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Lecture

Daniel Snowman and Trudy Gold
A Conversation on His New Book ‘Why Not Let the Leaning Tower Collapse? And Other Essays Examining What We Think of as History’

Thursday 30.01.2025

How to watch

This lecture starts on 30 January at 5:00pm (UK).

Summary

A fascinating interview with Daniel Snowman about his latest book, a collection of essays considering the following topics: Why does what we call “history” keep changing? What do we choose to retain as our “heritage?” Was there anything “Jewish” about the cultural impact of the refugees from Nazism? Might the horrors of World War II eventually just slip into ‘history’ like the Romans or the Armada? Daniel also wonders why historians are supposedly brilliant at explaining all that happened in the past–yet useless at predicting the future …

Daniel Snowman

an image of Daniel Snowman

Daniel Snowman is a social and cultural historian. Born in London to a Jewish family in 1938 and educated at Cambridge and Cornell, Daniel became a lecturer at the University of Sussex and went on to work for many years at the BBC as senior producer of radio features and documentaries. A senior research fellow at the Institute of Historical Research (University of London), his many books include a social history of opera and a study of the cultural impact of the ‘Hitler Emigrés’ and, most recently, his memoir “Just Passing Through: Interactions with the World 1938-2021”.

Trudy Gold

An image of Trudy Gold

Trudy Gold was the CEO of the London Jewish Cultural Centre and a founding member of the British delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). Throughout her career she taught modern Jewish history at schools, universities, and to adult groups and ran seminars on Holocaust education in the UK, Eastern Europe, and China. She also led Jewish educational tours all over the world. Trudy was the educational director of the student resources “Understanding the Holocaust” and “Holocaust Explained” and the author of The Timechart History of Jewish Civilization.