Can outsiders understand divided societies? With Dr Michaël Green

Send us Fan Mail Can an outsider understand a divided political culture better than those inside it? Samuel Woodall and Jack Thomson are joined by Dr Michaël Green, University Professor at the University of Łódź and Director of its Centre for Self-Narratives, for a special audio-only conversation. Through letters, diaries and memoirs, we explore what personal accounts reveal about early modern lives, privacy, exile and belonging. Paul de Rapin de Thoyras and Henry Bentinck, Viscount Woodstock, take us into Huguenot experience, education and the Grand Tour. Jean Rou and Jewish life writing offer contrasting accounts of integration, gratitude and home. Does distance make a historian more perceptive or more impartial? What changes when a tutor becomes regarded as a spy? And is being treated with dignity the same as being accepted? Hosted by Samuel Woodall and Jack Thomson. Guest: Dr Michaël Green. Explore Beyond the Text: https://beyondthetext.co.uk The Intellectual Historian: https://theintellectualhistorian.com Chapters 00:00 Welcome, outsiders and egodocuments 08:17 Privacy and public selves 12:51 Rapin's exile and Woodstock 24:36 Grand Tour education and belonging 33:33 Jean Rou, Jewish lives and belonging 39:07 Gratitude, outsiders and impartiality 42:31 Political division and patronage 45:55 The Grand Tour traveller 49:19 Dignity rather than acceptance 49:40 Farewell Support the show