episode-header-image

Nov 2021

51m 36s

Living through the fall of communism

IMMEDIATE MEDIA

About this episode

Professor Lea Ypi reflects on her childhood years, which witnessed the final years of communism in Albania and the fraught transition to capitalist democracy. In conversation with Rob Attar, she also considers what these experiences have taught her about the true nature of freedom.

(Ad) Lea Ypi is the author of Free: Coming of Age at the End of History (Penguin, 2021). Buy it now from Waterstones:

https://go.skimresources.com?id=71026X1535947&xcust=historyextra-social-viewingguide&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.waterstones.com%2Fbook%2Ffree%2Flea-ypi%2F9780241481851

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Up next

Exploring the medieval world with Marco Polo

You may be familiar with the name of Marco Polo – the 13th-century Venetian merchant who travelled along the Silk Road, journeyed through Asia and spent time at the court of Mongol emperor Kublai Khan. Famously, he documented his experiences in a detailed account that has inspire ... Show More

The Mitford Sisters | 1 : life of the week

For much of the 20th century, six sisters from Britain’s minor aristocracy had a knack for making headline after scandalous headline. They were Nancy, Pamela, Diana, Unity, Jessica and Deborah Mitford. Now, the sisters' incredible shared story has been adapted into a TV drama cal ... Show More

Beyond the trenches: a new take on WW1

When you think of the First World War, what springs to mind? Is it trench warfare? The myth that troops would be home by Christmas? Or perhaps the idea that the whole thing began because of the assassination of an Austro-Hungarian archduke? In this episode, we’re going beyond the ... Show More

Recommended Episodes

Living Behind the Iron Curtain

This week David talks to Katja Hoyer and Lea Ypi about life under communism. East Germany was the most successful of the communist states of Eastern Europe, measured by economic prosperity and sporting success. Did the GDR ever really offer a model of how Soviet-style communism c ... Show More

Writing the History of Money and Monetary Policy

What do the histories of currency and monetary policy tell us about societies at large, political structures, and cultures? Ekaterina Pravilova and Rebecca Spang tackle these questions, respectively, in two important books that examine the history of the Russian ruble from the ti ... Show More

Stalin: History & Critique of a Black Legend w/ Salvatore Engel-Di Mauro & David Peat

Special, early access to an extended conversation about the imminent release of the new translation (by Henry and Salvatore) of Domenico Losurdo's Stalin: History and Critique of a Black Legend from Iskra Books. The release of the book is imminent, and is available from the Iskr ... Show More

Communism in America

The history of the United States' relationship with communism is one littered with fear and persecution. So where did the American Communist Party come from? How powerful has it been in the last century? And where is it now? In this episode of American History Hit, Don is joined ... Show More

The Lives of Herders on the Ancient Steppes: Interview with Professor Alicia Ventresca Miller

When we think of the open grasslands of the Eurasian steppes, we usually imagine nomadic herders taking their livestock from place to place on horseback. But the steppes are a vast and varied place, and so too were the ways of life that ancient people developed to live there. Pro ... Show More

Free with Lea Ypi

David talks with Lea Ypi about her astonishing new memoir Free: Coming of Age at the End of History, which tells the story of her childhood in Stalinist Albania and what came after. It’s a tale of family secrets, political oppression and the promise of liberation - and a profound ... Show More

Kathryn de Luna on Africa, Bantu, and Historical Linguistics

About one in every five people alive on the planet today speaks a language belonging to the Bantu family, and Bantu-speaking peoples have shaped the history of Africa in profound ways. But how did they expand from their original homeland, and how can we tell? Professor Kathryn de ... Show More

The end of Stalinist rule in Albania

In 1990 Albania’s communist government agreed to allow independent political parties following a wave of protests. Lea Ypi was an 11 year old schoolgirl at the time and watched events with consternation – she was a firm believer in what she had been taught about communism at scho ... Show More

Introducing Tides of History

History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme, said Mark Twain. From the fall of the Roman Empire to the rise of the modern world: history ebbs and flows over the centuries, driven by great tides of economic, social, political, religious, and cultural change that shape the wo ... Show More

The Dawn of History in China

China’s written history goes back more than 3,000 years, stretching deep into the Bronze Age. But just how far back does it go, and how reliable are those first legendary texts when discussing a world that had already been lost for centuries? They speak of powerful kings and capi ... Show More

Listen to millions of songs and podcasts on Anghami