The Civic Agora

In this episode of The Civic Agora, host Javier Mejia speaks with Jeremy Adelman, Emeritus Professor of History at Princeton University and Director of the Global History Lab at the University of Cambridge, about the historical forces that have shaped the way people understand an increasingly interconnected world.

Drawing on his book The Capitalist Era: The Making and Unmaking of the Global Mind, Adelman examines the relationship between capitalism and the ways societies have imagined, experienced, and responded to interdependence. He introduces the idea of the “global mind” as a way of understanding not only the material connections created by markets, finance, technology, energy, and trade, but also the emotions and ideas that accompany those connections including excitement, opportunity, fear, uncertainty, and anxiety about our dependence on strangers and distant institutions.

The conversation considers the history of Latin America and the concept of dependency, while also questioning the idea that dependence has ever been entirely one directional. Adelman instead emphasizes interdependence: the ways different regions and societies have historically relied upon one another, even when those relationships have been profoundly unequal. The discussion traces these dynamics from colonial relationships and the nineteenth century world economy to the expansion of global capitalism and the growing importance of credit, financial markets, and energy systems.

Adelman also reflects on the twentieth century, including the period between the First and Second World Wars, which he describes through the idea of a “global civil war” a period in which conflicts were increasingly shaped by the interconnected conditions of the modern world. The conversation explores how scarcity and interdependence can encourage zero sum thinking, how capitalism can simultaneously connect people and make relationships more anonymous, and how the costs of economic activity can be displaced onto others, including through debt and environmental consequences.

A central theme throughout the episode is the tension between independence and interdependence. Even political declarations of independence, Adelman argues, can be understood as declarations of a particular kind of relationship with others: a demand to be recognized and to determine the terms on which one participates in a wider world.

From the history of political economy to globalization, war, climate change, and the contemporary international order, this conversation asks a fundamental question: How did we learn to think about ourselves as part of an interconnected world and what happens when our ability to understand that interdependence falls behind the reality of it?

This podcast features Keith Baker, J.E. Wallace Sterling Emeritus Professor in the Humanities at Stanford University, whose scholarship has significantly shaped the study of the French Enlightenment and the French Revolution. The conversation centers on his recent publication, Jean-Paul Marat: Prophet of Terror, while situating it within the broader trajectory of his academic career.The discussion begins by tracing Baker's intellectual formation, highlighting how his education in the United Kingdom and his subsequent academic career-spanning institutions from Chicago to California -have informed his transatlantic perspective on European history. Particular attention is given to his methodological contributions to the fields of intellectual history and political philosophy, especially his emphasis on interrogating foundational concepts such as "society," "public opinion," and "revolution." Baker reflects on his pedagogical approach, underscoring the importance of encouraging students to critically examine categories that are often taken for granted in both historical analysis and contemporary discourse.The podcast then turns to Baker's study of Jean-Paul Marat, a central and controversial figure of the revolutionary period. Through a close examination of Marat's early life, education, and intellectual influences, the conversation explores how his formative experiences contributed to the development of his political thought and public persona. In doing so, the discussion situates Marat not merely as a radical actor during the Revolution, but as a complex intellectual shaped by the scientific, philosophical, and political currents of his time.Overall, the podcast provides insight into the interplay between biography, intellectual history, and political context, illustrating how individual trajectories can illuminate broader transformations in revolutionary thought and practice.

In this episode of The Civic Agora, we sit down with Dan Edelstein, Professor of French and member of the Stanford Civics Initiative, to explore what revolution, citizenship, and education really mean today. From the history of political ideas to his course on Civic, Liberal, and Global Education, Dan explains how classrooms can become labs for democracy, where students learn to listen, debate, and take responsibility as citizens. We also discuss his new book, The Revolution to Come, and what ancient philosophy can teach us about modern civic life.Listen, reflect, and join the conversation on democracy, pluralism, and civic education.Comment your thoughts below and subscribe to stay tuned for upcoming episodes!👉 Follow us: Stanford Civics Initiative – The Civic AgoraYouTube | Spotify | civics.stanford.edu

What can the history of political thought teach us about today's crisis of mass incarceration? In this episode of The Civic Agora (Stanford Civics Initiative), we sit down with Jacob Abolafia-Yale and Harvard graduate, and author of The Prison Before the Panopticon. Together, we explore the history of punishment, the origins of imprisonment, debates on progress in political theory, and the legacy of thinkers from Plato to Foucault.

