Saturday 31 October, 5.15pm until 6.30pm, Student Union Balloon Debate
Three hundred years after the Industrial Revolution, there’s no doubt it has changed almost everything about our lives, from food to how often we talk to our Mum. Since then, there have been many other revolutions – French, American, Russian, for a start…
The ‘green revolution’ that transformed 20th century agriculture means we can feed billions easier than our ancestors fed thousands, and the internet revolution makes instantaneous, planet-wide communication something we take for granted. Fifty years ago, the Cuban revolution established a challenge to the American Way on its own doorstep, and the Sexual revolution sent shockwaves though Western morality that are still rumbling. But which revolution, social, political or technological, has done most to transform human life?
Our revolutionaries are:
- Sexual Revolution: Maria Grasso
- Industrial Revolution: Lee Jones
- English Revolution: Tara McCormack
- Scientific Revolution: Robin Walsh
- French Revolution: Charlie Winstanley
- American Revolution: Kevin Yuill
 | Maria Grasso lecturer, politics, St Hugh’s College, University of Oxford; co-convenor, Institute of Ideas Postgraduate Forum |
 | Dr Lee Jones lecturer, international relations, Queen Mary, University of London |
 | Dr Tara McCormack lecturer in international politics, University of Leicester; author, Critique, Security and Power: the political limits to emancipatory approaches |
 | Robin Walsh editorial assistant, medical publishing company; co-founder, Current Affairs Forum. |
 | Charlie Winstanley history student, University of Sheffield; former member, Socialist Workers' Party |
 | Dr Kevin Yuill senior lecturer, history and American studies, University of Sunderland; author Richard Nixon and the Rise of Affirmative Action: the pursuit of racial equality in an era of limits. |
| Chair: | |
|
Timandra Harkness
journalist and film maker; previews editor, BBC Focus magazine. |
