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.