- Key topics:

- When and why imprisonment became the dominant punishment

- Philosophical debates that imagined prisons before they existed

- Competing traditions of incarceration: authorization vs. reform

- Rethinking Foucault's view of prisons

- What intellectual history offers for reform today

Watch the full conversation to gain new insights into justice, punishment, and the future of political philosophy.

Don't forget to subscribe for more conversations on democracy, philosophy, and civic life.

In this episode of The Civic Agora, we chat with Avshalom Schwartz. Avshalom is a Postdoctoral Scholar at the Stanford Civics Initiative at Stanford University studying political theory. His research focuses on the role of imagination in politics, the conceptual history of the imagination, and questions of legitimacy and political stability in classical and early modern political thought.

His book manuscript, "Democratic Phantasies: Political Imagination and the Athenian Democracy," offers a new theoretical account of the “democratic imagination,” or the potential role of imagination in democratic politics. Focusing on one of the most creative and imaginative moments in human history—the ancient Athenian democracy—it shows, first, that we find in classical historiography, prose, drama, and philosophy important resources that can enrich our modern understanding of the political functions of the imagination. Second, it argues that democratic Athens provides us with a model of a democratic political imagination, one that can generate the civic sensibilities required for preserving a democratic society, promote fruitful association among citizens, and encourage the acceptance of diverse viewpoints and ways of living a good life.

He is also interested in the role of imagination in the history of philosophy, especially in classical, medieval, Renaissance, and early modern scientific and political thought. His work in this area has focused on Hobbes’s theory of the imagination, its historical and intellectual context, and its relationship to his political thought.

His work has appeared in the American Journal of Political Science, History of Political Thought, and History of European Ideas, among others.

He is a former Gerald J. Lieberman fellow, one of Stanford University’s highest distinctions for doctoral students. He was also a Ric Weiland Graduate Fellow and held graduate fellowships with Stanford’s Center for Ethics in Society and the Stanford Basic Income Lab. In 2020, He received an M.A. in classics from Stanford University. Before coming to Stanford, He received a B.A. in political science and economics and an M.A. in political science from Tel Aviv University, both Summa cum Laude.

In this episode, we chat with Brian Coyne. He is a Lecturer in Political Science. Originally from New Jersey, he received his B.A. in Government from Harvard College in 2007 and his Ph.D. in Political Science from Stanford University in 2014. His approach to political theory is to see it as a set of tools that we can use to analyze, critique, and improve our politics, and in his work he tries to sharpen and expand our tools. His dissertation, "Non-State Power and Non-State Legitimacy," analyzes the power of non-state actors like corporations and international institutions that influence our lives and shape our politics alongside the state institutions that are the traditional focus of political theory.

One of Coyne’s current research interests is what education for democratic citizenship needs to look like to face our many current challenges, and he has been part of the team developing the Citizenship in the 21st Century class that is part of Stanford’s new first-year curriculum in Civic, Liberal, and Global Education. Coyne's other research interests include political representation, responses to climate change, and the politics of urban space and planning. An avid bicyclist, he has written freelance stories about two-wheeled travel for the San Francisco Chronicle and other publications. From 2014 to 2017, he taught in Stanford's Thinking Matters program and has also taught senior citizens at San Francisco State University's Osher Lifelong Learning Center and high school students at San Francisco College Track. His classes in Political Science at Stanford include Justice, Democratic Theory, Citizenship, Ethics and Politics of Public Service, and Liberalism & Its Critics. He has also taught with the Urban Studies Program and the Public Policy Program.

In this episode of The Civic Agora, we chat with Emilee Chapman. She is an Assistant Professor in the Political Science Department at Stanford University. Her research explores the relationship between democratic ideals and democratic practices. She teaches courses in contemporary political theory and the ethics of democracy.