Former United States Secretary of Labor, radio commentator, and syndicated columnist Robert B. Reich will speak on “Politics and Principles: Do Politicians Have Any? And Where Could They Find Them if They Wanted To?” on Thursday, October 10, at 4:15 p.m. in the Humanities Auditorium on the Scripps campus. A book-signing and reception immediately follows; copies of Reich’s books will be available for purchase at this time. This event is free and open to the public.
Reich served as Secretary of Labor under former President Clinton, where he spearheaded efforts to positively change the conditions for the working public from raising the minimum wage to cracking down on unsafe work sites and prosecuting fraudulent purveyors of pensions and health insurance. Under Reich’s leadership, key legislation was passed and implemented, most notably the Family and Medical Leave Act. Before heading the Labor Department, Reich was on the faculty at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government; served as an assistant to the solicitor general in the Ford administration, representing the United States before the U.S. Supreme Court; and headed the policy planning staff of the Federal Trade Commission during the Carter administration.
Author of numerous books and more than 200 articles on the global economy, the changing nature of work, and the centrality of human capital, Reich is founder and national editor of The American Prospect, and has written extensively for the Prospect on the international economy and American progressivism. Reich was also the host of the widely acclaimed four-part public TV series Made in America (1992), and most recently the writer and host of the PBS special At the Grass Roots (1998). His radio commentary can be heard every other Thursday evening on public radio’s “Marketplace,” and his commentaries have appeared in The New Yorker, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Britain’s Observer, and numerous other journals and publications.
Currently, Reich is the Maurice B. Hexter Professor of Social and Economic Policy at Brandeis University and Heller Graduate School. He also serves as a consultant to several governments and corporations worldwide.