Welcome to the first monthly edition of The Intellectual Historian Newsletter. Each issue will bring together a new essay, a concise update from my research, and selected work in intellectual history and public engagement.
New essay: music as political power
This month’s featured article examines the Baltic Singing Revolution and the Baltic Way of August 1989. It asks how songs, festivals and inherited cultural traditions helped Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania turn collective memory into a disciplined form of non-violent political action.
The article argues that music was not simply decoration surrounding the “real” politics. Collective singing allowed participants to experience themselves as members of sovereign national publics before formal independence had been restored.
From the research notebook
My doctoral research at the University of Buckingham examines political and religious faction in eighteenth-century Britain, particularly the emergence of loyal opposition after the Glorious Revolution. I have now settled the thesis sequence with Paul de Rapin de Thoyras first, followed by John “Estimate” Brown and Josiah Tucker.
Beginning with Rapin gives the project its strongest conceptual foundation. His account of Britain’s “rage of party” treated political division not merely as a moral failure, but as a durable product of history, religion and constitutional development. Brown’s later demand for national unanimity can then be read as a revealing response to that inherited world, before Tucker supplies a further perspective on party, commerce and political order.
Recent presentations
Earlier this year I presented “Moderation and Memory: Rapin de Thoyras and the Making of English Party” at the University of Buckingham Research Day. In August, I presented an expanded paper at the HAPI Tension & Fragmentation Conference at the University of Bristol, developing the relationship between Rapin’s historical method, party conflict and the problem of political fragmentation.
A more accessible archive
Every article on The Intellectual Historian can now be heard as well as read. The new “Listen to this article” player appears at the top of each essay, making the archive easier to use while travelling, working or studying.
Beyond the Text
I also continue to work with Jack Thomson on Beyond the Text, our long-form podcast devoted to major works and debates in intellectual history. The podcast has its own dedicated home, where you can explore episodes and supporting material.
Thank you for reading and for supporting this growing project. The next edition will include new writing, further progress on the thesis, and selected material from across the history of political thought.
Samuel Woodall
The Intellectual Historian
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