Ian Morris joins us to tell the story of Britain, from its physical separation at the end of the Ice Age to the first flickers of a United Kingdom, struggles for the Atlantic, and rise of the Pacific Rim.

A leader in the exhilarating new field of Big History, Stanford Professor and author of international bestseller Why the West Rules – for Now Ian Morris takes the very long view on Britain and its changing relationships with Europe and the wider world.

Charting Britain’s geopolitical fortunes over thousands of years, and revealing its transformation from a European satellite into a state at the centre of global power, commerce, and culture, Ian will explore how geography, migration, government and new technologies interacted to produce regional inequalities that still affect us today.

And he will look to the future: as power and wealth shift from West to East, does Britain’s future lie with Europe or the wider world?

Fans of Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond, and Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall should not miss this livestream event.

Praise for the work of Ian Morris:

‘Remarkable … historian Morris argues not only that war is a source of technological advance but that it brings peace … the thesis is disturbingly persuasive’ – Martin Wolf, Financial Times

‘A great work of synthesis and argument, drawing together an awesome range of materials and authorities’ – Andrew Marr

‘Clever, acute and counterintuitive … a pleasure to read — Dominic Sandbrook’ ― Sunday Times

‘A provocative and extraordinary contribution to wide-screen comparative history … a true banquet of ideas’ – Boyd Tonkin, Independent

‘This is an astonishing book, full of controversy, brilliantly researched and thoughtfully argued … one of the most fascinating and thought-provoking histories I’ve read in years’ ― Daily Telegraph