Talking Politics: HISTORY OF IDEAS

About this podcast

A new series of talks by David Runciman, in which he explores some of the most important thinkers and prominent ideas lying behind modern politics – from Hobbes to Gandhi, from democracy to patriarchy, from revolution to lock down. Plus, he talks about the crises – revolutions, wars, depressions, pandemics – that generated these new ways of political thinking. From the team that brought you Talking Politics: a history of ideas to help make sense of what’s happening today.

Talking Politics: HISTORY OF IDEAS

Episodes

2021
Nietzsche on Morality
Friedrich Nietzsche’s masterpiece The Genealogy of Morality (1887) sets out to explain where ideas of good and evil come from and why they have left human beings worse off. He traces their origins in what he calls the slave revolt in morality. David examines the ways Nietzsche’s story unsettles almost everything about modern social conventions and leaves us with the troubling question: what can possibly come next? Free version Recommended version to buy Going deeper: John Kaag, Hiking with Nietzsche: On Becoming Who You Are (2018) Sue Prideaux, I Am Dynamite!: A Life of Friedrich Nietzsche (2018) Alex Ross, 'Nietzsche's Eternal Return,' The New Yorker (2019) (Audio): In Our Time, 'Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morality (2017) See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
March 2, 2021
47 min
Butler on Machines
Samuel Butler’s Erewhon (1872) is a strange and unsettling book about a world turned upside down. Usually classified as utopian or dystopian fiction, it also contains an eerie prophecy about the coming of intelligent machines. David explores the origins of Butler’s ideas and asks what they have to teach us about the oddity of how we choose to organise our societies, both then and now. Free version of the text Recommended version to buy Going Deeper: Samuel Butler, The Way of All Flesh (1903) Virginia Woolf, 'Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown' (1924) George Dyson, Darwin Among the Machines (1997) (Video) James Paradis, 'Naturalism and Utopia: Samuel Butler's Erewhon' See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
February 23, 2021
48 min
Douglass on Slavery
My Bondage and My Freedom (1855) by the former slave Frederick Douglass was the second of his three autobiographies and the one that contained his most radical ideas. In this episode David explores how Douglass used his life story not only to expose the horror of slavery but to champion a new approach to abolishing it. The name for this approach: politics. Free version of the text Recommended version to buy Going deeper..... David Blight, Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom (2018) Saidiya Hartman, Scenes of Subjection: Terror, Slavery, and Self-Making in Nineteenth-Century America (1997) Colum McCann, TransAtlantic (2013) (Audio): Jamelle Bouie, Henry Louis Gates Jr., and Rebecca Onion, 'Who Should Tell the Story of American Slavery?' (2015) See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
February 16, 2021
47 min
Bentham on Pleasure
Jeremy Bentham’s Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation is a definitive early statement of the basis of utilitarianism: how do we achieve the greatest happiness of the greatest number? David looks at Bentham’s rationale for this approach and the many criticisms it has faced. Bentham has often been accused of reducing politics to mechanical calculation and missing what really matters. But given the time in which he was writing, wasn’t the prioritisation of pleasure the most radical idea of all? Free online version of text Recommended version to purchase Going deeper… Philip Lucas and Anne Sheeran, ‘Asperger’s Syndrome and the Eccentricity and Genius of Jeremy Bentham’ (2006) Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish (1975) Thomas McMullan, ‘What does the panopticon mean in the age of digital surveillance?’, The Guardian (2015) (Audio) In Our Time, Utilitarianism See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
February 9, 2021
48 min
Rousseau on Inequality
Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Discourse on Inequality (also known as the Second Discourse) tells the story of all human history to answer one simple question: how did we end up in such an unequal world? David explores the steps Rousseau traces in the fall of humankind and asks whether this is a radical alternative to the vision offered by Hobbes or just a variant on it. Is Rousseau really such a nice philosopher? Free online version of text Recommended version to purchase Going deeper… Leo Damrosch, Jean Jacques Rousseau: Restless Genius (2005) David Edmonds and John Eidinow, Rousseau’s Dog (2007) Pankaj Mishra, ‘How Rousseau predicted Trump’, The New Yorker (2016) (Audio) In Our Time, The Social Contract See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
February 2, 2021
48 min
2020
Q & A with David
