What Rhymes With Now?

You may have heard that inequality today has reached levels not seen since the French Revolution. But what actually happened after 1789 — and what does it teach us about the fragility of political institutions, and populist politics? Patrick speaks with John Hardman, author of The French Revolution: A Political History, about how a group of radical lawyers wrestled control from a king, how revolutionary politics devoured its own, and why the structural design of government matters just as much as the intentions of the people running it.

Why didn't America turn to fascism during the worst economic crisis in modern history? If AI causes mass unemployment in the coming years, what can the 1930s teach us about replacing the social role of work? Patrick speaks with Robert S. McElvaine, historian, political commentator and author of The Great Depression: America 1929–1941, about the wealth inequality and debt-fuelled consumption that caused the crash, Roosevelt's political genius, and why the lessons of the New Deal matter more now than ever.

We are in an era of stagflation. What happened last time? And why do the 1970s cast such a long shadow over British politics? Patrick speaks with Andy Beckett, journalist and author of When the Lights Went Out: Britain in the Seventies, about the three-day week, the collapse of the post-war consensus, the rise of Thatcherism, and why a country that was more egalitarian than it had ever been still felt like it was falling apart.