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Speaker(s): Professor Lord Hennessy

Recorded on 11 October 2012 at Old Theatre, Old Building

Peter Hennessy will examine the special considerations that apply to writing the history of one’s own times, with particular reference to themes running through the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. He will talk about Britain’s impulse to punch well about its weight in the world; at the sustenance of the nuclear weapons policy which has accompanied the impulse and at the intelligence operations which underpin it. He will also look at the contrasting styles and achievements of post-war prime minsters from Clement Attlee to David Cameron.

Peter Hennessy is Attlee Professor of Contemporary British History at Queen Mary, University of London. He has written several books on contemporary British history including Never Again and Having It So Good. Distilling the Frenzy is his latest book. He is a Fellow of the British Academy.

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