Department of History
Post-Truth
Posted on 19 April 2018
Professor David Wootton has recently appeared on the BBC Radio 4 programme Key Words for Our Time and in a panel discussion organised by History Today at the Institute of Historical Research. David discussed the origins and meanings of two keywords of our time: ‘post-fact’ and ‘post-truth’. He argued that facts are our way of grasping the real, and that without facts we are lost. He suggested that this is a reason it's important that we redesign our technology before it's too late.
David is an Anniversary Professor in the department, working on the intellectual and cultural history of the English speaking countries, Italy, and France, 1500-1800. He is currently writing a book entitled Power, Pleasure and Profit based on his Carlyle Lectures at the University of Oxford in 2014.