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Clash of Civilizations, Simon Heffer, George Grosz

Philip Dodd discusses the relevance of Huntington's Clash of Civilizations, reviews an exhibition of the work of George Grosz and talks to Simon Heffer about the Victorians.

It's twenty years since the publication of Samuel Huntington's essay, The Clash of Civilizations?, in which he asserted that the roots of future global conflicts lay not in ideology or resources but rather in deep cultural and religious difference. Philip Dodd and guests Douglas Murray, Maria Misra and Gideon Rose discuss whether Huntington's ideas offer a useful way of thinking about shifting global relations today.

Simon Heffer's new book, High Minds, explores the four decades between the 1840s and 1880s in which the country was transformed from a nation full of unrest and uncertainty to one in which the foundations of modern Britain had been laid.

A new exhibition of the work of George Grosz is devoted to his satirical depictions of bourgeois life in Berlin during the Weimar years. It is the first major exhibition dedicated to the artist in the UK since the Royal Academy's retrospective almost 20 years ago. The painter's savage portraits of the military, the hypocrisy of the middle classes and his graphic images of a shadowy world of crime and sex made Grosz so many enemies that he had to learn boxing and judo to defend himself.

Available now

45 minutes

Chapters

  • The Clash of Civilizations?

    A discussion on the importance and relevance of Samuel Huntington's essay twenty years on

    Duration: 25:03

  • George Grosz

    Karen Leeder reviews the exhibition of George Grosz's depictions of Weimar Berlin

    Duration: 06:52

  • Simon Heffer

    Simon Heffer on his new book High Minds: The Victorians and the Birth of Modern Britain

    Duration: 11:37

High Minds

High Minds

by Simon Heffer is published on 3rd October by Random House.

Image above from High Minds: The Victorian and the Birth of Modern Britain.

George Grosz鈥檚 Berlin

George Grosz鈥檚 Berlin

is at Richard Nagy in London until 2nd November 2013 in support of Global Witness. 鈥


Image:听George Grosz, Vor der Kaserne (In Front of the Barracks), 1918. Courtesy of Richard Nagy. 听

The Clash of Civilizations

鈥淭he Clash of Civilizations?鈥 essay by Samuel P. Huntington was published in Foreign Affairs in 1993.

To commemorate the twentieth anniversary Foreign Affairs has released a new ebook, .

Credits

Role Contributor
Presenter Philip Dodd
Participant Douglas Murray
Participant Maria Misra
Participant Gideon Rose

Broadcast

  • Mon 30 Sep 2013 22:00

Free Thinking

Free Thinking

Radio 3鈥檚 new home for arts and ideas.