Max Weber’s The Profession and Vocation of Politics (1919) was a lecture that became one of the defining texts of twentieth century political thought. In it, Weber explores the perils and paradoxes of leadership in a modern state. Is it possible to do bad in order to do good? Can violence ever be virtuous? Does political responsibility send politicians mad? David discusses the legacy of Weber’s ideas and asks: who is the true Weberian politician?

Free online version of the text:

•  http://fs2.american.edu/dfagel/www/class%20readings/weber/politicsasavocation.pdf

Recommended version to purchase: 

• https://www.amazon.co.uk/Weber-Political-Writings-Cambridge-History/dp/0521397197

Going Deeper:

• Geoffrey Hawthorn on Max Weber for the LRB
• Joachim Radkau, Max Weber (Polity, 2009)
• Talking Politics on ‘Politics as a Vocation’ with Jonathan Powell
• Jan-Werner Müller, Contesting democracy: political ideas in twentieth century Europe (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2013)
• David for the LRB on Weber, Tony Blair, and the politics of good intentions

---

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

💾

Ian Buruma on the twentieth-century Italian writer Curzio Malaparte, a fascist and a fabulist with a hunger for war and a remarkable way of capturing it; Sue Stuart-Smith on gardening in the trenches of the First World War and the concept of horticultural therapy; to mark the 75th anniversary of VE Day, the TLS's history editor David Horspool talks us through a range of books, articles and essays covering the Second World War

Selected books

Diary of a Foreigner in Paris, by Curzio Malaparte, translated from the Italian and the French by Stephen Twilley

The Well-Gardened Mind: The restorative power of nature, by Sue Stuart-Smith

Dresden: The fire and the darkness, by Sinclair McKay

The Volunteer: The true story of the resistance hero who infiltrated Auschwitz, by Jack Fairweather

---

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

💾

Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi’s Hind Swaraj (1909) was a defining text of the movement for Indian independence from British colonial rule. It also articulated a radical new idea of politics in a modern context – peaceful protest or non-violent resistance. David explores the wider legacy of Gandhi’s ideas and asks what Gandhi’s withering attack on ‘machine’ politics means for the politics we have today.

Free online version of the text:

• https://www.mkgandhi.org/ebks/hind_swaraj.pdf 

Recommended version to purchase: 

• https://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/politics-international-relations/texts-political-thought/gandhi-hind-swaraj-and-other-writings-2nd-edition?format=PB

Going Deeper:

• Stephen Haggard on Gandhi for the LRB
• M.K. Gandhi, An autobiography: or the story with my experiments of truth (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2001).
• Ramachandra Guha, Gandhi: The Years that Changed the World 1915-1948
• Talking Politics with Ramachandra Guha on Gandhi’s politics
• Bhikhu Parekh, Gandhi: a very short introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001).
• Martin Luther King, ‘My Trip to the Land of Gandhi’
• E.M. Forster, ‘The Machine Stops’

---

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

💾

The Communist Manifesto (1848) remains the most famous revolutionary text of all. But what was the problem with politics that only a revolution could solve?  And why were the working class the only people who could solve it? David explores what Marx and Engels really had to say about capitalism, crisis and class and he asks what still resonates from that message today.

Free online version of the text:

• http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/61/pg61-images.html 

Recommended version to purchase: 

• https://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/politics-international-relations/texts-political-thought/marx-later-political-writings?format=PB

Going Deeper:

• Karl Marx, ‘The eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte’
• Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The German ideology
• Jonathan Wolff, Why read Marx today? (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003)
• Gareth Stedman Jones, Karl Marx: greatness and illusion (London: Allen Lane, 2016)
• In Our Time on Marx

---

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

💾

Uma porta de entrada para o universo de Elizabeth Bishop. A homenageada da Flip 2020 é apresentada por seu tradutor: o poeta Paulo Henriques Britto fala da vida e da obra da americana, da relação dela com o Brasil, dos desafios de traduzir poesia e das opiniões políticas dela, que apoiou o golpe de 64. Participação especial da poeta Angélica Freitas e da tradutora Flora Thomson-DeVeaux.

💾

Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America (1835/40) can claim to be the best book ever written about democracy and the best book ever written about America. David discusses what Tocqueville was expecting when he went to see American democracy for himself and what he actually found. Tocqueville was amazed and impressed by the American way of doing politics, but his fears about how its democracy might go wrong remain as prescient as ever.

