Insides/Outsiders Festival Rüdiger Görner – In the Future of Yesterday 26 February | 18:00 | Online
Rüdiger Görner, Professor Emeritus of German with Comparative Literature at Queen Mary University of London, will be in conversation with writer and critic David Herman about his latest book, In the Future of Yesterday: A Life of Stefan Zweig.
In the Future of Yesterday offers a refreshing approach to the life and work of Austrian-born writer Stefan Zweig, delving into his considerable contribution to world literature, rooted in the Austro-Jewish tradition. A world traveller from the outset, Zweig liked to uproot himself – but whether he stayed in London, New York, or eventually Brazil, his literary baggage continued to contain the flavour and flair of fin de siècle Vienna.
Looking anew at Zweig’s influential time in England and offering fresh insights into his final years in the United States and Brazil, Görner discusses Zweig’s prolific literary output in relation to his life and subjects his political views on Europe, Zionism, and the world order to deep scrutiny.
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Portsmouth Bookfest Vernon Bogdanor – Making the Weather 3 March | 19:00 | Portsmouth Central Library
Vernon Bogdanor explores the political careers of six politicians who, though never prime minister, set the agenda of post-war British politics. Three are from the Left – Aneurin Bevan, Roy Jenkins, and Tony Benn – and three are from the Right – Enoch Powell, Keith Joseph, and Nigel Farage.
Each study is a fascinating analysis that examines how these men achieved such prominence and influence and how, though very different figures in many ways, they came to dominate the political landscape, often for a period of years.
Each of the six made fundamental contributions to the debate about Britain’s future and to the vibrancy of our democracy. From immigration to Europe, from the NHS to devolution, the issues and causes that brought these men to prominence are still of considerable contemporary relevance.
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Waterstones Canterbury Vernon Bogdanor – Making the Weather 6 March | 18:30
Nye Bevan, Roy Jenkins and Tony Benn, Enoch Powell, Keith Joseph and Nigel Farage, Richelieu-like influencers who changed the UK forever, enabling the NHS and EU membership, immigration-fever and Brexit.
Each study is a fascinating analysis that examines how these men achieved such prominence and influence and how, though very different figures in many ways, they came to dominate the political landscape, often for a period of years.
Each of the six made fundamental contributions to the debate about Britain’s future and to the vibrancy of our democracy.
Watch screened clips of these eminences grises.
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Oxford Literary Festival Andrew Blick – Could it Happen Here? 31 March | 14:00 | Pusey House: Chapel
Contemporary historian Professor Andrew Blick discusses whether our constitution is robust enough to withstand an authoritarian takeover.
Blick and his fellow historian Peter Hennessy have co-authored a new book, Could it Happen Here?, which explores what would happen if a UK leader refused to leave office after losing a general election. What would the King, speaker of the House, and members of the cabinet, judiciary, Treasury, secret service and House of Lords do in these circumstances and what legislation protects our democracy? They provide recommendations for strengthening our democracy in an age facing a resurgence of the far right and authoritarian leaders.
Blick is professor of politics and contemporary history and head of the Department of Political Economy at King’s College London and editor of The Constitution in Review. His previous books include UK Politics and Stretching the Constitution: The Brexit Shock in Historic Perspective.
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Oxford Literary Festival Vernon Bogdanor talks to Andrew Blick – Making the Weather 31 March | 18:00 | Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre
One of Britain’s best known constitutional and political historians Professor Sir Vernon Bogdanor picks out six post-war politicians who he says changed Britain more than any prime minister.
Bogdanor selects three from the left, Aneurin Bevan, Roy Jenkins and Tony Benn, and three from the right, Enoch Powell, Keith Joseph, and Nigel Farage. He looks at how they achieved prominence and influence and how they came to dominate the political landscape for years. Bogdanor says each made a fundamental contribution to Britain’s future and its democracy, and the issues that dominated their lives, including immigration, Europe and the NHS, are still relevant today.
Bogdanor is professor of government at the Institute of Contemporary British History, King’s College, London. His previous books include Beyond Brexit and The Strange Survival of Liberal Britain.
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Oxford Literary Festival Rüdiger Görner – In the Future of Yesterday 2 April | 14:00 | Bodleian: Convocation House
Professor Rüdiger Görner takes a fresh look at the life of Austrian writer Stefan Zweig and assesses his considerable place in world literature and the Austro-Jewish tradition.
Görner says that Zweig’s work was always rooted in the flair of fin de siècle Vienna despite his travels to London, New York and Brazil. He looks at his influential time in England and his final years in the United States and Brazil. And he says Zweig was a towering figure of a form of writing that was bursting with life and was written in the knowledge that there can only be a future if we remain conscious of the past.
Görner was professor of German with comparative literature at Queen Mary University of London, founder of the Ingeborg Bachmann Centre for Austrian Literature and the founding director of the Centre for Anglo-German Cultural Relations.
Part of the festival’s programme of Jewish and Hebrew literature and culture.
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Chipping Camden Literature Festival Vernon Bogdanor talks to Alan Rusbridger – Making the Weather 5 May | 12:00 | Cidermill Theatre
Vernon Bogdanor discusses with Alan Rusbridger the political careers of three politicians from the Left – Aneurin Bevan, Roy Jenkins, and Tony Benn – and three from the Right – Enoch Powell, Keith Joseph, and Nigel Farage.
Each challenged the consensus of their day and remain strikingly relevant. Analysing their beliefs and characters, Vernon pinpoints the influence they exerted and explains how and why they remain such live figures when so many of their contemporaries have been forgotten.
The profound ideological beliefs of these six, about the NHS, party democracy, electoral reform, Europe, immigration, and the free market, are still of relevance and were at the very heart of the political agenda for the 2024 general election.
Vernon Bogdanor is Professor of government at the Institute of Contemporary British History, King’s College, London. He is a fellow of the British Academy, the Royal Historical Society, and the Academy of Social Sciences.
Register here.