On the Spot: John Bew
‘What is the most common misconception about my field? That it is ‘great man’ history.’
Why are you a historian of statecraft and foreign affairs?
Both my parents are historians, which played a part. Growing up in a highly politicised environment – Northern Ireland during the 1980s and 1990s – was also important.
What’s the most important lesson history has taught you?
I’ve become favourable to those who used history as a spur to imagination and source of inspiration. Both Attlee and Churchill were avid readers of history but believed in mankind’s ability to escape its grip when the moment came.
Which book has had the greatest influence on you?
Eric Hobsbawm’s Nations and Nationalism, J.G.A. Pocock’s The Machiavellian Moment and Paul Kennedy’s The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers.
What book in your field should everyone read?
Henry Kissinger’s World Order or Friedrich Meinecke’s Machiavellianism.
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