In this episode of Library Talks, acclaimed Irish writer, Fintan O’Toole frames his Robert B Silvers lecture around Jonathan Swift’s critique of imperialism in his famous novel Gulliver’s Travels (1726).

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) lived away from his mother & with an uncle when his mother returned to England & then with his wet nurse from the age of 1 until he was three (his father had died when he was only 7 months old)

As O’Toole says, Gulliver’s Travels is a critique of British colonialism, challenging the moral authority of the British Empire by portraying it as absurd & often barbaric.

O’Toole goes on to talk about why the idea of greatness isn’t really so great at all, even though its been a feature of global politics in recent decades including with Donald Trump’s MAGA movement.