How Germany played an unexpected part in making the modern food industry.

Donald Trump wants to put his face on too much money

Part 1: Prophetic parodies

Founded in 2013, the Institute of Intellectual History is a hub for everyone interested in intellectual history at both the University of St Andrews and beyond. Click to read Institute of Intellectual...

Published in History of European Ideas (Ahead of Print, 2026)

In this episode, Yifan Wang and Seungeun Lee speak with Professor Georgios Varouxakis (Queen Mary) about his new book The West: The History of an Idea (PUP, 2025).

Listen now | A discussion between Ann Thomson and Richard Whatmore.

When the intellectual historian István Hont (1947-2013) defected to the United Kingdom in 1975, he knew that he would likely never see his native country or much of his family ever again.

In this episode, we interview Emeritus Professor Raymond Geuss (FBA) on the relationship between Genealogy and Critique. We discuss the relationship between Adorno, Heidegger and Nietzsche, the danger...

This paper provides a reinterpretation of Adam Smith's distinction between the natural and the unnatural and retrograde order of progress. In doing so, the paper explores Smith's idea of the divisi...

Lecture 2: Careers

The Jacobite Groundwork of James Steuart’s Political Economy

Lecture 1: Justifications

Podcast Episode · Roots and Branches · 01/07/2025 · 1 sec

Discover how ideas shape our world with the Roots and Branches podcast from the University of St Andrews. Monthly episodes trace intellectual history from its roots to real-world impact—listen, learn ...

The Intellectual History Archive is a digital repository of papers from eminent intellectual historians. It is curated by the Institute of Intellectual History and hosted by the University of St Andre...

YouTube video by StAndrewsIIH

I am currently co-teaching a module on 'The Scientific Revolution'. Consequently, Isaac Newton's famous comment to Robert Boyle about 'standing on the shoulders of giants' was already in my mind on 15...

YouTube video by StAndrewsIIH

In his work on republicanism as a living idea, J G A Pocock showed that contesting history is part of a robust civic life

In this episode, we interview Professor Edward Baring on the relationship between religion and Phenomenology in the early 20th century. Why did Phenomenology come to dominate European philosophy, and ...

The dark history of eugenic thought in Germany from the nineteenth century to today―and the courageous counter-voices. In this episode, Robin Mills speaks with Dagmar Herzog about her new book T...

In this episode, Robin Mills speaks with Elad Carmel about his new book Anticlerical Legacies - The deistic reception of Thomas Hobbes, c. 1670–1740 (Manchester University Press, 2024). The conversa...

A letter from Louise Freyberger to August Bebel, 1898.

In this episode, we interview Dr Martin Alexander Ruehl, Senior Lecturer in German Intellectual History at the University of Cambridge.