We all thought we knew why we loved Leicester until last Friday Colin Hyde showed us Leicester's buildings as the Victorians knew them, and valued them, and Cynthia Brown introduced us to the 'land grabbers' - men who in 1909 tried to show the Poor Law a better way. Leicester is always coming up with this sort of stuff - out of the way architectural gems down a lane and up a jitty, and stunning examples of working class radicalism throughout the modern period. You just have to know where to look and New History Lab showed us just that. I think a tour of this England's 'most radical city' (Bill Lancaster) is well overdue. Let's do Chris and Gervase's SHEFFIELD ((7 March) and then move onto the Queen's Road massive.
Next up (13 February) is Professor Andrew King from Physics on what it is to know what we know or, what do scientists think they're up to? Knowing what we know is not as easy as social scientists and historians thought it was. Just out in Australia is a little pot boiler The Trouble With Theory, or the Educational Consequences of Post Modernism by Gavin Kitching. Kitching is professor of politics at University of New South Wales. He looks at the top dissertations over recent years in his department and shows how they have been seriously misled and confused by the assumptions of (what he calls) bad philosophy. It has all caused a minor cause celebre in OZ Higher Education and we should get him for next year. Meethinks.
yours sincerely
The Pink 'Un