Free online version of the text:

•  Volume 1 and Volume 2

Recommended version to purchase: 

• https://www.amazon.co.uk/Democracy-America-Essays-Penguin-Classics/dp/0140447601

Going Deeper:

• In Our Time on Tocqueville’s Democracy in America
• Harvey C. Mansfield, Jr, Tocqueville: a very short introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010)
• Annette Gordon Reed, ‘America’s Original Sin: Slavery and the Legacy of White Supremacy’
• Hugh Brogan, Alexis de Tocqueville: prophet of democracy in the age of revolution (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007).
• Talking Politics American History series on the 15th and 19th amendment

---

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

💾

James Waddell on the disorderly history of alphabetic order; Beejay Silcox, who fled Cairo for Western Australia as the coronavirus spread, tells a tale of star-crossed lovers; Jordan Sand gives a short cultural history of mask-wearing

A Place for Everything: The curious history of alphabetical order by Judith Flanders

---

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

💾

Benjamin Constant’s ‘The Liberty of the Ancients Compared to the Liberty of the Moderns’ (1819) examines what it means to be free in the modern world. Are we at liberty to follow our hearts? Do we have an obligation to take an interest in politics? What happens if we don’t? David explores the lessons Constant drew from the failures of the French Revolution and his timeless message about the perils of political indifference.

Free online version of the text:

• https://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/constant-the-liberty-of-ancients-compared-with-that-of-moderns-1819

Recommended version to purchase: 

• https://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/politics-international-relations/texts-political-thought/constant-political-writings?format=PB

Going Deeper:

• Benjamin Constant, Adolphe 
• William Doyle, The French Revolution: a very short introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001)
• In Our Time on Germaine de Stael
• Isaiah Berlin, ‘Two Concepts of Liberty’

---

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

💾

Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) is one of the most remarkable books in the history of ideas. A classic of early feminism, it uses what’s wrong with the relationship between men and women to illustrate what’s gone wrong with politics. It’s a story of lust and power, education and revolution. David explores how Wollstonecraft’s radical challenge to the basic ideas of modern politics continues to resonate today.

Free online version of the text:

•  http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3420

Recommended version to purchase: 

• https://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/politics-international-relations/texts-political-thought/wollstonecraft-vindication-rights-men-and-vindication-rights-woman-and-hints?format=PB 

Going Deeper:

• In Our Time on Mary Wollstonecraft 
• Wollstonecraft in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• Sylvana Tomaselli, Wollstonecraft: Philosophy, Passion, and Politics (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2020)
• Virginia Woolf on Mary Wollstonecraft
• Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France
• Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility

---

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

💾

No segundo episódio da série sobre as possíveis lições trazidas pela pandemia de coronavírus, o assunto é: política. Para isso, partimos de dois grandes temas.

Primeiro, a política nacional. O que está por trás da estratéa negacionista de Jair Bolsonaro? Há uma estratégia aí? Quais devem ser os impactos dessa postura na imagem do governo? Por que a base bolsonarista segue fiel ao presidente?

Em seguida, passamos para a política mundial. Como o isolamento da população e a propagação da Covid-19 têm impactado governos ao redor do mundo? O que muda nas relações entre os países? Será que o mundo pós-pandemia vai ser um mundo mais humanista, mais SUS e renda universal? Ou vai ser um mundo mais autoritário, com estados cada vez mais policialescos vigiando de perto seus cidadãos?

*****

– Colabore com a Rádio Escafandro e receba recompensas.

Clique aqui.

*****

– Entrevistados do episódio:

Malu Gaspar

Repórter da revista Piauí e comentarista do podcast Foro de Teresina.

Miguel Lago

Cientista político, um dos criadores da Nossas, diretor do Instituto de Estudos para Políticas de Saúde.

Conrado Hübner Mendes

Professor de direito constitucional da Faculdade de Direito da USP e colunista da Folha de S.Paulo.

Christian Dunker

Psicólogo, psicanalista, professor titular da Universidade de São Paulo.

– Mergulhe mais fundo

Uma esfinge na Presidência (revista Piauí)

– Ficha técnica:

Concepção, produção, apresentação e edição: Tomás Chiaverini

Trilha sonora original: Paulo Gama

Mixagem: Vitor Coroa

 

 

 

💾

Thomas Hobbes’s Leviathan (1651) reimagined how we could do politics. It redefined many of the ideas that continue to shape modern politics: representation, sovereignty, the state. But in Leviathan these ideas have a strange and puzzling power. David explores what Hobbes was trying to achieve and how a vision of politics that came out of the English civil war, can still illuminate the world we live in.

