Beyond the Text: The Intellectual Historian's Podcast

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What problem does political authority solve, and what do we give up when we create it? In the second of three conversations, Samuel Woodall and Jack Thomson read Hobbes’s account of conflict, covenant and sovereignty in Leviathan. They ask why people might consent to a common power and where the obligation to obey meets the need for self-preservation.

Read alongside us:
Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, Part I, chapters 13–14; Part II, chapters 17 and 21: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3207/3207-h/3207-h.htm

Beyond the Text: https://beyondthetext.co.uk/

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The first of three Beyond the Text conversations on Thomas Hobbes. Samuel Woodall and Jack Thomson begin with Hobbes’s life, the political upheaval around him, and the place of fear in his account of human beings. How did those experiences shape the argument for political authority?

Read alongside us:
John Aubrey, “Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury,” Brief Lives, vol. 1: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/47787/47787-h/47787-h.htm
Thomas Hobbes, De Cive, Author’s Preface: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Philosophicall_Rudiments_Concerning_Government_and_Society/Authors_Preface

Beyond the Text: https://beyondthetext.co.uk/

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In this solo episode, we examine the political power of song during the Baltic "Singing Revolution" and the historic Baltic Way of August 23, 1989. Discover how Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania transformed traditional folk music, mass choir festivals, and protest songs into non-violent instruments of mobilisation, successfully bypassing state control and dismantling Soviet hegemony from within.

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How did a French Huguenot exile end up writing the history that shaped how England understood its own political parties? This episode traces Paul de Rapin-Thoyras's History of England and its role in the emergence of Whig and Tory identity — connecting directly to the broader story of eighteenth-century political faction this show keeps coming back to.
🎓 A milestone moment in the PhD journey…
Last term, I had the privilege of delivering my first presentation of my doctoral research at the Humanities Research Day at the University of Buckingham — and what a moment it was.
Presenting “Moderation and Memory: Rapin de Thoyras and the Making of English Party” felt like more than just an academic exercise. It was the first time my work stepped out into the world — tested, shared, and given voice beyond the page. 
💭 To stand and articulate months (and years!) of thought — on party, moderation, and the strange, indeterminate nature of the English constitution — was both daunting and deeply rewarding.
Rapin asks us: if England is neither monarchy, aristocracy, nor democracy… what is it? And from that question emerges my broader argument — that political parties are not failures of the system, but necessary expressions of it.
📚 This presentation marked a turning point:
 From research to communication 
 From private writing to public argument 
 From uncertainty to a growing confidence in my work 
Most of all, I felt incredibly proud — not just of the ideas themselves, but of reaching a stage where I could contribute meaningfully to the wider academic conversation.
Here’s to many more discussions, debates, and discoveries ahead.
#PhDLife #IntellectualHistory #UniversityOfBuckingham #HistoryOfIdeas #AcademicJourney

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💭 Can feeling and imagination preserve what reason alone cannot? In this episode, Jack Thomson explores the political vision of Edmund Burke and the enduring power of moral imagination.
Through Reflections on the Revolution in France, Jack traces how Burke's suspicion of abstract reason shaped a distinctly conservative political imagination — and why that tension between feeling and reason still runs through debates about party and faction today.
🎧 In this episode:
 Burke’s Reflections and the politics of moral imagination 
 The defence of tradition against abstract rationalism 
 Society as a living inheritance rather than a constructed system 
 The moral and emotional foundations of political order 
This is part of our Heritage Series, tracing the evolution of conservative and traditionalist thought — from Plato and Augustine of Hippo to Joseph de Maistre and beyond — exploring how ideas shape the foundations of Western civilisation.
📚 Hosted by the History of Ideas Reading Club (University of Buckingham)
 🎙️ Produced by Beyond the Text: The Intellectual Historian’s Podcast
🎧 Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts & all major platforms
#BeyondTheText #HeritageSeries #EdmundBurke #PoliticalPhilosophy #IntellectualHistory