We got lots and lots of excellent questions from listeners about the themes and ideas in this series of talks. In this extra episode David will do his best to answer some of them, from Hobbes to Weber, and from Gandhi to feminism. Plus he talks about what's missing from this series and where we might start next time. Go to https://www.talkingpoliticspodcast.com/history-of-ideas for the full collection of reading lists. Quentin Skinner on the state: (Video) Quentin Skinner, ‘What is the state? The question that will not go away’ Orwell on Gandhi: https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwell/essays-and-other-works/reflections-on-gandhi/ See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
July 3, 2020
49 min
Fukuyama on History
Francis Fukuyama’s The End of History (1992) became associated with the triumph of liberal democracy at the end of the twentieth century. But was Fukuyama really a triumphalist? David explores what Fukuyama had to say about the strengths and weaknesses of liberal democracy and asks whether his analysis still holds true today. What have we learned about the modern state from its history? And can it, and we, really change now? Recommended version to purchase: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/133/13399/the-end-of-history-and-the-last-man/9780241960240.html Going Deeper: Paul Hirst for the LRB on ‘Endism’ Fukuyama at the 2020 Munich Security Conference Fukuyama on the 2016 presidential election Louis Menand, ‘Francis Fukuyama Postpones the End of History,’ The New Yorker. Talking Politics with Fukuyama See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
May 25, 2020
47 min
MacKinnon on Patriarchy
Catharine MacKinnon’s Toward a Feminist Theory of the State (1989) challenges two dominant ways of thinking about politics: liberalism, which wants to protect us from the power of the state, and Marxism, which wants to liberate us through the power of the state. What if neither is good enough to emancipate women? Mackinnon explains why patriarchal power permeates all forms of modern politics. David discusses what she thinks we can do about it. Recommended version to purchase: Catharine A. MacKinnon, Toward a feminist theory of the state (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989). Going Deeper: Lorna Finlayson in the LRB on Catharine MacKinnon, feminism, and the law Catharine A. MacKinnon, Sexual harassment of working women: a case of sex discrimination (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1979). Drucilla Cornell, ‘Sexual difference, the feminine, and equivalency: a critique of MacKinnon’s Toward a feminist theory of the state’, Yale Law Journal, vol. 100, no. 7, article 12. The NYTimes on Catharine MacKinnon and sexual harassment Catharine Mackinnon for The Atlantic on #MeToo See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
May 22, 2020
45 min
Fanon on Colonialism
Frantz Fanon was a psychiatrist who both experienced and analysed the impact of colonial violence. In The Wretched of the Earth (1961) he developed an account of politics that sought to channel violent resistance to colonialism as a force for change. It is a deliberately shocking book. David explores what Fanon’s argument says about the possibility of moving beyond the power of the modern state. Free online version of the text: http://abahlali.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Frantz-Fanon-The-Wretched-of-the-Earth-1965.pdf Recommended version to purchase: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/573/57385/the-wretched-of-the-earth/9780141186542.html Going Deeper: Megan Vaughan for the LRB on Fanon and psychiatry in North Africa Frantz Fanon, Toward the African revolution: political essays Frantz Fanon, Black skin, white masks (New York, NY: Grove Press, 2008). (Video) Gillo Pontecorvo, The Battle of Algiers [film] (1966) Jean-Paul Sartre, ‘Preface’, in Frantz Fanon, The wretched of the earth (Harmondsworth: Penguin Classics, 2001) Alice Cherki, Frantz Fanon: a portrait, Nadia Benabid, trans. (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2006). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
May 18, 2020
41 min
Arendt on Action
Hannah Arendt’s The Human Condition (1958) is a remarkably prophetic book. At its heart is an analysis of the relationship between labour, work and action, set against a time of rapid technological change. Arendt worried about the power of computers, believed in the capacity of people to reinvent themselves through politics and despaired of the influence of Thomas Hobbes. Was she right? Recommended version to purchase: https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/H/bo29137972.html Going Deeper: James Miller in the LRB on Hannah Arendt Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism Hannah Arendt, Eichman in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil In Our Time on Hannah Arendt Matthew Beard for the Guardian, ‘With Robots, is a life without work one we’d want to live?’ See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
May 15, 2020
45 min
Hayek on the Market
