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New Work In Intellectual History

Institute of Intellectual History

Listen to interviews with intellectual historians about recent research and new publications.

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Friday · length unknown
Nicholas Poussin as a Philosophical Painter
In this episode, Kohei Shiozawa speaks with Professor Susan James FBA about the art of philosophy and Nicolas Poussin as a philosophical painter. Professor James visited St Andrews earlier this year when she was invited to give the Donald Winch Lectures in Intellectual History.
June 10 · length unknown
The West: The History of an Idea
In this episode, Yifan Wang and Seungeun Lee speak with Professor Georgios Varouxakis (Queen Mary) about his new book The West: The History of an Idea (PUP, 2025).
April 6 · length unknown
Culture, Needs and Property Rights
In this episode, Harim and Hyein interview Lasse S. Andersen about the new edited volume entitled Political Economy from Pufendorf to Marx: Culture, Needs and Property Rights (CUP, 2026). This volume, which brings together seven hitherto unpublished papers by the late István Hont, was published by Cambridge University Press in January of 2026. The interview was conducted in the spring of 2025. Apologies for the poor audio.
March 12 · length unknown
Intellectual Conservatism: From Burke to Scruton
In this episode, Derek van Voorst interviews Professor Ferenc Hörcher. The two discuss his new edited text “Intellectual Conservatism: From Burke to Scruton”, as well as the history and future of modern conservatism both politically and philosophically.
Nov 14, 2025 · length unknown
The Rise and Resilience of the Polish-Lithuanian Republic
In this episode, Seungeun Lee interviews Professor Robert Frost, the Burnett Fletcher Chair in History at Aberdeen University. Professor Frost gave a lecture at the Institute of Intellectual History on 17 September 2025, on which day he also sat down for an in-depth interview about his ongoing, multi-volume work on the Polish-Lithuanian Union, 1385-1569.
Oct 22, 2025 · length unknown
Sectarianism in Philosophy
What is the relation between philosophy’s claim to disinterested universal rational inquiry and its historical existence as an assemblage of apparently sectarian schools? This is the question that formed the topic for a conversation that Valery Vino initiated with Ian Hunter.
Jul 20, 2025 · length unknown
Odious Debt: Bankruptcy, International Law, and the Making of Latin America
In this episode, Derek van Voorst speaks with Dr Edward Jones Corredera, who is senior research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law and assistant lecturer at the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (Madrid). The discussion focused on his recent book, Odious Debt: Bankruptcy, International Law, and the Making of Latin America (OUP, 2024), although it also covered topics such as the theoretical framework of 'odious debt', historical debt, future developments of debtor nations, and so forth.
Jul 1, 2025 · length unknown
#1. Richard Whatmore, can Intellectual History save liberty?
Roots and Branches: First episode out now. Intellectual Historian Richard Whatmore (University of St Andrews) explains why the Enlightenment, 18th century republicanism and the history of free states matter for today’s global politics. Subscribe to Roots and Branches on Spotify or iTunes by visiting the Episode Website below.
Jun 29, 2025 · length unknown
Introducing Roots and Branches
Get ready for Roots and Branches, the new ideas podcast from the Institute of Intellectual History at the University of St Andrews. In this introductory episode, host Selma Sondern explains what Intellectual History is, why it matters, and what to expect when Roots and Branches launches on 1 July 2025 with Prof Richard Whatmore. Subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and iTunes by visiting the Episode Website below.
Apr 9, 2025 · length unknown
Classics of Historiography in Historical and Global Perspective
In this episode, Seungeun Lee speaks with Professor Davide Cadeddu (University of Milan) about his forthcoming book Classics of Historiography in Historical and Global Perspective (CUP), which will be published as part of the CUP ‘Elements in Critical Heritage Studies’ series.
Jan 1, 2025 · length unknown
The Question of Unworthy Life: Eugenics and Germany’s Twentieth Century
