Edinburgh International Book Festival Themes: Truth-Seekers: Essential History

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The historians joining us to get to the heart of our historic truths – retracing lost narratives and reflecting on the shortcomings and all-too-often devastating legacies of our distorted past.

About Edinburgh International Book Festival Themes: Truth-Seekers: Essential History

Listed Under Books Events / History Events / Talks and Lectures Events

It has often been said that History is only written by the victors, so how do we find out what really happened in our past? And is it possible to get an unbiased account of historic events when so many perspectives and experiences have been omitted from official records? The historians joining us this August get to the heart of our historic truths – retracing lost narratives and reflecting on the shortcomings and all-too-often devastating legacies of our distorted past. Expect some fascinating conversations.

Jonathan Freedland: The Man Who Escaped Auschwitz
Saturday 13 August 13:00 - 14:00

Fintan O'Toole: The Unknown Knowns of Ireland
Saturday 13 August 16:00 - 17:00

Simon Jenkins: Who Exactly Are the Celts?
Sunday 14 August 10:30 - 11:30

Patrick Radden Keefe: Money is a Drug
Monday 15 August 19:00 - 20:00

William Dalrymple: The Privatised Imperialists
Monday 15 August 20:30 - 21:30

Iain MacGregor: Stalingrad Revisited
Tuesday 16 August 20:15 - 21:15

Serhii Plokhy with Allan Little: Ukraine at the Crossroads of Europe and Russia
Tuesday 16 August 20:30 - 21:30

Murray Pittock: Old Scotia's Grandeur Springs
Wednesday 17 August 10:00 - 11:00

David Hendy: 100 Years of the BBC
Wednesday 17 August 13:00 - 14:00

Christopher de Bellaigue: A Life That Changed History
Thursday 18 August 13:00 - 14:00

Marc David Baer: The World Was Theirs
Saturday 20 August 10:15 - 11:15

Ferren Gipson & Katy Hessel: Reclaiming Art History
Saturday 20 August 18:15 - 19:15

Michael Ignatieff: Consolation for Our Times
Saturday 20 August 19:00 - 20:00

Chitra Ramaswamy: Homelands
Sunday 21 August 13:00 - 14:00

Simon Parkin: A Prison of Luminaries
Monday 22 August 13:00 - 14:00

Fiona Paterson, Alan Riach & James Robertson: Hugh MacDiarmid Centenary
Monday 22 August 14:15 - 15:15

Kerry Brown, Sam Fowles & David Loyn: Does Power Inevitably Corrupt?
Monday 22 August 14:30 - 15:30

Thomas Harding & Kojo Koram: What Was Taken?
Tuesday 23 August 13:00 - 14:00

Black History Walking Tour with Lisa Williams
Tuesday 23 August 17:00 - 18:30

Tobias Kelly & Charlotte McDonald-Gibson: Radical Outsiders
Wednesday 24 August 14:00 - 15:00

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