Interventions | The Intellectual History Podcast

In what ways has the question of Anglo-Scottish Union been - and become - urgent? What can historians learn from the philosophers' Enlightenment? These are some of the questions we discuss in this episode with John Robertson, Professor of the History of Political Thought at Cambridge, whose books include 'The Case for Enlightenment: Scotland and Naples, 1680-1760', and 'The Enlightenment. A Very Short Introduction'.

What is the relationship between neoliberalism and human rights? Does the exclusive focus on rights bias the discourse against other staples of ethical relations between humans, like duties? These are some of the questions we discuss in this episode with Samuel Moyn, professor of Law and History at Yale, a major voice on the history of human rights and author of the forthcoming 'Not Enough: Human Rights in an Unequal World.'

What is the history of republicanism in Turkey? How did ideas travel between Turkey and Western Europe? And how can we write a transnational or even global intellectual history? These are some of the questions we discussed with Dr Banu Turnaoğlu, a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow and a Research Associate of St John's College Cambridge, who is a specialist in the history of Ottoman political thought.

How do intellectual historians approach sources? What can a source change about existing narratives in the history of political thought? And why is it so important for intellectual historians to know who the author of a given source is? Felix Waldmann, Junior Research Fellow at Christ’s College Cambridge, talked to us about manuscripts, forgeries, discoveries and his research on eighteenth century political thought and the Enlightenment in Italy.

How did early modern scholastic theologians understand political power? What does it mean to speak of scholastic republicanism? And in what ways are these theologians suggestive for thinking about politics today? These are some of the questions we discussed with Dr Ben Slingo - a Junior Research Fellow at Clare College, Cambridge - who is currently working on a book manuscript entitled Scholastic Republicanism.

What does it mean to think globally about politics? What ideas about space and order does this term rest upon? And what insights are to be gained by approaching questions of global politics and global space from a historical perspective? We explore these questions and the practice of intellectual history more broadly, with Dr Or Rosenboim, who recently finished her PhD in Politics at the University of Cambridge and is currently lecturer at City University in London.

How should we think of the relationship between liberalism and empire? Can the turn to history help us "decolonize" liberalism today? And what is the role of utopia in Anglophone visions of empire? These are questions we discussed with Dr Duncan Bell, Reader in Political Thought and International Relations at Cambridge, who is a leading authority on modern British and American ideologies of empire.

What are political traditions and how do they come into existence? Was Edmund Burke really a conservative and what does it mean for us to think of him as such? And what can history tell us about political identities today? Dr Emily Jones – a research fellow at Pembroke College, Cambridge – talked to us about her own biography, her research and her views on how to do intellectual history and what we can learn from it.

What does it mean to think about politics philosophically? How did Renaissance and early modern thinkers address that question? And in what ways is a historical lens helpful to think about the theory of politics today? These are some of the questions we discussed with Dr Sophie Smith, who is an Associate Professor of Political Theory in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Oxford and a Tutorial Fellow at University College.