Join us for this installment of our popular Chat & Chowder series, featuring James Cronin, Research Professor at Boston College and Associate of the Center for European Studies at Harvard University, to discuss the liberal order, democratic values, and more.

Chat & Chowder programs are an excellent opportunity to engage with expert speakers and to network with other globally-oriented participants in an informal environment. Each event features a presentation, audience Q&A, dedicated time for networking, and (of course!) a selection of chowders and beverages.

Never attended Chat & Chowder before? No prior knowledge is required, and your first program is FREE. Please note that there is a limited number of free tickets.

Professor James Cronin teaches modern British and European history. Over the past decade his research interests have involved the relationship between states and social structures, political parties, and the rise and fall of the Cold War world order. His most recent book focused on the making of “New Labour” in Britain and its implications for the evolution of social democracy in Europe. He is currently working on a study of British and American foreign policy, and the Anglo-American alliance, since the crisis of the 1970s. Professor Cronin is an associate of the Center for European Studies at Harvard University, where he chairs the British Study Group, and he serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Social History and British Politics. He has been awarded fellowships by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the German Marshall Fund and is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

How the history of liberal order and democratic politics since the 1930s explains ongoing threats to democracy and international order.

The liberal democratic order that seemed so stable in North America and Western Europe has become precarious. James E. Cronin argues that liberalism has never been secure and that since the 1930s the international order has had to be crafted, redeployed, and extended in response to both victories and setbacks.

Beginning with the German and Japanese efforts in the 1930s to establish a system based on empire, race, economic protectionism, and militant nationalism, Cronin shows how the postwar system, established out of a revulsion at the ideas of fascism, repeatedly reinvented itself in the face of the Cold War, anticolonial insurgencies, the economic and political crises of the 1970s, the collapse of communism, the rise of globalization, and the financial crisis of 2008. Cronin emphasizes the links between internal and external politics in sustaining liberal order internationally and the domestic origins and correlates of present difficulties. Fragile Victory provides the context necessary to understand such diverse challenges as the triumph of Brexit, the election of Trump, the rise of populism, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

WorldBoston’s Chat & Chowder series features key authors on international affairs in an engaging setting. In addition to discussion of a featured book (usually sold at a significant discount), the program offers the opportunity for discussion among members and guests – and of course a selection of chowders and beverages. This Chat & Chowder will be hosted in-person (from 6:00 to 7:30PM ET) and live-streamed to Zoom (from 6:15 to 7:15 PM ET only).