Fog in the channel: Britain, Europe and the wider world since 6000 BC

Professor Ian Morris, Stanford University, offers some historical perspective to contemporary issues by reviewing the history of the British Isles, and the 8,000 years since rising sea levels physically separated the region from the European continent. He conveys how the challenges facing Britain in the 2010s are neither new nor uniquely British, and how looking at these challenges over the long term reveals some surprising patterns that offer hints about the fate of the Western world in the 21st century.

Ian Morris is an archaeologist and historian who studies the long-run patterns of the past and their implications for our future. He has directed archaeological digs in Greece and Italy and has published 14 books, including Why the West Rules—For Now (2010), which has been translated into 14 languages.

He grew up in Britain and was educated at Birmingham and Cambridge Universities, but now teaches at Stanford University in California. In addition to serving as Stanford’s Senior Associate Dean of Humanities and Sciences, chair of its Classics department and director of the Stanford Archaeology Center, he has won the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching.

He is also a Senior Fellow in the IDEAS programme at the London School of Economics and a Fellow of the British Academy.