Tocqueville 21 Podcast: The Great Divergence with Gagan Sood

Our discussion with Professor Gagan Sood of the London School of Economics continues this week in the fifth episode of the Tocqueville 21 podcast! Back from the summer hiatus, we’re happy to present the fourth episode of the Tocqueville 21 podcast! Our discussion last week largely concerned the legacy of Fukuyama, a theme that we will continue to some degree this week. However, we will also discuss the nature of the field of Global History: its ins and outs and the challenges it poses both to previous modes of historical scholarship and, ultimately, to itself.

Don’t forget to follow us on Spotify, Soundcloud, or Apple Podcasts! 

Gagan D. S. Sood is associate professor in early modern international history at the London School of Economics. Educated at Cambridge and Yale, Dr Sood received his doctorate from Yale’s Department of History. Before arriving at the LSE, he held research and teaching positions at Cambridge, the European University Institute and Yale. Outside the LSE, he is Co-Editor of the Journal of Global History.

Dr Sood’s main research interests lie in the Middle East and South Asia between the 17th and 19th centuries. He is also interested in Europe, China and India, and their role in the genesis of the modern world. Culminating in India and the Islamic Heartlands (CUP, 2016), Dr Sood’s previous project was about everyday life in the Middle East and South Asia in the eighteenth century. Its findings reframe our understanding of the larger region at a pivotal stage in its history, and offer new answers to old questions concerning early modern Eurasia and its transition to colonialism. Since its completion, Dr Sood has been working on a new project about governance in the Mughal and Ottoman empires over the seventeenth century. Initial findings have been published as articles in a number of scholarly journals, including the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (2020) and Modern Asian Studies (2021).