Two new films, history, and a book worth arguing with

As I talked about in my last post, two new Climate Majority Project videos have just been released. Britain Speaks! contrasts recreated vox-pops of people in the 1930s downplaying the threat from Hitler with equally complacent reactions to climate breakdown today. Alongside it, An Uninsurable World explores how climate breakdown is already reshaping the insurance industry, with profound implications for homes, livelihoods and the wider economy. If you find these films useful, please do watch, like, comment on, and share them. That simple support really does make a difference.

I also recently joined BBC Radio 4’s Arts and Ideas for a special episode on the history of ideas, alongside Anne Applebaum, Jake Subryan Richards, Selina Todd, and Clare Jackson. We had a lively and thoughtful discussion about how history is written, who gets to shape it, and why it matters now. I took the opportunity to defend the value of counterfactual history, something I explore in my Substack The Past That Wasn’t, even if not everyone around the table was entirely convinced.

Finally, Paul Kingsnorth’s Against the Machine: On the Unmaking of Humanity has been attracting a great deal of attention since its publication. I was invited to review it for Perspectiva. Parts of the book are fascinating, original and at moments deeply moving. But it is also deliberately provocative and controversial, and not something to accept uncritically. If you’re interested in why I think it is both important and troubling, you can read my review here.

Thank you, as ever, for reading, sharing, and supporting this work.