“Ideas notebook – Gary Younge”

Date posted: 27 May 10, 10:00

By Gary Younge

We asked Gary Younge to comment on his current work and ideas that have influenced him…

Which of your own ideas have you been thinking about most recently?
The dislocation between people, politics and power. Not original, but I came by it honestly.

What idea of someone else has made most impact on you recently?
Benjamin Barber and the relationship between neo-liberal globalisation and fundamentalism of all kinds.

What is the most important book/article of ideas that everyone should read and why?
What is History by E H Carr. It frames the relationship between the individual and society, debunks the great man theory of history and gives makes it clear that you cannot understand the intellectual outside the society that produces them.

And finally, each year we ask everyone involved – audiences as well as speakers – one question. Charles Masterman, Liberal Party politician and journalist, asked in his book The Condition of England 100 Years Ago: “What will the future make of the present?” What is your answer to this?
The future will make what it can from what is left of the present. At this rate, that will not be very much.

Further information

Gary Younge is the New York Foreign Correspondent for the Guardian, and a frequent contributor to The Nation. He was the recipient of the Washington Post’s Lawrence Stern Fellowship in 1996, and his book, No Place Like Home, was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award. His second book was Stranger in a Strange Land: Encounters in the Disunited States. He lives in New York City.

Links

Gary Younge will appear at the Bristol Festival of Ideas on 27th May with a talk about ‘Who We Are – and Should it Matter in the 21st Century?’. Click here for more details.