With Stig Abell and Thea Lenarduzzi – Michel Foucault was so fascinated by lettres de cachet – pre-Revolutionary requests made by citizens to the lieutenant of police calling for the imprisonment without trial of a troublesome family member or neighbour – that he co-edited a little-known compendium of them: Biancamaria Fontana joins us to explain; Was the "plunder of black life" the driving force in making America great? Stephanie McCurry weighs in on a recent book, Slavery's Capitalism: A new history of American economic development; finally, in light of the Oxford Companion to Cheese, Paul Levy considers the politics of cheese and makes the case for a good strong Cheddar.

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