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LSE Literary Festival 2014: The Books That Inspired Craig Calhoun

Podcast: LSE: Public Lectures and Events
Episode Date: February 17, 2014
Guest: Professor Craig Calhoun (Director of the LSE, sociologist)
Host: LSE Film and Audio Team

Overview

In this special segment celebrating the LSE Literary Festival 2014, Professor Craig Calhoun shares the books and authors that have profoundly influenced his intellectual journey. He discusses major works in social theory, the impact of classical thinkers, and the challenges of finding time to read in a demanding academic life. The episode provides insights into not just what he reads, but how he reads and revisits key texts over time.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Beginnings of Intellectual Inspiration

Calhoun expresses that his academic career began with “falling in love with books,” emphasizing the privilege of reading as one’s profession.
He was inspired by “discovering classical social theory—Marx, Weber, Durkheim,” which shaped his understanding of large societal changes and their limits. (01:01–01:35)

Classical Social Theorists

Emile Durkheim: Inspired Calhoun with ideas on “what society was, how things were connected.” (01:19)
Max Weber: Provided insight into how “the larger patterns of social life had to be built up out of actions in which people meaningfully responded to each other.” (01:25)
Karl Marx: Especially “Capital,” revealed “why the [capitalist] system mattered and individuals didn’t just have complete choice to make the world they wanted.” However, Calhoun also notes “the limits to the Marxist perspective,” especially in politics. (01:33–02:17)

E.P. Thompson’s The Making of the English Working Class

Calhoun cites this as “probably the single most inspiring book I ran across,” noting how he read it four times and took extensive notes. He was drawn to the book’s coherence and the challenge of reconciling its narrative with broader theoretical frameworks. (02:19–03:17)

“I began to worry—how could such a wonderful account, which as you read it just almost seamlessly tells a story, be thought of in more theoretical terms than Thompson did?” (02:45, Craig Calhoun)

The Dynamics of Reading and Re-Reading

Calhoun distinguishes between books you love and read once and those you “go back to and study really closely, where a close reading is important.” (03:18)
Over his academic career, close and repeated reading has been integral to deep understanding.

A Recent Inspiring Work: Charles Taylor’s A Secular Age

Calhoun highlights this as the book in the last five years that has kept him thinking and returning to it:

“It’s inspiring. It sees something, it makes you see the world differently, and it has these limits and problems that make you think further.” (03:40)
He appreciates that Taylor’s work requires “you read it and you think, and you go back and look again and say, did I understand it right?”
The book led him to reflect further on secularism—not just as absence of religion but as a positive, historically shaped condition. (04:02–05:00)

“It just gets you thinking in a new way about things you already knew from your life as well as from other books, from research, and makes you try to understand his distinctive perspective...and try to improve your own at the same time. And that’s a sign of a great book for me.” (05:00–05:24)

Reading Habits and the Demands of Modern Academic Life

Calhoun admits to reading more history than anything else and is especially interested in the traces of empire and world change into nation states and international relations. (05:29–05:42)
He laments that most of his reading now occurs on planes due to a busy schedule. He humorously notes:

“The sad truth of my life is that I do more reading on airplanes than anywhere else right now.” (05:51, Craig Calhoun)
Contemporary life, with constant electronic connectivity and work demands, makes it hard to carve out undisturbed time for reading.

“There is a struggle, I think other people must have it too, in contemporary life, where you carry electronic gadgets around, you always have your work with you, so you always could be doing something and you feel vaguely obligated, or not vaguely, but very concretely obligated to do that.” (06:25)
Even as LSE director, Calhoun deals with “about 300 emails a day,” describing the pressure to be productive at all times.

“Life could be completely taken up in that. So it takes a new and different kind of willpower to say, hey, I’m going to take two hours and I’m just going to read...” (06:47, Craig Calhoun)
He insists on the value of maintaining deliberate space for reflective, deep reading for personal happiness and intellectual growth.

Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

“Being inspired by books, falling in love with books, was what got me started towards being an academic.” (01:02, Craig Calhoun)
“What other career do you actually get the chance to do? Reading for pay?” (01:04, Craig Calhoun)
“There are books you go back to and books that you study really closely, where a close reading is important.” (03:17, Craig Calhoun)
“You have to actively counteract that sense that you should be doing some task at every moment.” (07:19, Craig Calhoun)

Timestamps for Key Segments

01:01: Calhoun on the beginning of his academic inspiration and finding social theory
01:19–02:17: Calhoun breaks down the influence of Durkheim, Weber, and Marx
02:19–03:17: Discussion of E.P. Thompson and the value of narrative in theory
03:40–05:24: Deep dive into Charles Taylor’s A Secular Age
05:29–05:42: Preferred reading genres and interests in historical narratives
05:51–07:26: The realities of reading as a busy academic, struggle for quiet time, and strategies for finding it

Tone and Style

Personal, reflective, and candid—Calhoun is thoughtful and occasionally humorous about the realities of academic life.
Intellectual but accessible, describing high-level theory and personal engagement with reading.

Conclusion

Craig Calhoun offers a thoughtful window into the books and theories that have shaped his outlook on society, history, and academic life. Emphasizing both inspiration and critical engagement, he illustrates how deep and repeated reading fuels intellectual growth—even when finding time to read is itself a major challenge. This episode will resonate with anyone passionate about books and the life of the mind.

