What’s it called?
History Of Ideas
What’s it about?
A spin-off from the successful Talking Politics podcast, it dips into the lives and, importantly, the ideas of a variety of big thinkers – from Thomas Hobbes, whose 1651 work Leviathan reimagined and redefined the relationship between people and state, to figures such as Mahatma Gandhi, Karl Marx and Mary Wollstonecraft. There’s also room for less well-known names such as Hannah Arendt, who was worrying about computers in the late 1950s, Frantz Fanon, who argued for violent uprising against colonial oppressors, and Catharine MacKinnon, who believed neither liberalism or Marxism were proper ways for society to organise itself and threw feminism into the mix as an option.
Who’s in it?
The presenter is David Runciman, author, broadcaster, podcaster (obviously) and professor politics and history at Cambridge University.
What’s so good about it?
See above, particularly the bit about Runciman being a professor at Cambridge. He’s a man who knows his stuff, in other words, and who knows how to make that stuff intelligible and kind of gripping. No fake news or dubious factoids here.
Best bits …
In the episode on historian Francis Fukayama, Runciman notes how the theories of many big thinkers can be condensed into sayings of four or five words, such as “the banality of evil” (Arendt), “workers of the world unite” (Marx and Engels) or, in Fukayama’s case, “the end of history”, also the title of his famous 1992 book about liberal democracy.
Fun fact
If Marxist theorising or deep analysis of the writings of Alexis de Tocqueville aren’t your bag then Runciman’s measured tones and soothing voice might make a good cure for insomnia.
For fans of …
BBC Radio 4
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here