A lack of shared history about what happened in Europe during and after WW2 is a major contributing factor, and he makes the excellent suggestion to have Tony Judt’s “ Postwar: a History of Europe since 1945” taught through a common curriculum. The actions taken by Britain and other countries allowed these myths to persist, at the same time as undermining institutions which set out to repair the damage caused by the 20th Century wars. He starts with the idea that our understanding of “nation” is flawed and, this had consequences for the post-1945 period as well as post-1989. “It is a strategy of power that keeps any opposition constantly confused.” First Principles – History misread Those who remember the depressing “Non-linear warfare” segment from Charlie Brooker’s Newswipe 2014 will recognise many of the names and ideas here. Putin and his team regularly quote fascist philosophers from the 20th century, and many events over the the last few decades, in the US, UK and Europe, can be analysed in that context. His overarching claim is that Russia’s emergence from Communism post-1989 was quickly hijacked by oligarchs and kleptocrats and the politicians they supported.

His 2018 book, “ The Road to Unfreedom” provides an authoritative background to some of the deeper issues that I believe underlie Brexit – namely a misundertanding of how citizens connect to the democracy they live in, and how individual nations of the EU connected with the democratic union they are members of. Simply presented, without great hyperbole, his other videos on Russia and the US election and were compelling explanations of what’s been going on. I came across historian Timothy Snyder after seeing his video on the European Union.

The road to unfreedom