Distilled 'spirit of the age' or a branch of sociology? Great men and their thoughts - with a lucky dip for culture vultures - or elite ideas whose time had come? Five historians discuss ground rules for the study of intellectual history.
Gertrude Himmelfarb considers why and when poverty ceased to be a ‘natural’ condition and become a ‘social’ problem in the Early Industrial Age.
As a political thinker Cicero has been all manner of things to all manner of men. In order to understand Cicero's political ideas, however, we need to look at the world of Rome in the first century BC, argues J.B. Morrall.
Irene Coltman Brown provides an insight into Tocqueville, who, reflecting on the history of revolutionary France, thought that liberty alone was capable of struggling successfully against revolution.
Dixon Hoste attempts to locate a common element between Marxism and traditional Chinese ideas.
Arthur Waley profiles life and ideas in the 3rd century Chinese capital at the time of its capture and destruction by Huns.
