Anthony Pagden on East vs. West [audio 10min @13:55]

The differences that divide 'East' from 'West' today go deeper than politics or religion, argues the historian Anthony Pagden in his latest book, Worlds at War: The 2,500-Year Struggle between East and West (Oxford University Press). Pagden charts how the current conflict between the two worlds belongs to a far older history of imagery and myth-making, that starts with the Persian Wars on Ancient Greece and progresses through the Christian crusades, the rise and fall of the Ottoman Empire and the West’s more recent actions in the Middle East. The interviewer is journalist Andrew Marr, and Pagden answers queries from other guests, including neuroscientist Susan Greenfield and theatre director Jonathan Kent.