Why are you a historian of the Atlantic World?
The Atlantic World is so huge and various; I’ll by no means run out of locations and peoples to check.
What’s a very powerful lesson historical past has taught you?
The depths of evil to which people can plunge, but additionally their monumental capability for goodness.
Which historical past guide has had the best affect on you?
Marcus Rediker’s The Slave Ship: A Human Historical past, because it pushed me to check the trans-Atlantic slave commerce from the underside up.
What guide in your discipline ought to everybody learn?
Saltwater Slavery by Stephanie Smallwood.
Which second would you most like to return to?
The primary assembly between Cortés and Montezuma in 1519.
Which historian has had the best affect on you?
Alfred Crosby, as he made me respect how the pure world formed human historical past.
Which individual in historical past would you most prefer to have met?
Nobody as they’d most likely give me a lethal virus – or vice versa.
What number of languages do you’ve got?
English, French, and Spanish. I’m going to be taught Māori subsequent 12 months.
What historic subject have you ever modified your thoughts on?
The Industrial Revolution. Was it industrial? Was it a revolution?
What’s the most frequent false impression about your discipline?
That Africa was unimportant to the making of the Atlantic World.
What’s essentially the most thrilling discipline in historical past at present?
Environmental historical past, because it speaks so clearly to the crises we face at present.
Who’s essentially the most underrated individual in historical past…
Olaudah Equiano. His resilience within the face of adversity was phenomenal.
… and essentially the most overrated?
George Washington. He was a horrible common!
Is there an necessary historic textual content you haven’t learn?
Probably the most obvious might be Time on the Cross.
What’s your favorite archive?
The Nationwide Archives in London.
What’s the perfect museum?
The Mary Rose Museum in Portsmouth.
What know-how has modified the world essentially the most?
The steam engine, because it sparked the fossil gas revolution.
Suggest us a historic novel…
Sacred Starvation by Barry Unsworth.
… and a historic drama?
Sharpe.
You’ll be able to resolve one historic thriller. What’s it?
To seek out the misplaced journal of Christopher Columbus’ first voyage to the Americas.
Nicholas Radburn is Senior Lecturer within the historical past of the Atlantic World at Lancaster College and creator of the Wolfson Prize-shortlisted Merchants in Males: Retailers and the Transformation of the Transatlantic Slave Commerce (Yale College Press, 2024).
