Episode Details

On liberals' embrace of the past and history wars.

We talk to Matthew Karp about his essay, "History As End: 1619, 1776, and the politics of the past". It seems as if there's an ideological inversion going on, where liberals see history in terms of original sin and cycles of injustice, or at best, want to relitigate the past in order to fight battles of the present. Meanwhile conservatives have abandoned the past. What does this say about current attitudes to capital-h History and making the future?

Readings:

• History As End: 1619, 1776, and the politics of the past, Matt Karp, Harpers
• Ends in Sight: Marx/Fukuyama/Hobsbawm/Anderson, Gregory Elliott
• The End of the End of History, Bungacast