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The Isaiah Berlin Lecture in association with the Rothschild Foundation: Liberalism and the resurgence of fascism

Add to Calendar The Isaiah Berlin Lecture in association with the Rothschild Foundation: Liberalism and the resurgence of fascismThe Leonard Wolfson Auditorium
Lectures and Seminars
Location
The Leonard Wolfson Auditorium
Speakers
Professor Paul Gilroy, Professor of American & English Literature, King's College London
Event type
Lectures and Seminars
Booking Required
Not Required
Accessibility
There is provision for wheelchair users.
Contact name
College Secretary
Contact email
juliet.montgomery@wolfson.ox.ac.uk
Using the work of Sir Isaiah Berlin as a point of departure, this lecture will survey the difficulties that liberalism has had in responding to the recent resurgence of neo-fascism, ultra-nationalism, racism and xenophobia. Misrecognised as “populism”, those forces have thrived in contemporary media ecology and have recently played a destructive, destabilising role in British politics. The results of their growing power are evident everywhere in Europe. The institutional integrity of democracy is in peril, yet these developments have attracted little critical comment from mainstream voices whose authority depends upon the refusal to appreciate the political damage that racism can do.