Episode · Freakonomics Radio · 2025-06-06
Books mentioned on 635. Can a Museum Be the Conscience of a Nation?
Nicholas Cullinan, the new director of the British Museum, seems to think so. “I'm not afraid of the past,” he says — which means talking about looted objects, the basement storerooms, and the leaking roof.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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The Volcano Lover
The Volcano Lover by Susan Sontag is a historical novel that revolves around the life of Lord Hamilton, the British ambassador to Naples, and intricately weaves together themes of art, revolution, and romantic obsession.
Recommended“And that's also kind of why I chose it because I'm a big fan of Susan Santag's novel, The Volcano Lover, which is essentially a romantic novel around Lord Hamilton, who was the British ambassador to Naples.”
Other mentions in this episode (2) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
Passing Karl Marx and Frederick Engels
“Oscar Wild, Virginia Wolf, you see here Sylvia Pankhurst, Carl Marx, who pretty much spent every day for 30 years sat here writing Des Capel.”
Passing Das Capital Volume One
“Oscar Wild, Virginia Wolf, you see here Sylvia Pankhurst, Carl Marx, who pretty much spent every day for 30 years sat here writing Des Capel.”