BRITISH ACADEMY REVIEW ISSN 2047-1866 British Academy Review • 23 • 23 Eleven perspectives on how the humanities and social sciences enrich our lives BRITISH ACADEMY for the humanities and social sciences THE BRITISH ACADEMY February 10-11 Carlton House Terrace London SW1Y 5AH +44 (0)20 7969 5200 2014 www.britishacademy.ac.uk Registered Charity: No. 233176 British Academy Review Issue 23 February 2014 THE BRITISH ACADEMY 10–11 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AH Telephone: +44 (0)20 7969 5200 Web site: www.britishacademy.ac.uk Follow us on @britac_news ISSN 2047-1866 © The British Academy 2014 The British Academy Review is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. The British Academy Review contains articles illustrating the wide range of scholarship which the British Academy promotes in its role as the UK’s national academy for the humanities and social sciences. Views of named writers are the views exclusively of those writers; publication does not constitute endorsement by the British Academy. Suggestions for articles by current and former British Academy grant- and post-holders, as well as by Fellows of the British Academy, are very welcome. Suggestions may be sent to the Editor, James Rivington, at [email protected] Page make-up by Don Friston Printed in Great Britain by Henry Ling Limited at the Dorset Press Dorchester, Dorset Contents In this issue 1 Eleven Fellows of the British Academy in conversation Nicholas Stern (Economics) 2 Diarmaid MacCulloch (History) 10 Conor Gearty (Law) 16 Mary Beard (Classics) 22 Anthony Heath (Sociology) 28 Peter Hennessy (History) 35 Hazel Genn (Law) 41 Jonathan Bate (English Literature) 46 John Kay (Economics) 52 Vicki Bruce (Psychology) 57 Adam Roberts (International Relations) 62 The British Academy 67 iii In this issue Prospering Wisely Prospering Wisely: How the humanities and social They presented arguments for the importance of their sciences enrich our lives is a new British Academy own subjects, and the humanities and social sciences publication which explores the notion of ‘prosperity’, more generally. And they discussed the need for in its widest sense, far beyond its purely financial academics to be challenging, and to reach out to meaning. It illustrates the many ways in which the wider audiences. humanities and social sciences actively contribute to Video extracts from these personal accounts may this broad definition of prosperity – for example, in be viewed via the Prospering Wisely website. But helping improve people’s well-being, in sustaining a fuller edited versions of these interviews are healthy open democracy, and by constantly fuelling published in this issue of the British Academy and expanding the frontiers of knowledge, Review. These self-portraits of leading humanities innovation and human understanding, and the and social sciences academics at work provide an creation of new ideas. The text is available via intriguing picture of modern scholarship, and help us www.britishacademy.ac.uk/prosperingwisely understand why these disciplines bring so much to As part of the preparation of this publication, our quality of life and well-being. interviews were held with eleven Fellows of the These interviews were originally conducted in British Academy, drawn from a spread of the subjects June and July 2013. We would like to thank Des supported by the Academy. The Fellows revealed the Burkinshaw (Magnificent TV) and David Walker for personal stories behind their academic careers. They their help in conducting them. talked about the practice of research and scholarship. British Academy Review, issue 23 (February 2014). © The British Academy 1 Lord Nicholas Stern of Brentford FBA is IG Patel Professor of Economics and Government at the London School of Nicholas Stern Economics, and President of the British Academy. A video of extracts from this interview can be found via www.britishacademy.ac.uk/prosperingwisely/stern academic then. I think I knew I was going to be involved in public policy, and I think I knew I wanted to work on development – and that characterised my whole career. How the rest of it played out would have been very hard to predict. That is one of the joys of life. It is central to the work of Friedrich Hayek. He and Karl Popper (both Professors at the LSE and Fellows of the British Academy)1 tried to explain that the inability to predict is central, not just to the human condition, but also to the way in which economies work and function. Recognising the role of discovery, recognising that we cannot know everything – and it would be a very boring and unproductive world if we did – is key to much of our understanding of the human condition, whether that be through literature, history or economics. Q Q What did you hope to do with economics? You did your first degree in maths, and then did a Nick Stern doctorate in economics. Why did you go down that path? I should say that my interest in economics was not just Nick Stern about changing the world, although it was in a major part I always loved the intellectual challenge of mathematics, about that. It was also the fascination of trying to and I seemed to be quite good at it. I loved the puzzling understand how we interact with each other in economic and the conceptual frameworks that mathematics dealt life. Why do some people get paid more than others? As with; I liked the precision. Keynes said, if you want to buy a particular product at a At the same time, I was deeply involved in the big issues particular time, on the whole you can do it; but what lies of the day. I was both a teenager and a student in the ’60s. behind that whole process? What are the power relations There were some clear issues that we had to engage with – within economic systems, and what do they imply? All particularly Vietnam and apartheid. I was very politically those were fascinating questions for me. It was the involved: we were trying to change the world on two very intellectual fascination of the subject, along with the big subjects. Of course, in the UK we were on the front line motivation of (to put it in rather banal terms) trying to of neither of them, but this was a generation that was make the world a better place. deeply engaged on those issues, and rightly so. I can give some examples of that from my own The perceived duty to try to change the world was very experience. In 1981-82, I was working on tax reform in much part of my growing up. My mother was at the India, particularly on the idea of value added taxation. London School of Economics (LSE) during World War II. About 20 years or so later, reforms in India were enacted, My father was a refugee from Hitler, and even with his which led to something that is more or less a value added heavy German accent he became active in local UK tax – not exactly with that title. Manmohan Singh, the politics. At home, it was a very political household. But current Prime Minister of India, who first brought me to whether or not it had been a political household, the India – he was a middle ranking civil servant in the issues of the day were intense, and we were all engaged. Finance Ministry – very kindly gives some credit to my Wanting to change the world was very much part of the work in bringing that about. Sometimes these things time when I grew up. happen with very long time lags. Later on in the ’80s, Tony Atkinson, Mervyn King2 and I Q led a programme of work on taxation, incentives and the When you completed your doctorate, you could not distribution of income, which in many ways influenced our possibly have known where you would end up. subsequent careers. We were doing work on tax reform, Nick Stern which included the merits and demerits of switches from I finished my doctorate just about the same time as I direct to indirect taxation. Before long, that was something became a Fellow of St Catherine’s College in Oxford, and a that became an issue in relation to the political programme tutor in Economics there. I knew I was going to be an of the Conservative Government of the 1980s. 1 Friedrich Hayek was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1944; 2 Sir Tony Atkinson was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1984; Karl Popper was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1958. Lord Mervyn King was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1992. 2 British Academy Review, issue 23 (February 2014). © The British Academy NICHOLAS STERN I led the writing of the report for the Commission for I got to do the Stern Review in 2005-06, and that was Africa 2004-05, which was the main intellectual basis for something that seemed to have an impact on discussions the discussion at the Gleneagles G8 Summit of summer of public policy. 2005, around the campaign to ‘Make Poverty History’. That seemed to deliver – not by itself of course – part of the ideas that helped produce a substantial increase in aid for Africa. * Those are a few examples from India, UK and Africa Q where I have been fortunate to be involved. Much of what Could you tell us more about the Stern Review? I have done has been closely involved in influencing Nick Stern public policy. Provided it is based on serious work and For many of us the two defining problems of our century careful analysis – it is not just what you say, it is the are managing climate change and overcoming world analysis that supports it – you can have an influence, and poverty.