Thinking Class #080- Prof. Alan Macfarlane - England's Rise, Anglo-America's Fall And An Ascendant China
Alan Macfarlane is a historian and anthropologist who taught at the University of Cambridge for 34 years. He is now Professor Emeritus of Anthropological Science and a Life Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge. His comparative work spans England, Nepal, Japan, and China, with a particular focus on the origins and nature of the modern world.
In this conversation, Alan and I think out loud about the history of the English people's relationship with money, how this compares with China, the cyclical nature of civilizations, whether Alan thinks China will suffer a collapse, the effectiveness of China's political system (and its surprising meritocracy), the historical nature of class relations in England and why our view of the aristocracy is not quite right, and the historical context of gender relations, specifically women's freedom and rights, and much, much more.
My first conversation with Alan
My Second conversation with Alan
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