Originally published on March 3, 2025 (Episode 398)
Introduction
During the Renaissance, Europeans didn’t just “discover” the Americas—they also rediscovered the Celts. Not through conquest or exploration, but through scholars bent over manuscripts, teasing out a forgotten language and past.
As Ian Stewart explains in his new book The Celts: A Modern History (Princeton, 2025), these scholars unintentionally unleashed a centuries-long fascination with “Celticness.” That fascination has echoed into nationalism, racial identity, and our present-day ideas about culture and belonging.
About the Guest
Ian Stewart is Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales in Paris. The Celts is his first book. His work explores the intersections of scholarship, culture, and identity in shaping how the past is remembered and reinvented.
For Further Investigation
Ian Stewart, The Celts: A Modern History (Princeton, 2025)
Barry Cunliffe, The Ancient Celts, 2nd ed. (OUP, 2018)
Simon James, The Atlantic Celts: Ancient People or Modern Invention? (Wisconsin, 1999)
Related Episodes
Rory Naismith on “Talking Anglo-Saxon”
Jennifer Roberts on the Ancient Greeks
Listen & Discuss
Are modern “Celts” real, invented, or somewhere in between? Drop your thoughts in the comments—and pass this episode on to anyone who loves history, mythology, or identity politics.
