Is history under threat?
Increasingly, the modern, individualistic global West is coming to see history as a discipline that’s irrelevant, harmful, and divisive. Some are worried that we’re becoming more and more disconnected from a broader story. Can the past help us navigate our modern world? Or is it better if we let it fade into a “dark age”?
Meet our guest
Dr. Sarah Irving-Stonebraker is a returning guest, having previously appeared on the Undeceptions single Ahistoric Age and episode 9 Dominus Illuminatio.
She is an Associate Professor of History and Western Civilisation at Australian Catholic University.
Her first book, Natural Science and the Origins of the British Empire was awarded the Royal Society of Literature and Jerwood Foundation Award for Non-Fiction.
Her new book is Priests of History: Stewarding the Past in an Ahistoric Age.
Links
Special thanks to our season sponsor Zondervan Academic. Get discounts on MasterLectures video courses and exclusive samples of their books at zondervanacademic.com/undeceptions
You can find a copy of Sarah’s new book here.
A transcript of this episode is available here. Please note that due to software not all exchanges between guests will be completely accurate.
Extras
As promised, here are some of John’s favourite prayers from the Book of Common Prayer!
Check out the helpful links below for more information on what was discussed in this episode.
To Read
- In this episode, we talk about Cecil Rhodes – the controversial British Imperialist. Check out this article from the BBC on why his statue in Oxford is a point of contention
- … and check out this defence of the Rhodes statues, written by Undeceptions alumni Nigel Biggar
- For our Australian listeners, here’s the source for the surprising statistic that two-thirds of surveyed school kids thought the ANZAC story was irrelevant
- Time Magazine wrote this fascinating – and divisive – article about the history culture wars (with reference to the New York Times 1619 Project)
- Did Britain road-test their colonial project in Ireland? This article gets into it
- We’ve also got an article on the here on the website – Re-Engaging With A Troubled History
To Watch
- Sarah is an in-demand expert on today’s topic. Here she is on the Premier Unbelievable YouTube channel
- There’ve been a lot of questions asked in the world recently over the place of certain statues. Here’s an interesting video courtesy of The Independent which tracks the evolution of this cultural re-assesent
- As always, the YouTube channel School of Life has some helpful content to do with this episode!
- Here’s the hilarious clip from the BBC trying to get 17th century English folks to move to Northern Ireland
To Listen
- Sarah is a returning guest to Undeceptions. Here she is for the single Ahistoric Age
- … and here she is way back in season one, for episode 9 Dominus Illuminatio
- The 1619 Project has this great podcast that gets more into the largely untold history of the first black Americans
- There are plenty of podcasts that have covered the pulling down of statues over the last decade – Dan Snow’s History Hit which is a great starting point on this complex subject
… and finally
- Ever wondered about the collective noun for ants? Aardvarks? Faries? This list is for you (language warning)
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