How has fear shaped history?

With the climate crisis, war in Ukraine, a recent pandemic and the rise of AI, it can feel like there is more to be fearful of today than ever before. But according to historian Robert Peckham, human society has always been shaped by fear – and not always in the ways you might expect. Speaking to Ellie Cawthorne, Robert reveals how fear has been a force for both good and ill, from the Black Death and colonisation to the abolition movement and 19th-century concerns about technology.

Robert Peckham is the author of Fear: An Alternative History of the World (Profile, 2023)