David Aaronovitch
David Aaronovitch is a writer and broadcaster on culture, international affairs, politics and the media. A Times columnist, his books include Voodoo Histories. He runs. Or tries to.
The Lie that Wouldn’t Die
One of the most pernicious antisemitic texts of the 20th century, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion was a Tsarist forgery purporting to show a Jewish conspiracy to take over the world.
A template for all the anti-Jewish conspiracy theories that followed, 100 years after its publication it has been serialised on Egyptian television, sold in Japanese bookstores and re-created in the accusation that Jews were behind the 9/11 attacks.
To celebrate the launch of The...
Taboos
Should everything be allowed in the name of free speech? How do we react to offensive cartoons? Can we make fun of the Holocaust? Are mothers sacred? Does criticizing Israel necessarily make you a self-hating Jew? Will comedy as a genre survive our politically correct and fearful age? These are some of the questions our witty and provocative panel addressed.
Sex, Lies and Regal Japes; The story of Esther, the sex-crazed king and his evil counsellor
A Purim Spiel, with a contemporary twist, bringing a little bit of Persia to Bloomsbury, with a backbeat of Iranian rhythms and all hosted by our favourite modern-day Sheherazade, David Schneider. Unmasking the Book of Esther we revealed the story behind the story of Purim, hatching all-new conspiracy theories and, in the spirit of the festival, blurring boundaries between good and evil, sacred and profane. Bringing the world of inversions, masks and hidden meanings to life was our all-star c...
Voodoo Histories
David Aaronovitch has always been fascinated by the absurdity of conspiracy theories, from allegations that the moon landings were fake, to the attribution of the 2004 tsunami to Israeli nuclear tests. We seem unable to accept that some events might just be accidental or that authorities may not be systematically corrupt. Jews have all too often been assigned responsibility for the worst offences, from those alleged in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion to 9/11. Who better to discuss these i...
Protocols of Prague
David Aaronovitch interviewed Umberto Eco about his brilliant historical novel The Prague Cemetery set in 19th Europe, from Turin to Prague to Paris, at a time when conspiracies rule history. With his customary erudition and brilliance, Eco brings together Jesuits, Freemasons, Italian Republicans, French criminals and secret services, all linked by one single sinister villain. Eco and Aaronovitch spoke about the Dreyfus affair and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, conspiracies, scapegoats ...
Pantheon
The novel by Jonathan Freedland – written under the pseudonym Sam Bourne – Pantheon, is set in the Oxford and Yale of 1940. It follows an Oxford academic deemed unfit to serve in the war against Germany and his desperate search to find his missing wife and child. The story turns, however, on what could be called the dirty little secret of the Anglo-American intellectual elite – the attraction of some of the greatest minds of the 20th century, from Bertrand Russell to George Bernard ...
David Miliband on Tony Judt, Europe and the Future of the Left
The late Tony Judt was a towering historian of the 20th century and a fearless commentator on world affairs, including the demise of the Left after the collapse of the Soviet Union. In this conversation with David Aaronovitch, former Foreign Secretary David Miliband came to Jewish Book Week to reflect on the challenges facing Europe now, Judt’s influence and the options for renewal of left-wing politics.
In one of his last books, Judt proposed a defence of 20th century democratic an...
Andrew Hussey The French Intifada
Beyond the affluent centre of Paris a guerrilla war is ablaze between the secular French state and the former subjects of its Muslim North African colonies. In The French Intifada, cultural historian and journalist Andrew Hussey walks the front lines of this war, with its brutality, bloodshed, and its undertones of anti-Semitism, and traces its origins from the earliest days of empire to the...
John Lahr: Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh
John Lahr wasThe New Yorker ‘s renowned chief drama critic for over 20 years and is now a regular contributor. His masterly biography of Tennessee Williams reveals a public persona and turbulent private life as riveting as any of the unforgettable characters that Williams created. John Lahr will be discussing with David Aaronovitch the inner dramas that generated some of the finest plays of the twentieth century.
Party Animals Growing Up Communist
In conversation with psychoanalyst Stephen Grosz, award-winning journalist David Aaronovitch describes how writing Party Animals: Growing Up Communist, his memoir of early life amongst communists in Britain, led him to re-examine his own memories and then to study old secret service files, uncovering the unspoken shame and fears that provided the unconscious background to his own existence as a party animal.
Party Animals Growing Up Communist
In conversation with psychoanalyst Stephen Grosz, award-winning journalist David Aaronovitch describes how writing Party Animals: Growing Up Communist, his memoir of early life amongst communists in Britain, led him to re-examine his own memories and then to study old secret service files, uncovering the unspoken shame and fears that provided the unconscious background to his own existence as a party animal.
Is Anything Happening?
In this highly personal memoir, both funny and poignant, Robin Lustig describes a career spanning more than 40 years, from his childhood as the son of German refugees to interviewing some of the world’s most revered and reviled leaders – from Mandela to Karadžić. The award-winning journalist and broadcaster has lived in, worked in and reported from more than 80 countries, including three years as the Observer’s Jerusalem correspondent. He was shot at in Pakistan, was in Berlin the day...
A Small Town in Ukraine
Decades ago, historian Bernard Wasserstein set out to uncover the hidden past of Krakowiec, where his family originated. Now he recounts its dramatic history across centuries of conflict as Cossacks, Swedes and Muscovites rampaged through. In the Age of Enlightenment, a Polish magnate created an arcadia of serenity; under the Habsburgs it became a typical shtetl. Both World Wars left terrible legacies and today hordes of refugees flee for their lives from Ukraine to...
