In today’s episode of Footsteps in Utopia, Michael Murphy speaks with the writer and historian Samuel Rubinstein about the political battle over the past in the age of Trump. Samuel has argued that the Right should “dump Trump,” describing his administration as “sitting atop a foundation of mocking and memes”. They discuss whether the US president’s bid to acquire Greenland signals a return to imperial politics at a time of renewed disputes over the legacy of slavery and colonialism.
The discussion then turns to historical revisionism, particularly the history of the Second World War and the Holocaust, which has been challenged by a new generation of online revisionists — and whether this echoes the Historikerstreit, or historian’s dispute, that shook Germany in the 1980s. Finally, they explore the global rise in antisemitism, and whether hostility to Jews can be disentangled from debates around Israel and Zionism.
Samuel writes about history, culture and politics for Engelsberg Ideas, UnHerd and the Spectator, among other outlets.
