Snezana Lawrence, Charlotte Mullins and Nigel Warburton chaired by Heather McCallum

Three authors in the Yale University Press Little Histories series, mathematician Dr Snezana Lawrence, art critic Dr Charlotte Mullins and philosopher Dr Nigel Warburton each give a short talk to mark the 20th anniversary of publication of the series in English.

Lawrence, a senior lecturer at Middlesex University, London, is author of A Little History of Mathematics. She looks at how our ancestors thought about numbers and how they used mathematics to explain the world around them. She ranges from the Egyptians and Babylonians, to Renaissance masters and enigma code-breakers.

Mullins, art critic at Country Life and former editor of Art Review, V&A Magazine and Art Quarterly, is author of A Little History of Art. She looks back at 100,000 years of art and asks why our ancestors made art, what it meant to them, and what it means to us today. She looks at anonymous creations such as the Terracotta Army, Renaissance masters such as Donatello and Michelangelo, and modern trailblazers such as Frida Kahlo, Barbara Hepworth and Yayoi Kusama.

Warburton, a freelance philosopher and podcaster, is author of A Little History of Philosophy. He introduces the great thinkers of western philosophy and explores their ideas about the universe and our place in it. He ranges from the certainty of Descartes to Hannah Arendt, who examined crimes against humanity and explored the ‘banality of evil’.

The first Little History, A Little History of the World, was written 90 years ago in pre-war Vienna by Ernst Gombrich. The first English versions of Little History were published 20 years ago. The series explores the history of the world’s most remarkable people, events and ideas. Discussions are chaired by Yale University Press London managing director Heather McCallum, who has worked as an editor across humanities and social sciences for 30 years and has been responsible for building bthe Little History series.

Presented by Yale University Press London.