Newsletter

Receive regular updates about forthcoming events and other news from Intelligence Squared

Thanks

You have been added to our mailing list and will now be among the first to hear about events.

Watch

Margaret MacMillan on How War Has Shaped Humanity

Politics &
Economics

Historian Margaret MacMillan revealed the many faces of war – the way it has determined our past, and will continue to shape our future

“War isn’t just a disruption of normality, not just an absence of peace – it’s something we keep returning to over and over again as a species. War is deeply woven into human history.” – Margaret MacMillan 

Margaret MacMillan is a distinguished historian, known for her masterly grasp of her subject matter as well as her gift for vivid storytelling. In November 2020 she came to Intelligence Squared to discuss war, a topic which, she argues, we should be talking about more than we currently are. 

MacMillan explained how war has shaped our societies and our very concept of ourselves. Once you embark on war you need structures and soldiers. You need people to give orders and to take orders. All that requires societal organisation. And from war we get many of our political institutions, our values and ideas. Our very language, our public spaces, our private memories, and some of our greatest cultural treasures have been influenced by war – from Homer to the paintings of Paul Nash. 

Drawing on the themes of her new book, War: How Conflict Shaped Us, MacMillan examined the benefits that war has brought us, from votes for women to the mass availability of penicillin, and (arguably) nuclear power. And debated such questions as: When did war first start? Does human nature doom us to fight one another? Why has war been described as the most organised of all human activities? Why are warriors almost always men? Is war ever within our control?

In conversation with bestselling historian Peter Frankopan, MacMillan revealed the many faces of war – the way it has determined our past, and will continue to shape our future. 

 

Event Name

Margaret MacMillan on How War Has Shaped Humanity

WATCH

This video is available to watch for Intelligence Squared Full Members and Patrons. Click the button below to subscribe to Intelligence Squared+ to watch this event and hundreds more.

WATCH ON DEMAND

Already a Full Member or Patron? Sign in to Intelligence Squared+ here.

Speakers for the motion

  • Margaret MacMillan

    Emeritus Professor of International History at Oxford University

Chair

  • Peter Frankopan

    Professor of Global History at the University of Oxford and his latest book is The Earth Transformed

Speakers are subject to change.

Speakers

Speaker

Margaret MacMillan

Emeritus Professor of International History at Oxford University

Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Toronto and Emeritus Professor of International History at Oxford University.  She was Provost of Trinity College, Toronto and then Warden of St Antony’s College, Oxford. In 2018 she was the BBC Reith Lecturer. Her books include Paris, 1919; The War that Ended Peace; and most recently War: How Conflict Shaped Us.
Chair

Peter Frankopan

Professor of Global History at the University of Oxford and his latest book is The Earth Transformed

Professor of Global History at the University of Oxford. His books include The Silk Roads: A New History of the World and The New Silk Roads: The Present and Future of the World, both of which are global bestsellers. He has been Senior Research Fellow at Worcester College, Oxford since 2000. His latest book is The Earth Transformed: An Untold Story. 

 

Speakers subject to change.