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Richard Aldous Reviews Walter Lippmann: An Intellectual Biography for the Wall Street Journal

Professor of History Richard Aldous published a review in the Wall Street Journal of Tom Arnold-Forster’s biography of Walter Lippmann, a twentieth-century journalist. Walter Lippmann: An Intellectual Biography follows Lippmann’s career as one of the most ubiquitous journalists of his era who wrote several books of democratic theory. Aldous evaluates Arnold-Forster’s biography as a good first book and a “fair hearing,” rather than a defense, for its subject. Despite being less well-known today than some of his contemporaries, Lippmann was significant because of his “arresting, often contradictory ideas [that shaped] the national debate,” argues Aldous. He says Lippman passed the litmus test “for all public intellectuals— to illuminate their own time and make us think about ours.”

Post Date: 06-20-2025

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Bard College Presents Renowned Historian Dominic Sandbrook in Conversation with Richard Aldous on May 6

Bard College presents its annual Eugene Meyer Lecture in British History and Literature with renowned British historian Dominic Sandbrook. Sandbrook, one of Britain’s most distinguished historians and cohost of the most widely downloaded history podcast in the world The Rest is History, will talk about Britain in the 1980s with Richard Aldous, Eugene Meyer Distinguished Professor of History. The talk will take place in the Lásló Z. Bitó ’60 Auditorium (RKC 103) of the Gabrielle H. Reem and Herbert J. Kayden Center for Science and Computation at Bard College on Tuesday, May 6 at 5:30 p.m. This event is free and open to the public.

A hundred years after the birth of Magaret Thatcher and 50 years after she became the first woman to lead a major British political party, Dominic Sandbrook will delve into Britain in the seminal decade of the eighties. “The story of these years is bitterly contested,” he has written. “There is no consensus about the 1980s and there never will be.” From the conservative revolution to inner-city riots, Princess Diana, Chariots of Fire, and multiculturalism, this was a time of great cultural originality, political ambition and controversy, and wide scale social change—and all to a soundtrack by The Specials, Bananarama, and The Clash. Bard professor Richard Aldous will speak with renowned historian Dominic Sandbrook about Britain in the eighties for the latest event in Bard’s Eugene Meyer Lecture Series on British History and Literature, commemorating Eugene Meyer (1875–1959)—owner and publisher of the Washington Post, Chairman of the Federal Reserve and first President of the World Bank.

“Dominic Sandbrook is that rare thing, the brilliant historian who is also immensely popular,” says Richard Aldous, Eugene Meyer Distinguished Professor of History at Bard. “His revisionist scholarship has transformed the way in which we write about postwar Britain, and his podcast, The Rest is History—with 11 million monthly downloads—has used technology to expand the range of how history is presented and enjoyed.”

Dominic Sandbrook is one Britain’s best and best-known historians. Educated at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, he taught at the University of Sheffield before becoming a full-time writer. He is the author of eight books, including five volumes of a bestselling and critically acclaimed history of Britain from the 1960s to the 1980s. He has presented numerous BBC documentaries and is cohost of The Rest is History—the most popular history podcast in the world. He is currently working on an opera about Margaret Thatcher with the composer Joseph Phibbs.

Richard Aldous is Eugene Meyer Distinguished Professor of History at Bard and the author of eight books, including Reagan and Thatcher. 

The Eugene Meyer Series was established in 2010 in association with the endowment of the tenured Eugene Meyer Chair. Richard Aldous has held the chair since its inception. Previous Eugene Meyer Lecture Series invited speakers have included Sir David Cannadine, Andrew Roberts, Colm Tóibín, Olivette Otele, David Reynolds, Fintan O’Toole, Francine Prose, and Lord Skidelsky. 

Post Date: 04-08-2025