The EI Podcast

The story of how, over the course of three generations, the royal dynasty of Wessex went from near oblivion to fashioning a kingdom that still endures today is the most remarkable and momentous in the island's history. Read by Leighton Pugh.

https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/aethelstan-the-king-who-forged-a-united-kingdom-of-england/

Credit: Public domain

The early modern Italian republics are often portrayed as models of bad government. But the fusion of civic humanism and Christianity they championed endures to this day. Read by Leighton Pugh.

https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/in-defence-of-the-city-state/

Credit: Alinari Archives/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images

Iain Martin is joined by leading security and international relations experts to discuss the legacy of 9/11, the future of Western-led interventions and the meaning of the NATO exit from Afghanistan. Can the West continue to shape world order or is it being replaced? This episode was recorded on the eve of the twentieth anniversary of 9/11.

Nationalism is often thought of as a modern development - but its traces can be found in antiquity. Read by Leighton Pugh.

https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/did-nationalism-exist-in-the-classical-world/

Credit: Wiki Creative Commons

The influenza pandemic behaved much like the conflict itself - picking out the young and fit before their time. Read by Leighton Pugh.

https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/counting-the-cost-of-the-1918-19-pandemic/

Credit: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Niccolo Machiavelli, Renaissance statesman and political theorist, saw factional politics as essential to the prosperity of the Roman Empire and his native Florence. Are today's partisan divisions as beneficial? Read by Leighton Pugh.

https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/machiavelli-and-the-benefits-of-civil-strife/

Credit: Icom Images / Alamy Stock Photo

The Victorians saw Plato's Republic as an indispensable guide to reform of the public sphere - we should follow their lead. Read by Leighton Pugh.

https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/leadership-in-crisis-why-the-west-needs-plato-more-than-ever/

Credit: Sepia Times/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Karl Marx was wrong about revolutions - in practice, they beget Caesars and Napoleons. Read by Leighton Pugh.

https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/history-shows-revolutions-are-a-disaster/

Credit: Andrew Maclear/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Social upheaval has often been a catalyst for artistic change - the Renaissance was no exception. Read by Leighton Pugh.

https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/crisis-and-the-creation-of-great-art/

Credit: Mauro Magliani for Alinari/Alinari Archives, Florence/Alinari via Getty Images

Empty city London had its harbingers in literature and history. How will it emerge from its isolation? Read by Leighton Pugh.

https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/pandemics-and-the-metropolis-city-lockdown-london/

Credit: 1000 Words / Shuttersotck