Episode 91 - How the West has used history to wage 'civilising missions' | Josephine Quinn | UNAPOLOGETIC

UNAPOLOGETIC with Ashfaaq Carim · Sep 7, 2026 · 1h 37m

Josephine Quinn is Professor of Ancient History at Cambridge, the first woman ever to hold the position, and the author of How the World Made the West: A 4,000-Year History. On this episode of Unapologetic, we sit down with her in her Cambridge office to take apart one of the most powerful ideas in modern politics: the idea of "civilisations," where it came from, who invented it, and why it's less than 200 years old.

We talk about how the concept of "civilisation" was built, how it was used to justify empire and colonial violence, why the Middle East's borders don't fit the myth of the…