Ben Macready

I undertook an undergraduate degree in History at the University of Kent between 2015 and 2018. I had a terrific time and could not recommend the university more strongly. Though I have graduated, I decided to continue acting as an Age of Revolutions Ambassador for the university by contributing a monthly ‘Revolutionary Figures’ column which you can find on this blog (to follow).

My primary areas of interest are Napoleonic and Russian history. I find Revolutions conceptually fascinating, as I feel that the social upheaval they bring about is the real core of what makes history interesting. Specifically I find the gulf between intention and outcome over the course of Revolutions thought-provoking.  For example, how ideas which were designed to make the world a better place can be used to justify repression.  Such as how Rousseau’s ideas were misrepresented by the Jacobins in order to justify the Terror.  During my time as a student at the university, I went on the Age of Revolutions trip to Waterloo and found it a wonderful way of taking our abstract historical knowledge and placing it in a real world context.

The weblog of the University of Kent's strand of the Waterloo200 Legacy project devoted to teaching and understanding the history of the Age of Revolution