Friedrich Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom (1944) was written during the Second World War but Hayek was really worried about what would come next. He feared that wartime planning would spill over into the peacetime economy and destroy hard won freedoms. David explores where Hayek’s fears came from and asks why he worried that democracy would only make the problem worse. He also considers what makes Hayek such a politically influential and divisive figure to this day. Free online version of the text: https://archive.org/details/TheRoadToSerfdom/page/n7/mode/2up Recommended version to purchase: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-road-to-serfdom/f-a-hayek/9780415253895 Going Deeper: Geoffrey Hawthorn on Hayek and his overcoat for the LRB F.A. Hayek, ‘Individualism: True and False’ Andrew Gamble, Hayek: The iron cage of liberty (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1996) Stephen Metcalf in The Guardian, ‘Neoliberalism: The Idea that Swallowed the World’ Hayek vs. Keynes Matt Ridley, The rational optimist: how prosperity evolves (London: Fourth Estate 2011) See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
May 11, 2020
44 min
Weber on Leadership
Max Weber’s The Profession and Vocation of Politics (1919) was a lecture that became one of the defining texts of twentieth century political thought. In it, Weber explores the perils and paradoxes of leadership in a modern state. Is it possible to do bad in order to do good? Can violence ever be virtuous? Does political responsibility send politicians mad? David discusses the legacy of Weber’s ideas and asks: who is the true Weberian politician? Free online version of the text: http://fs2.american.edu/dfagel/www/class%20readings/weber/politicsasavocation.pdf Recommended version to purchase: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Weber-Political-Writings-Cambridge-History/dp/0521397197 Going Deeper: Geoffrey Hawthorn on Max Weber for the LRB Joachim Radkau, Max Weber (Polity, 2009) Talking Politics on ‘Politics as a Vocation’ with Jonathan Powell Jan-Werner Müller, Contesting democracy: political ideas in twentieth century Europe (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2013) David for the LRB on Weber, Tony Blair, and the politics of good intentions See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
May 8, 2020
45 min
Gandhi on self-rule
Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi’s Hind Swaraj (1909) was a defining text of the movement for Indian independence from British colonial rule. It also articulated a radical new idea of politics in a modern context – peaceful protest or non-violent resistance. David explores the wider legacy of Gandhi’s ideas and asks what Gandhi’s withering attack on ‘machine’ politics means for the politics we have today. Free online version of the text: https://www.mkgandhi.org/ebks/hind_swaraj.pdf Recommended version to purchase: https://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/politics-international-relations/texts-political-thought/gandhi-hind-swaraj-and-other-writings-2nd-edition?format=PB Going Deeper: Stephen Haggard on Gandhi for the LRB M.K. Gandhi, An autobiography: or the story with my experiments of truth (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2001). Ramachandra Guha, Gandhi: The Years that Changed the World 1915-1948 Talking Politics with Ramachandra Guha on Gandhi’s politics Bhikhu Parekh, Gandhi: a very short introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001). Martin Luther King, ‘My Trip to the Land of Gandhi’ E.M. Forster, ‘The Machine Stops’ See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
May 4, 2020
45 min
Marx and Engels on Revolution
The Communist Manifesto (1848) remains the most famous revolutionary text of all. But what was the problem with politics that only a revolution could solve? And why were the working class the only people who could solve it? David explores what Marx and Engels really had to say about capitalism, crisis and class and he asks what still resonates from that message today. Free online version of the text: http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/61/pg61-images.html Recommended version to purchase: https://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/politics-international-relations/texts-political-thought/marx-later-political-writings?format=PB Going Deeper: Karl Marx, ‘The eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte’ Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The German ideology Jonathan Wolff, Why read Marx today? (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003) Gareth Stedman Jones, Karl Marx: greatness and illusion (London: Allen Lane, 2016) In Our Time on Marx See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
May 1, 2020
44 min
Tocqueville on Democracy
Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America (1835/40) can claim to be the best book ever written about democracy and the best book ever written about America. David discusses what Tocqueville was expecting when he went to see American democracy for himself and what he actually found. Tocqueville was amazed and impressed by the American way of doing politics, but his fears about how its democracy might go wrong remain as prescient as ever. Free online version of the text: Volume 1 and Volume 2 Recommended version to purchase: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Democracy-America-Essays-Penguin-Classics/dp/0140447601 Going Deeper: In Our Time on Tocqueville’s Democracy in America Harvey C. Mansfield, Jr, Tocqueville: a very short introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010) Annette Gordon Reed, ‘America’s Original Sin: Slavery and the Legacy of White Supremacy’ Hugh Brogan, Alexis de Tocqueville: prophet of democracy in the age of revolution (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007). Talking Politics American History series on the 15th and 19th amendment See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
April 30, 2020
45 min
Constant on Liberty
Benjamin Constant’s ‘The Liberty of the Ancients Compared to the Liberty of the Moderns’ (1819) examines what it means to be free in the modern world. Are we at liberty to follow our hearts? Do we have an obligation to take an interest in politics? What happens if we don’t? David explores the lessons Constant drew from the failures of the French Revolution and his timeless message about the perils of political indifference. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
April 29, 2020
47 min
Wollstonecraft on Sexual Politics
Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) is one of the most remarkable books in the history of ideas. A classic of early feminism, it uses what’s wrong with the relationship between men and women to illustrate what’s gone wrong with politics. It’s a story of lust and power, education and revolution. David explores how Wollstonecraft’s radical challenge to the basic ideas of modern politics continues to resonate today. Free online version of the text: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3420 Recommended version to purchase: https://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/politics-international-relations/texts-political-thought/wollstonecraft-vindication-rights-men-and-vindication-rights-woman-and-hints?format=PB Going Deeper: In Our Time on Mary Wollstonecraft Wollstonecraft in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Sylvana Tomaselli, Wollstonecraft: Philosophy, Passion, and Politics (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2020) Virginia Woolf on Mary Wollstonecraft Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
April 28, 2020
47 min
Hobbes on the State
Thomas Hobbes’s Leviathan (1651) reimagined how we could do politics. It redefined many of the ideas that continue to shape modern politics: representation, sovereignty, the state. But in Leviathan these ideas have a strange and puzzling power. David explores what Hobbes was trying to achieve and how a vision of politics that came out of the English civil war, can still illuminate the world we live in. Free online version of the text: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3207/3207-h/3207-h.htm Recommended version to purchase: https://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/politics-international-relations/texts-political-thought/hobbes-leviathan-revised-student-edition?format=PB Going Deeper: David Runciman, ‘The sovereign’ in The Oxford handbook of Hobbes (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013) Richard Tuck, Hobbes a Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002) (Video) Quentin Skinner, ‘What is the state? The question that will not go away’ (Video) Sophie Smith, ‘The nature of politics’, the 2017 Quentin Skinner lecture. Noel Malcolm, Aspects of Hobbes (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) David for The Guardian on Hobbes and the coronavirus See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
April 27, 2020
60 min
Talking Politics: HISTORY OF IDEAS
A short trailer to introduce a new series of talks by David Runciman. In a series of twelve podcasts, he explores some of the most important thinkers and prominent ideas lying behind modern politics – from Hobbes to Gandhi, from democracy to patriarchy, from revolution to lock down. Plus he talks about the crises – revolutions, wars, depressions, pandemics – that generated these new ways of political thinking. From the team that brought you Talking Politics: a history of ideas to help make sense of what’s happening today. For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacy
April 20, 2020
3 min

Talking Politics: HISTORY OF IDEAS

About this podcast

Categories

About this podcast

Categories

Talking Politics: HISTORY OF IDEAS

Episodes

Nietzsche on Morality

Butler on Machines

Douglass on Slavery

Bentham on Pleasure

Rousseau on Inequality

Q & A with David

Fukuyama on History

MacKinnon on Patriarchy

Fanon on Colonialism

Arendt on Action

Hayek on the Market

Weber on Leadership

Gandhi on self-rule

Marx and Engels on Revolution

Tocqueville on Democracy

Constant on Liberty

Wollstonecraft on Sexual Politics

Hobbes on the State

Talking Politics: HISTORY OF IDEAS