67/ Cultural Dementia: How the West Lost Its History and Risks Losing Everything Else (with David Andress)

This is a conversation with David Andress. He is a Professor of  Modern History at the University of Portsmouth and is the author of the  book “Cultural Dementia: How the West has Lost its History and Risks Losing Everything Else“ If you like what I do, please consider supporting this project with only 1$ a month on Patreon or on BuyMeACoffee.com. You can also do so directly on PayPal if you prefer. Patreon is for monthly, PayPal is for one-offs and BuyMeACoffee has both options. If you can’t donate anything, you can still support this project by sharing with your friends and leaving a review wherever you get your podcasts! Music by Tarabeat. Topics Discussed What is Cultural Dementia? And why use that term instead of Amnesia? Why focus on France, the UK and the US? The current crises in the three countries George  Orwell’s reflection on the relationship between  imperialism/colonialism, the UK’s welfare state and the white working  class France’s Trente Glorieuses Prospects of Le Pen and the far right winning in France The ‘Brexit spirit’ Impact of Trumpism on US politics and what might come next What is neoliberalism and how is that term (mis)used? What is populism and how is that term (mis)used? Berlusconi, the five star movement and racist politics in Italy Canada, Australia and New Zealand’s specific contexts with regards to immigration and racism Cambridge Analytica The delusion of ‘socialism in one country’ The realities and delusions of Brexit (including example of CANZUK proposals and how India is excluded) Ladybird libertarians (term by Otto English) Isolationism within the British Labour Party Weaknesses within Left parties, especially Labour (Attlee, Wilson, Blair) The specificity of France and republicanism there How Melenchon and Le Pen agree on Vichy’s status as ‘not France’ Chauvinism on the Left in France The metaphor of the mansion The Rhodes Must Fall  protests in the UK The ‘race question’ and white supremacy in the US The specificity of the US constitution (and how it is outdated and embeds conservatism) How history is taught (I gave the example of Lebanon) Recommended Books Priya Satia, Time’s Monster; History, Conscience and Britain’s Empire (Penguin/Allen Lane, 2020) Priyamvada Gopal, Insurgent Empire; Anticolonial Resistance and British Dissent (Verso, 2019) Olivette Otele, African Europeans (Hurst, 2020) I also added: The Good Immigrant by Nikesh Shukla Afropean: Notes from Black Europe by Johny Pitts