Political parties are taken for granted today, but how was the idea of party viewed in the eighteenth century, when core components of modern, representative politics were trialled? From Bolingbroke to Burke, political thinkers regarded party as a fundamental concept of politics, especially in the parliamentary system of Great Britain. The paradox of party w ... Show More
Yesterday
Simon Devereaux, "Execution, State and Society in England, 1660–1900" (Cambridge UP, 2023)
Execution, State and Society in England, 1660–1900 (Cambridge UP, 2023) by Dr. Simon Devereaux provides the first comprehensive account of execution practices in England and their extraordinary transformation from 1660 to 1900. Agonizing execution rituals were once common. Male t ... Show More
46m 9s
Jan 20
Kellen Hoxworth, "Transoceanic Blackface: Empire, Race, Performance" (Northwestern UP, 2024)
In Transoceanic Blackface: Empire, Race, Performance (Northwestern UP, 2024) Dr. Kellen Hoxworth presents a sweeping history of racialized performance across the Anglophone imperial world from the eighteenth to the early twentieth century. A material history of racialized perform ... Show More
44m 43s
Jan 19
Duncan Kelly, "Worlds of Wartime: The First World War and the Reconstruction of Modern Politics" (Oxford UP, 2025)
Worlds of Wartime: The First World War and the Reconstruction of Modern Politics (Oxford University Press, 2025) by Duncan Kelly is a new intellectual history of the many and varied ideas about politics and economics that were made, and remade, through wartime and revolution, by ... Show More
1h 25m
Aug 2023
Looking Ahead to 2024: Conventions, Caucuses, and the Balance of Democracy
What can we expect from the 2024 Conventions? Heather and Joanne look at the role of political conventions in American life, from the “King Caucus” era of the early 1800s, to President Lincoln’s ascendance at the 1860 RNC, to the impact of the 1968 DNC on the political process. H ... Show More
54m 23s
Sep 2023
Matthew McManus, "The Political Right and Equality: Turning Back the Tide of Egalitarian Modernity" (Routledge, 2023)
McManus presents an intellectual history of the conservative and reactionary tradition, stretching from Aristotle and Filmer to Alexander Dugin and Patrick Deneen.
Providing a comprehensive critical genealogy of the intellectual political right, McManus traces its core to a nosta ... Show More
30m 45s
Jun 2024
463. Mad Elections (Part 1)
"Good God I am shot! I shall die!"
The colourful kaleidoscope of British elections from 1265 to their early 20th century incarnation, has seen some of the most critical, shocking, and downright farcical moments of western democracy. None more so than during the 17th, 18th and 19t ... Show More
52m 44s
Jun 2021
Duncan McCargo and Anyarat Chattharakul, "Future Forward: The Rise and Fall of a Thai Political Party" (NIAS Press, 2020)
Thailand has been in a deep political crisis since the royalist-military coup against the Thaksin government in 2006. A second coup, in 2014, ushered in a hard-line military dictatorship. The passing of King Bhumibol Adulyadej in 2016 and accession to the throne of his son and he ... Show More
42m 34s
Oct 2021
Terence Renaud, "New Lefts: The Making of a Radical Tradition" (Princeton UP, 2021)
In the 1960s, the radical youth of Western Europe’s New Left rebelled against the democratic welfare state and their parents’ antiquated politics of reform. It was not the first time an upstart leftist movement was built on the ruins of the old. New Lefts: The Making of a Radical ... Show More
1h 15m
Jun 2024
464. Modern British Elections (Part 2)
From the turn of the 20th century, election campaigns - though still replete with politicians behaving badly - have evolved. They have become less mass-participation events or festivals, and receded, with the majority of the population growing increasingly indifferent. Though, fo ... Show More
54 m
Mar 2024
Jacqueline Kennelly, "Burnt by Democracy: Youth, Inequality, and the Erosion of Civic Life" (U Toronto Press, 2023)
Burnt by Democracy: Youth, Inequality, and the Erosion of Civic Life (University of Toronto Press, 2023) by Dr. Jacqueline Kennelly traces the political ascendance of neoliberalism and its effects on youth. The book explores democracy and citizenship as described in interviews wi ... Show More
1h 5m
Sep 2023
The Civic Bargain: A Conversation with Josiah Ober on Ancients and Moderns
Amidst increasing acrimony and political strain, many worry that democratic governance has an expiration date. To answer these concerns, Josiah Ober looks to the ancients. Here, he discusses his recent book (co-authored with Brook Manville), The Civic Bargain: How Democracies Sur ... Show More
1h 3m