Free online version of the text:

•  https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3207/3207-h/3207-h.htm

Recommended version to purchase: 

• https://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/politics-international-relations/texts-political-thought/hobbes-leviathan-revised-student-edition?format=PB

Going Deeper:

• David Runciman, ‘The sovereign’ in The Oxford handbook of Hobbes (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013)
• Richard Tuck, Hobbes a Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002)
• (Video) Quentin Skinner, ‘What is the state? The question that will not go away’
• (Video) Sophie Smith, ‘The nature of politics’, the 2017 Quentin Skinner lecture. 
• Noel Malcolm, Aspects of Hobbes (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004)
• David for The Guardian on Hobbes and the coronavirus

---

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

💾

Lawrence Douglas, in Massachusetts, on the presidential past, present and future of Donald Trump; Irina Dumitrescu, in Germany, on books as escape (attempt) and reading the plague into plague-free books; Lucy Dallas presents this month’s round-up of audio / visual offerings

 

A Very Stable Genius: Donald Trump’s testing of America, by Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig

Unmaking The Presidency: Donald Trump’s war on the world’s most powerful office, by Susan Hennessey and Benjamin Wittes

American Carnage: On the front lines of the Republican civil war and the rise of President Trump, by Tim Alberta

---

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

💾

A short trailer to introduce a new series of talks by David Runciman. In a series of twelve podcasts, he explores some of the most important thinkers and prominent ideas lying behind modern politics – from Hobbes to Gandhi, from democracy to patriarchy, from revolution to lock down. Plus he talks about the crises – revolutions, wars, depressions, pandemics – that generated these new ways of political thinking. From the team that brought you Talking Politics: a history of ideas to help make sense of what’s happening today.

---

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

💾

Uma conversa com o poeta e tradutor André Vallias, responsável pela mais completa edição de poemas de Bertolt Brecht no Brasil, e o crítico literário Kelvin Falcão Klein. Os dois falam sobre a movimentada trajetória de Brecht, sobre um certo "tropicalismo" de sua obra, sua relação com as vanguardas e com a arte popular e outros aspectos ligados à vida e à poética do autor alemão.

💾

William Shakespeare, the writer who – above all others, perhaps – keeps giving and giving. Michael Caines takes us through the latest research, theories and discoveries (or not, as the case may be); Why do women read more fiction than men? Lucy Scholes returns to the age-old conundrum

Death by Shakespeare: Snakebites, stabbings and broken hearts by Kathryn Harkup

Untimely Death in Renaissance Drama by Andrew Griffin

Shakespeare in a Divided America by James Shapiro

Shakespeare and Trump by Jeffrey R. Wilson

‘Infecting the teller – The failure of a mathematical approach to Shakespeare’s authorship’ by Brian Vickers, in this week’s TLS

Why Women Read Fiction: The stories of our lives by Helen Taylor

---

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

💾

A pandemia de coronavírus tem feito o mundo mudar com rapidez inédita. Diante disso, nos próximo episódios, Escafandro vai mergulhar nessas mudanças para tentar descobrir que lições poderemos tirar delas. Será que o mundo pós-pandemia pode ser um mundo melhor?

No primeiro episódio, o assunto é economia. Será que seremos capazes de aprender algo com essa que talvez seja a maior crise da história do capitalismo?

 

*****

– Colabore com a Rádio Escafandro e receba recompensas.

Clique aqui.

*****

– Entrevistados do episódio:

Marcelo Manzano

Economista com mestrado, doutorado e pós doutorado pela Universidade Estadual de Campinas – Unicamp, nas áreas de desenvolvimento econômico, economia social e economia do trabalho.  Foi consultor do PNUD e da OIT e é coordenador e professor do programa de pós-graduação da Faculdade Latino-Americana de Ciências Sociais (FLACSO).

Leandro Ferreira

Presidente da Rede Brasileira de Renda Básica.

– Mergulhe mais fundo

Possibilidades econômicas para nossos netos

– Ficha técnica:

Concepção, produção, apresentação e edição: Tomás Chiaverini

Trilha sonora original: Paulo Gama

Mixagem: Vitor Coroa

 

💾

Today an edition of our new daily podcast - Stories of our times. Our new free daily news podcast takes you to the heart of the stories that matter, with exclusive access and reporting. Published for the start of your day, it is hosted by Manveen Rana and David Aaronovitch.

If you want to hear more please search for Stories of our times and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

With reading on the rise under the lockdown, TLS editor Stig Abell suggests three books for a little escapism during these uncertain times. 

Stories of our times is the new daily podcast from The Times. Listen to more episodes here

---

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

💾

Ellen Crowell investigates an early-twentieth-century tale of doomed lesbian romance, decadent cryptography, morphine-induced suicide and more; Richard Smyth on the joys of bird-watching during lockdown; Michael Caines reads his poem “Decadence”

---

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

💾

Uma edição especial dedicada ao escritor Amyr Klink, que em 1984 cruzou o Atlântico num barco a remo. A aventura rendeu o clássico Cem dias entre céu e mar, recém-lançado em audiobook. Confinado em casa durante a crise do coronavírus de março de 2020, Klink falou sobre ansiedade a bordo e em terra firme, medo, superação, viagens, literatura, ambiente, sociedade, entre perrengues e anedotas.

💾

A recovering Alexander van Tulleken shares some thoughts on the British response to Covid-19; What cultural things are people doing to pass the time in isolation? We asked a selection of our writers, and Lucy Dallas joins us (from what sounds like a small tin box) to pluck at the results

---

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

💾