Greek Dialogues - Reading Thucydides in the 1930s: J. Enoch Powell between classical studies and politics

Dr Ivan Matijašić, Lewis-Gibson Visiting Fellow at the Cambridge Centre for Greek Studies (University of Cambridge), Marie Skłodowska-Curie COFUND Fellow at Ca' Foscari University of Venice, and Fellow at the Center for Hellenic Studies (Harvard University) examines the research of Enoch Powell into Thucydides, and the latter's influence on Powell, in a seminar hosted by the Faculty of Classics in partnership with the Cambridge Centre for Greek Studies.

John Enoch Powell (1912–1998) was one of the most controversial and divisive politicians in the history of the British Parliament. Before becoming an MP in 1950, he was Fellow of Trinity College in Cambridge, Professor of Greek at the University of Sydney, and Brigadier in the British Army. In the 1930s he published a dozen articles on Thucydides (see here and here) and revised Jones’s OCT edition.

At the Churchill Archives Centre in Cambridge there are several unpublished papers on Thucydides written by Powell, including his Fellowship Dissertation The Moral and Historical Principles of Thucydides and their Influence in Later Antiquity (1934). I will consider Powell’s work on Thucydides in the 1930s and explore the mark that Thucydides left on Powell’s political career.

This event will also be streamed as a Greek Dialogues Online event.

Topic: Greek Dialogues - Reading Thucydides in the 1930s: J. Enoch Powell between classical studies and politics
Time: Thursday, 10th November, 2022 at 17:15h GMT

Join Zoom Meeting: https://cam-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/99273776149?pwd=M0E1U1kzU0UvMVcvVklFQXNsMlMwdz09

Meeting ID: 992 7377 6149
Passcode: 468806

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