Talk by Dr Ian Mortimer: Centuries of Change – or how to write the history of the last 1000 years without leaving Devon (Devon Heritage Services)
Admission: £7. Tickets are available in advance from the Devon Heritage Centre. Either ask at reception or contact Brian Carpenter at
brian.carpenter@devon.gov.uk or 01392 380573. Payment can be made in cash, by cheque payable to ‘South West Heritage Trust’ or by credit/debit card.
Copies of Centuries of Change will be available on the evening at a discount price of £15, if ordered via Brian Carpenter by Wednesday 25th March.
In his new book, Centuries of Change, Dr Ian Mortimer asks which of the last ten centuries saw the most change in the Western World.
It's an enormous question, and like most enormous questions, it can be answered in a variety of ways. But where do you begin? Ian started by considering the spot where he was sitting at that moment, at his desk in Moretonhampstead.
The ensuing journey incorporated some huge changes (such as the real importance of Columbus, in breaking the Old World's faith in the corpus of ancient Greek and Roman knowledge), some overlooked changes (such as the importance of the growth of markets and money: you can live a normal life without great inventions like space travel but you can't get by today without money) and some unnoticed changes (such as the development of individualism, and the invention of the concept of the future).
And at the end of it all, Ian gave himself an even harder task - that of considering what it means for the next thousand years.
Ian Mortimer is one of the most innovative historians working today, pushing the boundaries of both literary form and historical methodology. He also is a keen advocate of the public importance of history, at national level and in the community. In addition to Centuries of Change (2014), he is the author of The Greatest Traitor: the Life of Sir Roger Mortimer (2003); The Perfect King: the Life of Edward III (2006); The Fears of Henry IV: the Life of England’s Self-Made King (2007); The Time Traveller’s Guide to Medieval England (2008) and The Time Traveller’s Guide to Elizabethan England (2009).