Summary
Freedom: Laurie Taylor explores an unruly & disputed concept. Annelien de Dijn, Professor of Modern Political History at Utrecht University, asks how it came to be identified with limited government. Does our view of freedom owe more to the enemies of democracy than the liberty lovers of the Age of Revolution? Also, Tyler Stovall, Professor of History at Fordham University, considers the intertwined histories of racism and freedom in the United States, a nation that has claimed liberty as at the heart of their national identity.
Producer: Jayne Egerton
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Take some time for yourself with soothing classical music from the mindful mix, the Science of |
| 0:07.0 | Happiness Podcast. |
| 0:08.0 | For the last 20 years I've dedicated my career to exploring the science of living a happier more meaningful life and I want |
| 0:14.4 | to share that science with you. |
| 0:16.1 | And just one thing, deep calm with Michael Mosley. |
| 0:19.4 | I want to help you tap in to your hidden relaxation response system and open the door to that |
| 0:25.4 | calmer place within. Listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:30.3 | BBC Sounds, music, radio podcasts. |
| 0:36.0 | This is a Thinking Loud Podcasts from the BBC, and for more details and much, much more about |
| 0:42.2 | thinking aloud, go to our website at BBC.co. UK. |
| 0:48.9 | Hello. |
| 0:51.7 | There are some historical moments when the battered word freedom seems almost without |
| 0:57.6 | ambivalence, moments where the emancipation of one section of humanity unleshes almost universal celebration. |
| 1:06.6 | Now many would think that such a moment occurred on the 9th of November 1989 as the Berlin |
| 1:11.1 | Wall dividing communist East Germany from West Germany finally crumbled. |
| 1:17.0 | On Christmas Day that year in Berlin, Leonard Bernstein conducted Beethoven's 9th |
| 1:22.0 | symphony with one significant change. |
| 1:25.2 | The title of Schiller's Ode to Joy became Ode to Freedom. |
| 1:29.6 | Freedom. Well, what can be more deserving of such a musical celebration? |
| 1:37.0 | However, as my two guests on today's program will argue in markedly different ways, |
| 1:42.0 | the notion of what constitutes freedom can even in this case |
| 1:46.7 | be a matter of debate. Well according to my first guest today Tyler Stoval professor of history at Fordham University, so many stories |
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