About this episode

David Runciman discusses the pitfalls of narrative history with historian Alec Ryrie.

Today’s bad idea is a way of doing history: David talks to historian Alec Ryrie about the seductions and pitfalls of narrative history. Why do we need more Herodotus and less Thucydides? What makes so many historians believe that the meaning of a story is determined by its end? How does narrative history distort our understanding of contemporary events? And how can podcasts do it better? Out tomorrow on PPF+ a bonus episode to accompany this series: David talks about what’s wrong with the idea of ‘the news’ and how it corrupts us all. To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening sign up to PPF+ now https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus merch, events and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next time in The History of Bad Ideas: Deliverism Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

People in this episode

Host: David Runciman

Guest: Alec Ryrie

Topics covered

• narrative history
• historical interpretation
• contemporary events
• podcasting
• bad ideas

Keywords

• narrative history
• Alec Ryrie
• Herodotus
• Thucydides
• historical distortion
• podcasts
• bad ideas

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: PPF+, podcastchoices.com

Books & works: Herodotus, Thucydides

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