Ryan Douglass on “Author Selects”

Welcome to the third edition of OVID’s Author Selects series, where we invite an author to pick a film in OVID’s collection and tell you all about why they think you should watch it.

In our newest episode, Ryan Douglass tells you why he loves Arguing the World. Ryan is the author of The Dialectics Fail Me, a collection of essays from Ryan’s beloved newsletter of the same name. Beginning in the fall of 2020 as an imagined weekly email to Bill de Blasio, Ryan’s funny and thoughtful essays explore urban theory, production, and development.

Arguing the World examines the lives and ideologies of Irving Howe, Nathan Glazer, Irving Kristol and Daniel Bell, who met as undergrads at City College in the 1930s and would go on to shape major political and intellectual movements of the 20th century. While Glazer, Kristol and Bell would come to be known as some of the founding intellectuals of neoconservatism (and the film is a must for anyone curious about how these ideas came to be), Ryan also sees the film as “an invitation” to all of us to explore and discuss the big ideas. There is no barrier to entry, you don’t have to go to the “right” schools, we can all partake in (and enjoy) the conversation!

Pick up a copy of The Dialectics Fail Me and sign up for Ryan’s newsletter!

Are you a film-loving author? Do you know someone who is? Reach out to us about appearing in a future installment of Author Selects!