Talleyrand in History Part 1

It is somewhat preposterous for an origins of the industrial revolution podcast to feature so much a French diplomat.  That would be true if Talleyrand were merely a French diplomat, rather than a bridge between the old world and the birth of the modern.  A man who nearly embodies the shift from the sacral to the instrumental, a man who reveals the Reason, capital R reason in religion.  Now you could argue that Hobbes was the man who shifted the sacral to the instrumental and Calvin supplanted faith with Reason.  But anything important has to be repeated in human history, it just does.

Duff Cooper, Guglielmo Ferrero, Roberto Calasso, Mikaberidze and Zamoyski are the main sources for these Talleyrand episodes.