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Free: Coming of Age at the End of History, with Lea Ypi

Lea Ypi grew up in one of the most isolated countries on earth. Albania, the last Stalinist outpost in Europe, was almost impossible to visit, almost impossible to leave

‘I never asked myself about the meaning of freedom until the day I hugged Stalin. From close up, he was much taller than I expected.’

Lea Ypi grew up in one of the most isolated countries on earth, a place where communist ideals had officially replaced religion. Albania, the last Stalinist outpost in Europe, was almost impossible to visit, almost impossible to leave. It was a place of queuing and scarcity, of political executions and secret police. To Lea, it was home. People were equal, neighbours helped each other, and children were expected to build a better world. There was community and hope.

Then, in December 1990, a year after the fall of the Berlin Wall, everything changed. The statues of Stalin and Hoxha were toppled. Almost overnight, people could vote freely, wear what they liked and worship as they wished. There was no longer anything to fear from prying ears. But factories shut, jobs disappeared and thousands fled to Italy on crowded ships, only to be sent back. Predatory pyramid schemes eventually bankrupted the country, leading to violent conflict. As one generation’s aspirations became another’s disillusionment, and as her own family’s secrets were revealed, Ypi found herself questioning what freedom really meant.

In December 2021, she came to Intelligence Squared to talk with award-winning journalist Luke Harding about themes of Free, her new memoir about growing up amid this political upheaval. She traced the limits of progress, the burden of the past, and helped us think critically about what it really means to be free. 


Speakers

Speaker

Lea Ypi

Professor in Political Theory in the Government Department, London School of Economics


Professor in Political Theory in the Government Department, London School of Economics, and Adjunct Associate Professor in Philosophy at the Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University. Before joining the LSE, she was a Post-doctoral Prize Research Fellow at Nuffield College (Oxford) and a researcher at the European University Institute where she obtained her PhD. Her first book is Free: Coming of Age at the End of History.
Chair

Luke Harding

Award-winning foreign correspondent with The Guardian and author


Foreign correspondent at The Guardian. Between 2007 and 2011 he was The Guardian’s Moscow bureau chief. The Kremlin expelled him from the country in the first case of its kind since the Cold War. His latest book is Shadow State: Murder, Mayhem and Russia's Remaking of the West. He is also the author of Collusion (a New York Times #1 bestseller), A Very Expensive Poison, The Snowden Files and Mafia State, as well as the co-author of WikiLeaks and The Liar (nominated for the Orwell Prize).

Speakers subject to change.