David talks with Lea Ypi about her astonishing new memoir Free: Coming of Age at the End of History, which tells the story of her childhood in Stalinist Albania and what came after. It’s a tale of family secrets, political oppression and the promise of liberation - and a profound meditation on what it really means to be free. From Marxism to liberalism and back again, this is a conversation that brings political ideas to life. Lea Ypi is Professor of Political Theory at the LSE and Free has been shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize
Talking Points:
Albania was a socialist country that went through various alliances.
For Albania, the key year was not 1989 but 1990.
How do we conceptualize freedom?
For Lea, freedom is about being the author of your own fate, even when it seems overdetermined.
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