The Invention of Humanity: Equality and Cultural Difference in World History

For much of history, strangers were routinely classified as barbarians and inferiors, seldom as fellow human beings. The notion of a common humanity was counterintuitive and thus, had to be invented. Despite humans’ deeply ingrained bias against strangers, migration and cultural blending have given way not only to hostility, but also to empathy and understanding.

Join us as Siep Stuurman, emeritus professor of the history of ideas at Utrecht University, and author of "The Invention of Humanity" (Harvard University Press), traces evolving ideas of human equality and difference across continents and civilizations from ancient times to the present.