the first European festival on creativity

2015 Programme

Event #38

Alessandro Barbero

The historian’s responsibility. Ernst Kantorowicz: from the Freikorps to McCarthyism

Ernst Kantorowicz (1895-1963) was a leading expert on power during the Middle Ages. Influenced by Nietzsche, in his biography of emperor Frederick II he celebrated the ruler as a superman, capable of transcending his time and changing the course of history. A German nationalist, volunteer soldier in the first World War, in the years between the wars he enrolled in the Freikorps, who bloodily repressed the Bolshevik Revolution. Kantorowicz, however, was a Jew, and with the rise of Nazism he migrated to America, where he was offered a chair at Berkeley. In 1949, during the McCarthy era, the university forced its entire faculty to take an anti-Communist vow: Kantorowicz was one of the few who refused. His gesture cost him his job and sparked a debate that would have great resonance, paving the way towards the shift in perspective which would soon put an end to the extreme measures of the witch-hunt.

 

https://www.festivaldellamente.it/it/live-streaming-alessandro-barbero/
X

barbero-350x233

Alessandro Barbero, historian and writer, is Professor of Medieval History at the University of Eastern Piedmont and Vercelli. He contributes to the programmes “Passato e presente” and “a.C.d.C.” aired on Rai Storia. Since 2023 he has been the star of the programme “In viaggio con Barbero”, on LA7. In the same year he started for Chora Media “Chiedilo a Barbero”, a podcast in which he answers questions on history sent in by listeners. Among his publications: “Le parole del papa” (2016), “Caporetto” (2017), “Dante” (2020), 2All' arme! All'arme. I priori fanno carne” (2023), published by Laterza; “Gli occhi di Venezia” (2011) and “Le Ateniesi” (2015), published by Mondadori; “Costantino il vincitore” (Salerno, 2016); “Il divano di Istanbul” (2011), “Alabama” (2021), “Poeta al comando” (2022) and “Brick for stone” (2023), published by Sellerio.


All theevents2015


   

Event #1

Luciano Canfora

Augustus: the political ethics of a republican monarch

Event #2

Jim Al-Khalili

The secret ingredient of life

Event #3

Eraldo Affinati, Salvatore Lombardo

An act of humanity to be performed

Event #4

Anna Bonaiuto

Anna Bonaiuto reads Elena Ferrante

Event #6

Alessandro Barbero

The historian's responsibility. Gaetano Salvemini: from Socialist interventionism to anti-Fascism

Event #7

Andrea Moro

Beyond the boundaries of Babel

Event #8Approfonditamente

Marco Rossi-Doria, Giulia Tosoni

Kids and school: what, how and where are they learning

Event #9

Massimo Ammaniti

How the sense of Us is born: from We-go to Ego

Event #10

Paolo Ferri

Generation 2.0

Event #11

Guido Barbujani

We're the Africans

Event #13Approfonditamente

Adolfo Ceretti, Simonetta Agnello Hornby, Alfredo Verde

Gender-based violence: Perpetrators, victims and models of intervention.

Event #14

Mario Brunello, Manolo

The mountain and silence

Event #15

Edoardo Albinati

In praise of the best student in class

Event #17

Aldo Colonetti, Italo Rota

The space we live in is nothing but an extension of our minds

Event #18

Carlo Toffalori

Mathematics, algorithms and freedom

Event #18 BIS

Carlo Toffalori

Mathematics, algorithms and freedom

Event #19

Matteo Nucci

Oedipus’ eyes and Plato’s complex

Event #19 BIS

Matteo Nucci

Oedipus’ eyes and Plato’s complex

Event #21

Giuseppe Battiston, Piero Sidoti

LA LA LA. When there is no answer

Event #22

Alessandro Barbero

The historian’s responsibility. Marc Bloch: from the Sorbonne to the Gestapo prisons

Event #24

Marco Martella

Returning to the garden

Event #26

Eugenio Borgna, Simonetta Fiori

Knowing ourselves and knowing others: a different way of being responsible

Event #27

Tito Baldini

 “Borderline” kids meet the adult world

Event #28

Melania G. Mazzucco

A painting for freedom

Event #29

Luca Mastrantonio

Cruciverba volant (unbuckle your seatbelts)

Event #31

Lina Bolzoni

Theatres of memory between enchantment and utopia

Event #35

James R. Flynn, Armando Massarenti

Without an alibi: a voyage across life’s greatest questions

Event #36

Géza & The Bohemian Vitruosi

Music in voyage, or a voyage into music

Event #38

Alessandro Barbero

The historian’s responsibility. Ernst Kantorowicz: from the Freikorps to McCarthyism

Event #39Children / Kids

Massimiliano Tappari

Finding wonder close to home

Event #41Children / Kids

Sergio Noberini

Discovering Luzzati’s universe

Event #42Children / Kids

Elisa Pezzolla

Emanuele Luzzati in a workshop

Event #44Children / Kids

FabLab Imola

Let’s learn how to build our own toys

Event #46Children / Kids

Alessandro Sanna

How to draw animals with a happy hand

Event #49Children / Kids

Centro DreamsLab

Try a 3D experience in history and science

Event #54Children / Kids

Lele Lomazzi

Let’s become songwriters

Event #55Children / Kids

FabLab Imola

The 3D printer: an idea becomes an object

Event #56

Davide Sapienza

On a walk with a writer-traveller

Event #58Children / Kids

Margherita Loy

Let’s make the Pop Art of the 2000s

Event #59Children / Kids

Mara Cerri

What’s under the bed?

Event #60Children / Kids

Davide Sapienza

Adventure into Everywhere

X Download podcast

LISTEN TO FESTIVAL PODCASTS

SpotifySpreakerApple PodcastsAmazon Music