I'm happy with modern Britain, but if I'd gone another way it wd have been Reformation history.I've always been fascinated by religious history & by intellectual revolutions, when big ideas come into collision & reshape the world. And I had amazing lectures by Diarmaid MacCulloch
In some ways, my next book returns to these themes, exploring the rise of democracy as a religious revolution. It asks how an idea once viewed as a heresy achieved the mass conversion of British politics, before splintering into rival sects, each claiming to be the one true faith
But history has exploded in so many new & exciting directions since I was a student. If I were studying now, I'd love to explore African history, Islam, black political thought & so much more that wasn't on our curriculum.For students of history, there's no time like the present.