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Transcript3 lines

[00:06]
A
From 24 February to 1 March 2014, the London School of Economics will hold its sixth annual literary festival. Under the theme Reflections, the festival will explore how the social sciences and the arts help us understand the world around us and our place within it. A wide variety of events are planned, from talks, readings to panel discussions and film screenings. To see a full programme, go online to lse.ac.ukpublicevents to celebrate and support the festival, we're launching a series of special academic inspiration segments featuring prominent LSE academics and event speakers. In this podcast, the director of the LSE and world renowned sociologist Professor Craig Calhoun tells us about the classical social theorists who have inspired him throughout his career.
[01:01]
B
What books inspired me? I suppose that being inspired by books, falling in love with books was what got me started towards being an academic. What other career do you actually get the chance to do? Reading for pay? The first big inspirations for me were discovering classical social theory, Marx, Weber, Durkheim, just finding that there were these perspectives on what was going on in the world. I was a university student at the end of the 1960s. Thinking about both the big changes of the period and the limits to change really got me interested in understanding society better. So then reading someone like Durkheim who elaborated a notion of just what society was, how things were connected to each other. Weber's work on the way in which the larger patterns of social life had to be built up out of actions in which people meaningfully responded to each other. Marx's work, particularly capital. But a range of the work which I spent a long time studying very carefully, especially while I was at Oxford, both for what it compellingly revealed about the larger capitalist system and why the system mattered and individuals didn't just have complete choice to make the world they wanted. But also I became focused on some of the limits to the Marxist perspective. I thought the limits particularly to the politics that many thought would follow from it. Probably the single most inspiring book I ran across was E.P. thompson's the Making of the English Working Class, which I read several times, taking detailed notes really seriously and again found both inspirational and to have limits. I began to worry how could such a wonderful account, which as you read it just almost seamlessly tells a story, be thought of in more theoretical terms than Thompson did? How did that story fit into the big theoretical pictures? And I spent a lot of time while I was doing my D. Phil at Oxford engaged in that kind of question. So I probably read the book through at least four times and in general that there are Books that you sort of love and you read once and that's great, and you enjoy them. There are books you go back to and books that you study really closely, where a close reading is important. If I were asked a question like, what book that I've read in the last five years or so has really kept me thinking and made me go back to it, I would pick Charles Taylor's A Secular Age. And it has both of these qualities I've cited. It's inspiring. It sees something, it makes you see the world differently, and it has these limits and problems that make you think further. So it's not just that you read it and you become converted and you say, oh, yeah, I agree with everything he said. It's that you read it and you think, and you go back and look again and say, did I understand it right? And what else do I think do we have to bring into consideration to fully make sense of this picture? So that one led me to a lot of further thinking on how to understand secularism, how to understand it as itself, something, not just the absence of religion, and to make sense of how it's shaped the world we live in. It's an enormous book. It doesn't have just a single storyline. One of Taylor's earlier books, sources the Self, is just a beautiful, straightforward narrative. You read it right straight through. This one's more complicated, but it just gets you thinking in a new way about things you already knew from your life as well as from other books, from research, and makes you try to understand his distinctive perspective on that and try to improve your own at the same time. And that's a sign of a great book for me. So in my spare time, I probably read more history than anything else and fairly widely varied. I've been interested recently in empires and the sort of footprints and traces that empires left as the world changed into a world of nation states and modern international relations. Often good writing, good narratives and goods with which to think, as Levi Strauss put it once, that you know more stuff, and then you can think about that stuff and think better because you have it in your mind. The sad truth of my life is that I do more reading on airplanes than anywhere else right now. I do have a comfortable armchair at home. I'm just. When I'm at home, I'm much more often feeling, oh, I have to write this memo. Oh, I have to read that email. I have to do something. And so. So it's hard to make myself just take the time for patient reading when you're stuck in an airplane. I'm flying to India next week, for example. It's a long trip. I will, I hope, get some reading done and it makes tolerable the long trip to enjoy the reading while you do it. There is a struggle, I think other people must have it too, in contemporary life, where you carry electronic gadgets around, you always have your work with you, so you always could be doing something and you feel vaguely obligated, or not vaguely, but very concretely obligated to do that. So my job at the LSE is really demanding. There's always more work I could do. There are always more emails than I can answer. I get about 300 a day. Life could be completely taken up in that. So it takes a new and different kind of willpower to say, hey, I'm going to take two hours and I'm just going to read and I'll be happier afterwards and it will be good for my thinking, it'll even be good for my reading of the lse. But you have to actively counteract that sense that you should be doing some task at every moment.
[07:26]
A
That's all for this episode. Join us next week when professor of International History David Stevenson talks to us about some key readings on World War I and about the LSE Literary Festival event, why Reflections on the First World War Centenary taking place on the 26th of February. To find out more about the LSE Literary Festival and other events at the London School of economics, go to lse.ac.uk publicevents for the latest reviews of books in the social sciences and for more podcasts, go to lsereviewofbooks.com I'm Amy Mollett. Thanks for listening.