Beyond the Text: The Intellectual Historian's Podcast

Avsnitt

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  Who was Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and why did he turn against civilisation? 12.10.2026 20min

  Send us Fan Mail In the first of three Beyond the Text episodes on Rousseau, Samuel Woodall explores the life behind the arguments: the Confessions, Geneva, Madame de Warens, Paris and Diderot, the First Discourse, amour-propre, and the troubled relationship with David Hume. Jack Thomson is unwell, so Samuel presents this opening episode solo. The Rousseau series continues on Wednesday. CHAPTERS 00:00 Introduction 01:01 The Confessions 02:51 Geneva and Rousseau's early life 05:25 Apprentice...
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  Who gets to call others barbarous? 09.10.2026 17min

  Send us Fan Mail Who gets to call another society barbarous, and what does that judgement reveal about ourselves? In the final episode of our Montaigne series, Samuel Woodall and Jack Thomson discuss custom, European self-criticism, cruelty, compassion and the tension between honour and political expedience. Through Of Cannibals, Of Cruelty and related essays, we ask how scepticism about custom can coexist with moral judgement, and how disagreement becomes a licence to dehumanise others. Jo...
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  How should we learn to live and die? 07.10.2026 14min

  Send us Fan Mail Does thinking about death set us free, or keep us trapped by fear? In the second episode of our Montaigne series, Samuel Woodall and Jack Thomson explore philosophy as preparation for death, the relationship between virtue and pleasure, and an education that develops judgement rather than merely filling the memory. We then ask how attention to ordinary life and bodily limits changes Montaigne’s approach to mortality. Beyond the Text brings historical texts into conversation....
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  Why did Montaigne make himself his subject? 05.10.2026 17min

  Send us Fan Mail In the first episode of our Montaigne series, Samuel Woodall and Jack Thomson ask why Michel de Montaigne made himself the subject of his Essays. We explore his classical education, friendship and public life, his retreat to the tower library, and how writing became a way to examine a mind that keeps changing. Is his apparent candour straightforward honesty, literary performance, or a way of teaching readers to exercise judgement? Beyond the Text brings historical texts into...
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  When does disagreement become faction? 02.10.2026 21min

  Send us Fan Mail When does an argument among citizens become a threat to political peace? In the final conversation of this Hobbes series, Samuel Woodall and Jack Thomson turn to De Cive to examine public disagreement, rival claims to authority and the dangers Hobbes associates with faction. The discussion completes the arc from fear, through sovereignty, to the stability of a commonwealth. Read alongside us: Thomas Hobbes, De Cive, chapter 12, especially sections 1, 8 and 11–13: https://en....
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  Why should we obey the state? 30.09.2026 18min

  Send us Fan Mail What problem does political authority solve, and what do we give up when we create it? In the second of three conversations, Samuel Woodall and Jack Thomson read Hobbes’s account of conflict, covenant and sovereignty in Leviathan. They ask why people might consent to a common power and where the obligation to obey meets the need for self-preservation. Read alongside us: Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, Part I, chapters 13–14; Part II, chapters 17 and 21: https://www.gutenberg.org/f...
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  Who was Thomas Hobbes and what was he afraid of? 28.09.2026 22min

  Send us Fan Mail The first of three Beyond the Text conversations on Thomas Hobbes. Samuel Woodall and Jack Thomson begin with Hobbes’s life, the political upheaval around him, and the place of fear in his account of human beings. How did those experiences shape the argument for political authority? Read alongside us: John Aubrey, “Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury,” Brief Lives, vol. 1: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/47787/47787-h/47787-h.htm Thomas Hobbes, De Cive, Author’s Preface: https://en....
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  Symphony for Sovereignty: How Music Toppled an Empire 11.09.2026 7min

  Send us Fan Mail In this solo episode, we examine the political power of song during the Baltic "Singing Revolution" and the historic Baltic Way of August 23, 1989. Discover how Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania transformed traditional folk music, mass choir festivals, and protest songs into non-violent instruments of mobilisation, successfully bypassing state control and dismantling Soviet hegemony from within.
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  Moderation and Memory: Rapin de Thoyras and the Making of English Party 13.04.2026 13min

  Send us Fan Mail How did a French Huguenot exile end up writing the history that shaped how England understood its own political parties? This episode traces Paul de Rapin-Thoyras's History of England and its role in the emergence of Whig and Tory identity — connecting directly to the broader story of eighteenth-century political faction this show keeps coming back to. 🎓 A milestone moment in the PhD journey… Last term, I had the privilege of delivering my first presentation of my doctoral re...
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  Edmund Burke and the Moral Imagination 13.04.2026 43min

  Send us Fan Mail 💭 Can feeling and imagination preserve what reason alone cannot? In this episode, Jack Thomson explores the political vision of Edmund Burke and the enduring power of moral imagination. Through Reflections on the Revolution in France, Jack traces how Burke's suspicion of abstract reason shaped a distinctly conservative political imagination — and why that tension between feeling and reason still runs through debates about party and faction today. 🎧 In this episode: Burk...
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  History of Ideas Clubs: Industrialisation and Karl Marx 06.04.2026 1h 11min

