The Essay: New Generation Thinkers

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The Essay: New Generation Thinkers at 10: Politician and Pioneer: Writing the Life of Arthur Kavanagh

New Generation Thinkers: Politician and Pioneer - Writing the Life of Arthur Kavanagh

Politician and Pioneer: Writing the Life of Arthur Kavanagh

New Generation Thinkers at 10

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Clare Walker Gore on what a C19th MP without hands and feet tells us about stereotypes.

Arthur MacMurrough Kavanagh, a 19th-century tiger-hunting MP, was born without hands and feet. New Generation Thinker Clare Walker Gore reflects on what his biography leaves out.

The colourful life of Arthur MacMurrough Kavanagh overturns everything we think we know about disabled people’s lives in the 19th century. Born without hands and feet, he was an adventurous traveller and a Member of Parliament, a tiger-hunting landowner whose attempts to resist the rising tide of Irish nationalism were ultimately defeated, and whose amazing career has been largely forgotten. But how did his first biographer meet the challenge of writing his life? 

New Generation Thinker Clare Walker Gore of the University of Cambridge discusses the gaps in his published biography and what attitudes they reflect.   

The New Generation Thinkers scheme is ten years old in 2020. Jointly run by BBC and the Arts and Humanities Research Council, each year it offers ten academics at the start of their careers a chance to bring fascinating research to a wider public. This week we hear five essays from this last decade of stimulating ideas. 
 
This Essay was recorded in front of an audience at the Free Thinking Festival at Sage Gateshead in 2015.

Producer: Zahid Warley

The Essay: New Generation Thinkers at 10

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Celebrating a decade of stimulating ideas from the New Generation Thinkers scheme.

Five essays selected from the first decade of the New Generation Thinkers scheme, jointly run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

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