This discussion explores the ways in which history has been re-written to serve the purposes of political leaders or regimes, from Ancient Greece to Communist Russia.
Tom Holland (@holland_tom) is the award-winning and bestselling author of Rubicon, Persian Fire, Millennium, In the Shadow of the Sword and most recentlyDynasty: The Rise and Fall of the House of Caesar. He has adapted Homer, Herodotus, Thucydides and Virgil for the BBC. His translation of Herodotus was published in 2013 by Penguin Classics. In 2007, he was the winner of the Classical Association prize. He is the presenter of BBC Radio 4’s Making History. He has written and presented a number of TV documentaries, on subjects ranging from religion to dinosaurs. He served two years as the Chair of the Society of Authors and was on the committee of the Classical Association.
Margaret MacMillan is the Warden of St Antony’s College and a Professor of International History at the University of Oxford. Her books include Nixon in China, The War that Ended Peace and most recently History’s People: Personalities and the Past. In 2015 she delivered the prestigious CBC Massey Lectures. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a Senior Fellow of Massey College, University of Toronto, Honorary Fellow of Trinity College, University of Toronto and of St Hilda’s College, University of Oxford, and sits on the boards of the Mosaic Institute and the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, and the editorial boards of International History and First World War Studies. She also sits on the Advisory Board Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation and is a Trustee of the Rhodes Trust.
Peter Stothard is Editor of the Times Literary Supplement (@TheTLS) and author of three volumes of diaries, Thirty Days, On the Spartacus Road andAlexandria, which won the 2014 Criticos Prize for literature on a theme from ancient Greece. He was Editor of The Times (1992-2002), Chairman of the Man Booker Prize judges (2012) and President of the Classical Association (2012).
This event forms part of the LSE Space for Thought Literary Festival 2016, taking place from Monday 22 - Saturday 27 February 2016, with the theme 'Utopias'.
Suggested hashtag for this event for Twitter users: #LSELitFest
Podcast
A podcast of this event is available to download from Re-Writing History.
Podcasts and videos of many LSE events can be found at the LSE Public Lectures and Events: podcasts and videos channel.