Political Realism in Apocalyptic Times

In this episode, Paul Sagar speaks with Alison McQueen, who is Associate Professor of Political Science at Stanford University. In her recent book, Political Realism in Apocalyptic Times (CUP, 2018), Alison analyses the apocalyptic fears - and fears of the apocalyptic - of three different thinkers, all of whom opposed the temptation to prophesize the end of days: Machiavelli in the midst of Italy's power struggles, Thomas Hobbes during England's civil war, and Hans Morgenthau at the dawn of the thermonuclear age.