The Bridport Literary Festival 2018

Writer and columnist, Ferdinand Mount, has for many years been fascinated by the great thinkers and politicians who have shaped human history over the past two millennia. In his intriguing and provocative new book, Mount examines the proposals for a political and philosophical theory from a number of widely different historical figures. Taking as his subjects twelve key people from Pericles, the great orator and statesman of Ancient Greece, to Muhammad Iqbal the inspirational founding father of Pakistan. He discusses the lives of Jesus Christ, Rousseau, Adam Smith, Edmund Burke and Thomas Jefferson and comparisons are drawn between them all. Prime Movers is a rip-roaring narrative of historical figures that have inspired and challenged.