E246 - Cold War Liberal Empire w/ Daniel Bessner and Michael Brenes

E246 - Cold War Liberal Empire w/ Daniel Bessner and Michael Brenes

From American Prestige by Daniel Bessner & Derek Davison

April 28, 2026 · 1h 1m

About this episode

Derek speaks with Danny and Mike Brenes about Cold War liberalism and its impact on the American empire, discussing themes from their new co-edited volume.

Subscribe now to skip the ads and get all of our episodes. Derek speaks with Danny and Mike Brenes about Cold War liberalism, its shaping of the American empire, and more from their new co-edited volume. They talk about the meaning of “Cold War liberalism,” the book’s essays, the relationship between liberalism and mass democracy, emergency politics, the continuity between New Deal liberalism and Cold War liberalism, military Keynesianism, U.S. empire, neoconservatism, Joe Biden, and the persistence of Cold War liberal ideas in long after the end of the Cold War itself. Buy the volume Cold War Liberalism: Power in a Time of Emergency and use discount code BESSNER26 Don’t forget to download our Marx Prestige miniseries. Final episode out today! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

People in this episode

Hosts: Daniel Bessner, Derek Davison

Guest: Michael Brenes

Topics covered

  • Cold War liberalism
  • American empire
  • New Deal liberalism
  • military Keynesianism
  • neoconservatism
  • mass democracy
  • emergency politics

Keywords

  • Cold War
  • liberalism
  • American empire
  • politics
  • history
  • neoconservatism
  • military Keynesianism
  • Joe Biden

Sponsors

Megaphone

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Cold War Liberalism: Power in a Time of Emergency

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