The Cundill History Prize in partnership with HistoryExtra are delighted to present:
The Cundill Lecture in History
Writing Maoism as Global History
Julia Lovell, 2019 Cundill History Prize Winner for Maoism: A Global History
Hosted by Jeremy Tai, Department of History and Classical Studies, McGill University
Since 2012 China has experienced an official revival of Maoist culture and politics. Despite the huge human cost of Mao’s rule, on 1 October 2019 (the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China) the Chinese Communist Party celebrated Mao as august builder of the party and nation. But this definition of Mao as respectable paterfamilias obscures other, more destabilising legacies of Maoism – a volatile mix of militarised autocracy, anti-colonial rebellion and ‘continuous revolution’. Although Mao remains central to China’s increasingly authoritarian government, his ideas have also fuelled global insurgency and subversion across the last eighty years, in revolutions and insurrections that have transformed states and left millions dead.
Julia Lovell's lecture will explore how Mao’s ideas have shaped the world, as well as China, since World War II. It will conclude by assessing China’s current partial Maoist revival and its significance for China’s self-positioning in the world.
Wednesday, December 2 | 13.00 ET / 18.00 GMT
Please register using the form below.
The Cundill History Prize in partnership with CBC Ideas are delighted to present:
The Cundill Forum
As Statues Fall: Heroes, Villains, Victims and the Challenges of History
Vincent Brown, 2020 Cundill History Prize finalist for Tacky’s Revolt: the Story of an Atlantic Slave War
William Dalrymple, 2020 Cundill History Prize finalist for The Anarchy: the Relentless Rise of the East India Company
Camilla Townsend, 2020 Cundill History Prize finalist for Fifth Sun: a New History of the Aztecs
Moderated by twice Cundill History Prize juror Catherine Desbarats
In recent months, movements to end anti-Black racism or to recognize Indigenous peoples have drawn our society's attention to history in unprecedented ways. Sites of commemoration, and notably public statues, have become flash-points — potent symbols of the often-unacknowledged histories of slavery, colonialism, and genocide. When statues fall, some claim that history has been reclaimed, while others lament that history has been defiled. Most historians, even those who concentrate on individuals, recoil from caricatures like “hero”, “villain” or “victim”. And yet these concepts persist in the public mind.
In 2020, the Cundill Forum returns for its second year, inviting our three finalists to draw on their own expertise to consider how historians might participate in these conversations. Together, the panelists will offer their exceptionally acute perspectives on the complexities of addressing how real history interfaces with commemoration culture… or its reverse. When statues fall, how can historians engage with those who rejoice, or with those who rage?
Wednesday, December 2 | 16.30 ET / 21.30 GMT
Please register using the form below.
The Cundill History Prize and HistoryHit are delighted to present:
The 2020 Winner Ceremony
With Peter Frankopan, 2020 Chair of the Jury, and the 2020 Finalists Vincent Brown, William Dalrymple and Camilla Townsend
Hosted by HistoryHit's Dan Snow
The British-Canadian television presenter and historian Dan Snow, host of HistoryHit, joins Peter Frankopan, Chair of the Jury, for a very special winner event — featuring the three finalists live from where they are, with insights from 2020 jurors Anne Applebaum, Lyse Doucet, Eliga Gould and Sujit Sivasundaram.
Peter Frankopan will announce the winner live, before Dan Snow treats you to a winner interview.
Thursday, December 3 | 13.00 ET / 18.00 GMT
Please register using the form below.
