The Ramsay Centre Podcast: Are the History Wars Worth Fighting? – Robert Tombs

Is our past being misrepresented in our schools, cultural institutions, and the broader society; leading to the history of the West being presented as one only worthy of shame, apology, and reparations?

Or are the ‘history wars’ merely an invention of the paranoid, to stir up synthetic controversy and prevent belated recognition of dark sides of our past?

To help explore this vital topic, the Ramsay Centre is pleased to present our eighth Ramsay Lecture for 2023, eminent UK historian Professor Robert Tombs on Are the History Wars Worth Fighting?

Professor Tombs outlines the forces he says are driving this campaign, ranging from intellectual and ideological forces to the professional managerial class, technology, and geopolitics. He examines the cost to society from historical half-truths, whether in the form of violence, a loss of sense of community, or a belief that violence, racism and exploitation in the past is a permanent feature of the West in the present day.

Professor Tombs argues that while we must recognise difficult aspects of our past, we need to “…urge society to remember accurately, fully and honestly, and to understand the vital differences between the past and the present, crucial to understanding both our forebears and ourselves.”

Please join us for this thought-provoking lecture with Professor Robert Tombs.