10-Minute Talks

In this 10-Minute Talk Michael Billig discusses the works of Hannah Arendt and why they may help us understand recent events involving President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Show Notes

In The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951) the political thinker Hannah Arendt warned of the dangers if the distinction between fact and fiction – and between true and false – is lost. Aware of the fragility of democracy, Arendt argued that democracy depends on populations accepting facts about social life; without such shared facts, democracy can be imperilled. What happens though when facts become matters of opinion?

In this 10-Minute Talk Michael Billig discusses the works of Hannah Arendt and why they may help us understand recent events involving President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Speaker: Professor Michael Billig FBA, Emeritus Professor of Social Sciences, Loughborough University

Transcript: https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/podcasts/10-minute-talks-donald-trump-boris-johnson-warnings-hannah-arendt/

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