Cultural Commentary. In this CD, writer and political activist Arundhati Roy is recorded giving her acclaimed Lannan Foundation lecture in which she movingly speaks about the misuses of nationalism, and the U.S. governments "War on Terror." She draws connections between the U.S. invasion of Iraq with the U.S.'s previous interventions in Chile, Afghanistan, and the Middle East. Using poetic language, Roy calls upon her literary background to provide a moving discussion of contemporary issues, with a tone that both reveals injustices and possesses hope for the future. "Nationalism of one kind or another was the cause of most of the genocide of the twentieth century. Flags are bits of colored cloth that governments use first to shrink-wrap people's brains and then as ceremonial shrouds to bury the dead"---Arundhati Roy, from the CD. This lecture is preceded with a discussion between Roy and Howard Zinn. Roy is the author of four books, including The God of Small Things, which won the Booker Prize, Power Politics, and War Talk.