Welcome to hardtalks look back at the highs and the lows of 2020. The lows well, all of us have had to learn to live with the reality of a global pandemic. It has changed all of our lives. Plenty of other stuff happened in 2020, but this year will forever be defined by covid 19. This is my home turf, the hardtalk studio. But for than half of 2020, i couldnt sit here. Covid 19 brought with it lockdown and shut downs around the world and the studio . Well, it was suddenly off limits. 0ur challenge was to ensure covid didnt force hardtalk off air. All we needed was a safe space, some lights, a couple of cameras and a simple laptop. We continued to ask the challenging questions, more necessary now than ever. Starting with the pandemic itself. Where did this virus come from . How did it spread across the world . It was first discovered in wuhan, but i cant say its originated from wuhan. It can be found in some countries which have very little connection with china. And also can be found in
Bit of wintry mix across scotland, quite a few showers along the east coast, where temperatures will hold up welcome to hardtalks to around four or five look back at the highs celsius at midnight. And the lows of 2020. Head inland, theyll be closer to freezing. A few showers developing across northern england, the lows well, all of us have had to learn parts of northwest wales, to live with the reality maybe South West England of a global pandemic. Through the early hours it has changed all of our lives. Of new years day. Plenty of other stuff happened in 2020, but this year will forever be but also once again, the potential for some freezing fog developing across central, defined by covid 19. Southeastern parts of england and wales as we head through the early hours of 2021. Another cold night but not quite as cold as recent nights, but some places still getting a few degrees below freezing. So heres how we start 2021, with still a fairly messy picture, low pressure to the east of the
And we can jump into our second panel, which is devoted Harvey Mansfields work on tocqueville and america. I think of the extraordinary things about harveys writing in this area is the way that he combines the study of the spirit of american political life with the study of Something Like the structure of american Political Part of his insight maybe, the most significant part, the connection that he finds between the two, the way that he finds deep in the history of political philosophy, the foundations of modern ideas, executive power of Political Parties, and the separation of powers. So of what we identify with the american way of government and roots it in the tradition of political philosophy in a way very unusual and very illuminating. And harvey connects these over and over again with the spirit American Life and the American National character. One obvious guide for doing that kind of thing is, of course, alexis de tocqueville and has made tocqueville one of his foremost object
Most significant part, the connection that he finds between the two, the way that he finds deep in the history of political philosophy, the foundations of modern ideas, executive power of political parties, and the separation of powers. So of what we identify with the american way of government and roots it in the tradition of political philosophy in a way very unusual and very illuminating. And harvey connects these over and over again with the spirit American Life and the American National character. One obvious guide for doing that kind of thing is, of course, alexis de tocqueville and has made tocqueville one of his foremost objects, maybe most notably in the fantastic translation of democracy in that he undertook, with his late wife, gilbert winthrop, in the superb to that translation, which really stands on its own as a kind of interpretive essay on tocqueville and in a lot of subsequent writing about tocqueville in america in this century, in the that opening essay to the transl
Separation of powers. So of what we identify with the american way of government and roots it in the tradition of political philosophy in a way very unusual and very illuminating. And harvey connects these over and over again with the spirit American Life and the American National character. One obvious guide for doing that kind of thing is, of course, alexis de tocqueville and has made tocqueville one of his foremost objects, maybe most notably in the fantastic translation of democracy in that he undertook, with his late wife, gilbert winthrop, in the superb to that translation, which really stands on its own as a kind of interpretive essay on tocqueville and in a lot of subsequent writing about tocqueville in america in this century, in the that opening essay to the translation army describes democracy in america as at once the best book ever written on democracy and the best ever written on america. Very high praise and our task in this panel is maybe to pass that just a little thin