Kreisler (executive director, Institute of International Studies, U. of California at Berkeley) presents interviews with 20 prominent intellectual and political figures, the central topical focus of which is their respective formative experiences informing their later thinking and activity. The interviewees are: Noam Chomsky; Daniel Ellsberg of Pentagon papers fame; "sheriff of Wall Street" Elizabeth Warren, advocate for and speculative candidate to head a new Consumer Finance Protection Agency; Oakland mayor and former US Representative Ron Dellums; food activist Michael Pollan; Eva Harris, founder of the Sustainable Sciences Institute; Nigerian human rights attorney Oronto Douglas; Israeli journalist Amira Hass; American journalist Jane Mayer; Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid; Chalmers Johnson, scholarly Cold Warrior turned critic of American empire; British Pakistani political activist Tariq Ali; Iranian-American writer Roya Hakakian; American filmmaker Oliver Stone; Japanese writer Kenzaburo Oe; South African jurist Albie Sachs; Iranian human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi; Philippe Sands, a British professor of international law; historian Joan Wallach Scott; and the late historian Howard Zinn. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)