28: Graham Stewart on Thatcher's rescue from historical cliché
To argue that Margaret Thatcher attacked the post-war dream is to caricature, not illuminate, her importance to British history. Read by Leighton Pugh. https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/continuity-thatcher-rescuing-a-complex-leader-from-historical-cliche/ Credit: John Downing/Getty Images
27m Jun 03, 2021
27m
27: Mark Honigsbaum: Challenging the 'Great Reset' theory of pandemics
Thucydides saw plague as an opportunity to improve the health of society. But history shows that pandemics have a way of disrupting medical and social progress. Read by Leighton Pugh. https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/challenging-the-great-reset-theory-of-pandemics Credit: Bettmann
24m May 28, 2021
24m
25: Clive Aslet: The changing fate of the English country house
Amid the tumult of the 1970s, it appeared the traditional country house had gone into irreversible decline - but it was too early to write it off. Read by Leighton Pugh. https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/upstairs-downstairs-demolished-the-changing-fate-of-the-english-country-house/ Credit: The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images
19m May 20, 2021
19m
23: Helen Thompson: Geopolitics of a pandemic
The Covid-19 crisis has accentuated all the geopolitical fault lines of the past decade. Read by Leighton Pugh. https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/geopolitics-pandemic-geopolitical-conflict/ Credit: Adobe Stock
22m May 06, 2021
22m
21: Philip Bobbitt: A government of laws
The constitutional order is changing as citizens become alienated and demand more say. Americans must take care that their habits of law are not swept away. Read by Leighton Pugh. https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/a-government-of-laws/ Credit: REUTERS (https://www.alamy.com/search/imageresults.aspx?cid=FTPYQLA93JH396SCAUER2MUB3WH5CZBCX4MM8D8SQUBNT7CPAXV2DRGQHPR56JBD&name=REUTERS&st=12&mode=0...
14m Apr 29, 2021
14m
20: Vanessa Harding: Remembering London's last Great Plague
London's response to its last plague epidemic involved close collaboration between crown, City and parish. Read by Leighton Pugh. https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/living-with-the-great-plague-of-1665/ Credit: Culture Club / Getty Images
22m Apr 22, 2021
22m
19: Johan Hakelius: John Hughes and the making and unmaking of the American Dream
The films of John Hughes updated the American Dream for a new generation, and his complex legacy helps us understand what went so wrong. Read by Leighton Pugh. https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/john-hughes-and-the-making-and-unmaking-of-the-american-dream/ Credit: CBS via Getty Images
15m Apr 13, 2021
15m
18: Iskander Rehman: Why applied history matters
Forget the seduction of grand theories and presentist moral judgments. To learn the lessons of the past, the great foreign policy analysts of our age must rediscover the art of historical discernment. Read by Leighton Pugh. https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/the-case-for-applied-history/ Credit: BLM Collection (https://www.alamy.com/search/imageresults.aspx?pseudoid=%7b243F1107-A998-48DE-A245...
48m Apr 08, 2021
48m
16: Gillian Clark: Survival lessons from Ancient Rome
The Romans have so much to teach us about what it means to live in a society in crisis. Read by Leighton Pugh. https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/survival-lessons-from-ancient-rome/ Credit: Thomas Cole / Public domain
23m Mar 26, 2021
23m
15: Peter Frankopan: This crisis has the capacity to be apocalyptic
Covid-19 heralds the end of our interconnected world. We'll need wise leaders to navigate what comes next. Read by Leighton Pugh. https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/this-crisis-has-the-capacity-to-be-apocalyptic/ Credit: Getty Images
21m Mar 19, 2021
21m
12: Can America lead again?
Iain Martin with guests Sir Nigel Sheinwald, Professor Joseph Nye, Karin von Hippel and Tom McTague on the foreign policy change facing the Biden administration
53m Jan 22, 2021
53m
11: GCHQ – John Ferris on the official history
Mattias Hessérus is in conversation with John Ferris, the historian 'behind the enigma' of Britain's signals intelligence agency.
38m Dec 19, 2020
38m
10: MI9 – Helen Fry on wartime escape
Mattias Hessérus is in conversation with Helen Fry on the ingenious exploits of MI9 – the secret service for escape and evasion.
36m Dec 15, 2020
36m
9: David Omand on what it takes to think like a secret agent
Mattias Hessérus is in conversation with David Omand, former director of GCHQ, on how we can all learn to think like a spy.
45m Dec 14, 2020
45m
8: Fredrik Logevall on JFK
Over 40,000 books have been written on JFK since his assassination, yet none have succeeded in getting behind the myth of Camelot. Join Mattias Hessérus in discussion with Fredrik Logevall on the making of the man who enchanted America.
49m Dec 04, 2020
49m
7: Covid and reform: can the West fix its governing systems?
Iain Martin with guests Adrian Wooldridge and Vernon Bogdanor discusses the covid crisis and the long-term impact that it might have on the development of the West.
46m Nov 13, 2020
46m
6: Alexander Lee on Machiavelli
In this episode of History Lessons, Mattias Hesserus is joined by Alexander Lee to discuss Machiavelli’s life and works. Was he always an adept politician?  Was he as immoral as is often claimed?
50m Sep 28, 2020
50m
5: Asian Philosophies of Rebirth with Jessica Frazier
In this episode of History Lessons, Mattias Hesserus and Jessica Frazier are in conversation about the differences between Eastern and Western philosophies of crisis. Is the desire for a return to ’normal’ inherently western? What can we learn from narratives of rebirth? And, was the global lockdown a mass-participation yogic experiment?
37m Sep 11, 2020
37m
4: Can the West be revived?
How did the West land in, what we might politely call, a 'sub-optimal' condition? And is a revival of the West feasible? To discuss these questions Iain Martin is joined by Peter Frankopan and David Frum. This is an Engeslberg Ideas podcast.
49m Jul 23, 2020
49m
3: Leadership in a Crisis with Andrew Roberts
On this episode of History Lessons, Mattias Hessérus is joined by the historian and author Andrew Roberts to look through the careers of great figures like Napoleon Bonaparte, Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher (as well as some of history's great villains, Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin) and see how they handled the pressure of a crisis. History Lessons is an Engelsberg Ideas podcast. Ho...
27m Jul 10, 2020
27m
2: The History of Quarantine with Lincoln Paine
On this episode of History Lessons, Mattias Hessérus speaks to the maritime historian Lincoln Paine, author of The Sea and Civilization, about the history of quarantine, how pandemics have affected trade and travel in the past, and whether globalisation can survive the current moment. Hosted by Mattias Hessérus. With Lincoln Paine. Produced by Nick Hilton for Podot.
26m Jul 01, 2020
26m
Art, History and Pandemics with Tom Holland
On this, the first episode of History Lessons, Mattias Hessérus speaks to the historian Tom Holland about the relationship between reality and art in the age of a pandemic. Hosted by Mattias Hessérus. With Tom Holland. Produced by Nick Hilton for Podot.
35m Jun 17, 2020
35m