Talk by Geoffrey Barraclough , Professor of Medieval History in the University of Liverpool
In Professor Barraclough's opinion the assumption of the essential continuity of Western European culture from Classical Greece and Rome through the medium of medieval Christendom has become an unresolved dogma in present-day thinking and even in present-day politics.
Tonight he criticises the historical foundations for this assumption and gives his reasons for doubting whether the concept of a Western tradition is a valid one. He uses the evidence of the medieval history of the countries of Western Europe and also of the Byzantine Empire and of Russia.