On the Spot: Natasha Wheatley
‘Who is the most underrated person in history? Bennelong, the Eora leader at the time of first contact between Britons and Indigenous Australians.’
Why are you a historian of central Europe?
Growing up in Australia I (naively) valorised Europe. The German-speaking lands seemed the epicentre of all that was most serious and vital in modern history.
What’s the most important lesson history has taught you?
Epistemic humility. It is easy to judge the past but far more powerful to understand it.
Which history book has had the greatest influence on you?
Steven Shapin and Simon Schaffer’s Leviathan and the Air-Pump.
What book in your field should everyone read?
Mark Mazower’s Dark Continent.
Which moment would you most like to go back to?
The ancient world. If not the Greek polis, then perhaps to the civilisation that produced the ancient stupas in Sri Lanka
Which historian has had the greatest influence on you?
Samuel Moyn and Holly Case.
Which person in history would you most like to have met?
Perhaps Hilma af Klint.
How many languages do you have?
I can only claim a proper command of English and German.
What’s the most exciting field in history today?
There are wonderful things going on in Ottoman and Balkan history.
What historical topic have you changed your mind on?
My perspective on historical method has evolved.
What is the most common misconception about your field?
That nationalism explains everything.
Who is the most underrated person in history…
Bennelong, the Eora leader at the time of first contact between Britons and Indigenous Australians.
… and the most overrated?
Sisi, the Austrian empress.
Is there an important historical text you have not read?
So many.
What’s your favourite archive?
The League of Nations Archive in Geneva.
What’s the best museum?
The Museum für angewandte Kunst in Vienna.
What technology has changed the world the most?
We are beginning to grasp how much smartphones are restructuring subjectivity.
Recommend us a historical novel...
Robert Musil’s The Man Without Qualities.
... and a historical drama?
The BBC’s 1995 Pride and Prejudice.
You can solve one historical mystery. What is it?
In 1967 the Australian prime minister Harold Holt went swimming at the beach and was never seen again.
Natasha Wheatley is Associate Professor of History at Princeton University. Her latest book is The Life and Death of States: Central Europe and the Transformation of Modern Sovereignty (Princeton University Press, 2023).
