Historians these days probably get less sleep than anyone else – kept up by the echoes of the past in the radically shifting world political landscape. The historical allusions of contemporary governments in the US, and in Europe, are driving all manner of comparisons with the 1930s in particular, and the rise of Nazism, Fascism, and Authoritarianism. This panel brings together four University of Sydney academics who specialise in the political cultures of the last century, to discuss the relevance of the past, and these categories to the present. We consider Greece, Egypt, Europe and the US. If we can work out how different the present is from the past, hopefully we can all get some sleep! Speakers: - Professor Vrasidas Karalis, Sir Nicholas Laurantus Professor of Modern Greek, the University of Sydney - Professor Dirk Moses, Professor of Modern History, the University of Sydney - Dr Lucia Sorbera, Senior Lecturer, Department of Arabic Language and Cultures, the University of Sydney Held as part of Sydney Ideas' The Thinker’s Guide to the 21st Century series on 11 October 2017: http://sydney.edu.au/sydney_ideas/lectures/2017/thinkers_guide_21st_century_2017.shtml