of the District of Columbia and the Supreme Court of the United States. Awarded the 1998 Robert F. Kennedy Book Award for Race, Crime, and the Law, Mr. Kennedy writes for a wide range of scholarly and general interest publications, and sits on the editorial boards of *The Nation*, *Dissent*, and *The American Prospect*. A member of the American Law Institute, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Association, Mr. Kennedy was awarded an honorary degree by Haverford College and is a former trustee of Princeton University. Image courtesy of Martha Stewart.
Paul Starr is professor of sociology and public affairs at Princeton University and co-founder and co-editor of *The American Prospect*. At Princeton he holds the Stuart Chair in Communications and Public Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School. Professor Starr has written extensively on American society, politics, and both domestic and foreign policy. He received the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction and Bancroft Prize in American History for *The Social Transformation of American Medicine* and the 2005 Goldsmith Book Prize for *The Creation of the Media*. His most recent book *Freedom's Power*, on the history and promise of liberalism, is now out in paperback. In 1990, with Robert Kuttner and Robert Reich, he co-founded* The American Prospect*, a liberal magazine about politics, policy, and ideas. Published quarterly in its early years, the magazine now appears monthly in print as well as online. A short book by Professor Starr, *The Logic of Health-Care Reform* (1992) laid out the case for a system of universal health insurance and managed competition. During 1993 he served as a senior advisor at the White House in the formulation of the Clinton health plan Sandra Starr, Paul Starr's first wife, died in 1998. Now married to Ann Baynes Coiro, he has four children and three step-children.