The dark history of eugenic thought in Germany from the nineteenth century to today―and the courageous counter-voices. In this episode, Robin Mills speaks with Dagmar Herzog about her new book The Question of Unworthy Life: Eugenics and Germany’s Twentieth Century (Princeton University Press, 2024). Between 1939 and 1945, Nazi genocide claimed the lives of nearly three hundred thousand people diagnosed with psychiatric illness or cognitive deficiencies. Not until the 1980s would these murders, as well as the coercive sterilisations of some four hundred thousand others classified as “feeble-minded,” be officially acknowledged as crimes at all. The Question of Unworthy Life charts this history from its origins in prewar debates about the value of disabled lives to our continuing efforts to unlearn eugenic thinking today.
Dec 1, 2024 · length unknown
Anticlerical Legacies
In this episode, Robin Mills speaks with Elad Carmel about his new book Anticlerical Legacies - The deistic reception of Thomas Hobbes, c. 1670–1740 (Manchester University Press, 2024). The conversation touches upon a wide range of topics related to 17th-century religion, reception history, and deism.
Oct 28, 2024 · length unknown
The Holy Alliance - Liberalism and the Politics of Federation
In this episode, Seungeun Lee speaks with Isaac Nakhimovsky about his new book The Holy Alliance: Liberalism and the Politics of Federation (Princeton, 2024). The book challenges the prevailing view of the Holy Alliance as a reactionary and illusory endeavor, as well as the idea of a linear progression of liberalism in opposition to such deviations. Nakhimovsky reconstructs the discourse around a liberal vision of a European federation, where reformers and patriots from smaller European states, as well as abolitionists beyond Europe, looked to Russia as the potential guarantor of a peaceful order.
Oct 20, 2024 · length unknown
Edmund Burke
In this interview, Ross Carroll (Dublin City University) talks about what's new and interesting in scholarship on Edmund Burke, following writing a new introduction to the great Irish thinker for Polity's Classic Thinkers series.
Sep 7, 2024 · length unknown
Conservatism
Mark Garnett, Senior Lecturer in Politics at Lancaster University, has a bone to pick with commentators on the British conservative tradition and the British Conservative Party. In this wide-ranging conversation, he discusses how so often what the Party’s ideology is taken being the same thing as conservative political thought. But for most of its history, the Conservative Party has been anything other than conservative. Instead, we might understand the Party’s changing ideology in terms of the overlapping and competing perspectives of liberalism, nationalism and pragmatism. And we might also think again about what ‘conservative political thought’ actually has been in England the past two centuries.
Aug 14, 2024 · length unknown
New Podcast: Zeitgeist und Geschichte
In this bonus episode, we bring an interview with Professor Peter Gordon about the philosopher and social theorist Theodor Adorno (1903 - 1969). The interview is part of a new podcast series on German Intellectual History entitled Zeitgeist und Geschichte. Discover more episodes here and subscribe on iTunes or Spotify.
Jul 13, 2024 · length unknown
Why Not Moderation? Letters to Young Radicals
In this episode, Richard Whatmore speaks with Aurelian Craiutu about his new book Why Not Moderation? Letters to Young Radicals (CUP, 2023). The book challenges the conventional image of moderation as a “simple virtue for lukewarm and indecisive minds, searching for a fuzzy center between the extremes.” Instead, he shows moderation to be a complex virtue with a rich tradition and unexplored radical aspects. With its epistolary form, the book presents an imaginary dialogue between two young radicals and a passionate moderate, thereby outlining the distinctive political vision undergirding moderation in modern America.
May 17, 2024 · length unknown
Art and Politics in Roger Scruton’s Conservative Philosophy
In this episode, Ojel L. Rodriguez Burgos interviews the historian of political thought Professor Ferenc Hörcher about his new book Art and Politics in Roger Scruton’s Conservative Philosophy (2022).
Jan 4, 2024 · length unknown
Hegel’s World Revolutions
In this wide-ranging interview, Richard Bourke (King’s College Cambridge) discusses not only Hegel’s anatomy of the modern world, but how Hegel’s reputation changed over the twentieth century. In doing so, we discuss the significance of not only Hegel’s thought to contemporary society, but also the study of the history of political thought in general.
Dec 26, 2023 · length unknown
After Kant: The Romans, the Germans, and the Moderns in the History of Political Thought
In this episode, Emilie Aebischer speaks with Prof Michael Sonenscher about his most recent book After Kant - The Romans, the Germans and the Moderns in the History of Political Thought (PUP, 2023).

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