  Send us Fan Mail Step into the upheaval of the long nineteenth century in this History of Ideas Club recording 🎙️ “Industrialisation and Marx: The Making of Modern Society” explores a world transformed by unprecedented socio-economic change ⚙️. Breakthroughs in mechanical textiles, chemistry, iron production, and transport - most notably the steam engine 🚂 - drove rapid industrialisation, reshaping everyday life and pulling work out of the home and into expanding urban centres. Cities such as...
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  History of Ideas Club: The Birth of the Modern Republic: France, America, Haiti 23.03.2026 1h 10min

  Send us Fan Mail Step into one of the defining political transformations of modern history in this History of Ideas Club recording 🎙️ “The Birth of the Modern Republic: France, America, Haiti” explores the emergence of republican government as a central feature of modernity 🏛️. Across Europe and the Atlantic world, inherited systems of monarchy were challenged - intellectually, politically, and often violently ⚔️. We trace how thinkers and revolutionaries drew on competing visions of human na...
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  History of Ideas Club: Revolution of Modernity: Descartes, Kant, Hegel 09.03.2026 1h 18min

  Send us Fan Mail Step into one of the most transformative moments in intellectual history in this History of Ideas Club recording 🎙️ “Revolution of Modernity: Descartes, Kant, Hegel” explores the deep tensions at the heart of modern thought - an age defined by radical doubt 🤔 and extraordinary philosophical ambition 📚. What happens when inherited truths and institutions begin to crumble? And how do thinkers rebuild knowledge in their wake? We begin with René Descartes, whose method of doubt s...
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  Joseph de Maistre: Order, Authority, and the Counter-Revolution 02.03.2026 50min

  Send us Fan Mail Why did the French Revolution convince some thinkers that reason itself was the enemy? Joseph de Maistre's reactionary philosophy remains one of the sharpest critiques of Enlightenment optimism ever written. In this episode of Beyond the Text, Sam Woodall and Jack Thomson explore the provocative political thought of Joseph de Maistre, one of the most formidable critics of the Enlightenment and a central voice of the Counter-Revolution. Drawing on Jack Thomson’s research, the ...
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  History of Ideas Club: The Copernican Revolution in Astronomy 23.02.2026 57min

  Send us Fan Mail Copernicus demonstrated for the first time that the Earth orbits the sun, and not the reverse as was previously thought. Previous measurements had lended themselves to the latter view, but the number of 'epicycles' needed to model the known orbits and their coincidence at specific times became impractical. Copernicus' revision of the fundamental point of reference simplied the model drastically. More importantly it challenged our peceived sense of central significance in the ...
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  Augustine’s City of God 16.02.2026 47min

  Send us Fan Mail Written as Rome burned, Augustine's City of God asked whether any earthly political order could ever be sacred. Sixteen centuries later, the question still unsettles. In this episode of Beyond the Text, Jack and Sam return to one of the foundational works of Western intellectual and political thought – City of God by Augustine of Hippo – as part of our ongoing catch-up discussions from the Heritage Series of the History of Ideas Reading Club, following the conclusion of the s...
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  History of Ideas Club: The English Civil War 09.02.2026 1h 19min

  Send us Fan Mail The conflict between monarchical and republican visions of the state reflects far deeper disagreements about the human person - especially the nature of freedom, authority, and the possibility of self-government. Monarchies have often fallen before their societies were fully prepared to confront the practical and moral challenges of republican rule. In this episode, we explore the English Civil War as the culmination of more than a century of political and constitutional tens...
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  History of Ideas Club: The Gregorian Reforms and the Protestant Reformation: Changing Concepts of Law and State 26.01.2026 50min

  Send us Fan Mail In the eleventh century, the Gregorian Reforms sought to impose coherence on ecclesiastical or canon law and to clarify the relationship between Church and State. At their heart lay a radical question: to what extent should secular authority be subordinated to spiritual power? Four centuries later, this settlement had come under intense strain. Peasants’ revolts, resistance from universities, and opposition from rulers across the Holy Roman Empire exposed deep dissatisfaction...
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  History of Ideas Club: Rome: From Empire to Republic (and Back Again) 19.01.2026 1h 2min

  Send us Fan Mail How did Rome move from kingship to republic, and from republic to empire? In this episode, we explore the political evolution of Rome through the lens of classical political thought and historical experience. Drawing on Cicero’s famous account of constitutional change - itself indebted to Plato - we trace Rome’s shifting forms of government, from its early monarchy through the emergence of the Republic as a mixed constitution balancing aristocratic and popular elements. We ex...
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  History of Ideas Club: 'And the Word Became Flesh…’: Christianity’s Emergence and Impact 15.12.2025 1h 14min

  Send us Fan Mail Christianity emerged from a world already shaped by Jewish law and Greek philosophy, yet it introduced one of the most radical ideas in intellectual history - that God became flesh. In this episode, we explore how the doctrine of the Incarnation transformed ancient understandings of the human person, purpose, and moral life. We examine how early Christian thought synthesised inherited traditions while decisively reshaping them, giving rise to new theological, cultural, and et...