The World in Time

Ian Mortimer

Friday, May 26, 2017

The Cantino planisphere, made by an anonymous cartographer in 1502, shows the world as it was understood by Europeans after their great explorations at the end of the fifteenth century.

Detail of the Cantino planisphere, made by an anonymous cartographer in 1502, which shows the world as it was understood by Europeans after their great explorations at the end of the fifteenth century. Biblioteca Universitaria Estense, Modena, Italy.

How do you measure change? It is often said that the twentieth century saw more change than any other period. But today’s interest in modern technology obscures the massive changes the world has undergone over the past millennium. Lewis Lapham talks with Ian Mortimer, author of Millennium: From Religion to Revolution: How Civilization Has Changed Over a Thousand Years, about the history of change and why it matters.

 

Read an excerpt from Ian Mortimer’s Millennium here.

 

Thanks to our generous donors. Lead support for this podcast has been provided by Lisette Prince through the EJMP Fund for Philanthropy. Additional support was provided by James J. “Jimmy” Coleman Jr.

Discussed in this episode

More Podcasts

October 12, 2018

The World in Time:

Jill Lepore

Lewis H. Lapham talks with Jill Lepore, author of These Truths: A History of the United States. More

“Cremorne Gardens, No. 2,” by James McNeill Whistler, c. 1870. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, John Stewart Kennedy Fund, 1912.

April 20, 2018

The World in Time:

David Cannadine

Lewis H. Lapham talks with David Cannadine, author of Victorious Century: The United Kingdom, 1800–1906. More

August 26, 2022

The World in Time:

Aaron Sachs

Lewis H. Lapham speaks with the author of Up from the Depths: Herman Melville, Lewis Mumford, and Rediscovery in Dark Times. More

February 12, 2021

The World in Time:

David S. Brown

Lewis H. Lapham speaks with the author of The Last American Aristocrat: The Brilliant Life and Improbable Education of Henry Adams. More

President Gerald Ford taking questions from reporters during a press conference at the White House, 1975. Photograph by Marion S. Trikosko.

January 01, 2021

The World in Time:

Harold Holzer

Lewis H. Lapham speaks with the author of The Presidents vs. the Press: The Endless Battle between the White House and the Media—from the Founding Fathers to Fake News. More