The Fifth Republic: order or chaos?
France is in some ways one of Europe’s most conservative societies, and yet revolutionary violence is never far from the surface. Muriel Zag...
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Government & Organizations
Engelsberg Ideas Podcast
The Engelsberg Ideas Podcast brings together the best writers, thinkers and historians to discuss the biggest issues facing the world today. Hosted by Iain Martin and Mattias Hessérus.
Episodes
20 of 410 episodes
The deep roots of Anglo-German relations
Britain and Germany have shared royal dynasties, forged pragmatic alliances, exchanged huge flows of capital and fought terrible wars agains...
Napoleon’s nest of vipers
Napoleon appointed a total of 26 Marshals between 1804 and 1815, and they became crucial to his military success. Yet only two of them fough...
Russia’s war on Ukrainian science
Earlier this week, a Russian drone strike hit the National Academy of Sciences in central Kyiv, bringing terror to the historic centre of Uk...
Space and the new clash of civilisations
Earlier this month, the US confirmed for the first time that it had deployed a space weapon in Earth’s orbit. John B. Sheldon and Jack Dicke...
Reinventing Disraeli
What did Benjamin Disraeli believe and why is he still invoked as a prophet of modern conservatism? Emily Jones speaks to Paul Lay about her...
The scramble for the Middle East
Simon Sebag Montefiore speaks to Jack Dickens about his new book, ‘The Cauldron: The Making of the Modern Middle East’. Image: British troop...
The novel in Britain: from cover to cover
Philip Hensher speaks to Alastair Benn about his new book, ‘A History of the Novel in Britain’, a stylish and very personal survey of a grea...
Journeys in Europe’s grey zone
Hannah Lucinda Smith speaks to Caitlin Allen about her new book, ‘Hinterlands: Journeys through Europe’s Unfinished Frontiers’. Image: Unite...
Machiavelli still matters
Stephen Bowd speaks to Paul Lay about why, 500 years after his death, Niccolò Machiavelli remains one of the world’s most vital political ph...
The entire history of cinema in one shot
Film critic David Thomson speaks to Paul Lay about his new book, ‘A Sudden Flicker of Light: A Revisionist History of the Movies’. Image: A...
America’s universal document: a curious history
Marking 250 years since the Declaration of Independence, Michael Auslin speaks to Paul Lay about the document’s powerful yet often strange a...
The alien world of Homer’s Odyssey
What does Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of ‘The Odyssey’ have in common with Homer’s poem? Classicist and actor Orlando Gibbs speaks to Ala...
How wine made the modern world
Historian Kathleen Burk speaks to Max Mitchell about the long history of humanity's relationship with wine, taking us on a journey from the...
The struggle for Saudi Arabia’s buried past
Saudi Arabia’s expensive investment in its future has come with a concurrent focus on its archaeological past but its ambitions risk eradica...
The diplomats who defeated Hitler
Peter Ricketts, Britain’s former ambassador to France, speaks with Paul Lay about a golden age of diplomacy. Image: Archibald Clark Kerr (Br...
The political power of knowing your enemy
In war and diplomacy, personal relationships between leaders can shape the course of events in unpredictable ways. Read by Leighton Pugh. Re...
The return of the Great Powers
Brendan Simms talks to EI’s Jack Dickens about a new age of geopolitical rivalry. Image: Xi Jinping and Donald Trump. Credit: Alamy
Germany’s new old nuclear dilemma
When it comes to nuclear weapons, the concerns that West Germany’s first chancellor wrestled with during the Cold War have not disappeared....
250 years of the American experiment
Paul Lay speaks to Phil Tinline , author of Ghosts of Iron Mountain: The Hoax that Duped America and its Sinister Legacy , about the variety...