On this UVA Speaks podcast, Erik Linstrum, Associate Professor in the Corcoran Department of History in the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences at the University of Virginia, provides a historical context that led Britain to leave the European Union. He will discuss Brexit—the “British exit”(withdrawal) of the United Kingdom from the European Union and the current pushback of public opinion against the reforms. Linstrum explains the political instability that has led to four prime ministers in six years, how this uncertainty plays out in a parliamentary system, and how much of Britain’s current economic crisis can be traced back to Brexit. Linstrum also describes his book Age of Emergency: Living with Violence at the End of the British Empire. Transcripts of the audio broadcast can be found here.

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Erik Linstrum is an Associate Professor in the Corcoran Department of Philosophy, in the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, at the University of Virginia. Professor Linstrum is a historian of modern Britain in its imperial, European, and global contexts. His research explores the politics of knowledge and the circulation of information with particular interests in science and technology, war and violence, and the long history of decolonization. His most recent book, Age of Emergency: Living with Violence at the End of the British Empire, traces reports of atrocities in Malaya, Kenya, and Cyprus as they circulated through British society after 1945.