Thinking Faith Seminar
Is the USA a Threat to Western Democracy?

Professor Richard Carwardine, CMG, FBA, FLSW

Sunday 31 May 2026

There is increasing anxiety in the UK and Europe about the behaviour of President Trump. He told the New York Times “I don’t need international law”; his power was limited only by his “own morality”.  He appears impatient of the ‘rule based order’, the Western alliance and the United Nations. He has taken the USA out of myriad international organisations and aims to intervene in Europe to prevent  ‘civilisation erasure’. How can the Trump phenomenon be explained in terms of American history? Why do the safeguards in the US Constitution not constrain him?  How should the UK and Europe respond?
 
Richard is Emeritus Rhodes Professor of American History at the University of Oxford, former President of Corpus Christi College, Oxford and a Fellow of the British Academy.  He is best known for his work on Abraham Lincoln, for which he was awarded the Order of Lincoln, the highest honour of the State of Illinois. From 1971 to 2002, he taught American history at the University of Sheffield. He regularly visits America and closely monitors the political scene there. He has long been a member of St Mark’s Church.

Click here to view the video of his lecture (sound quality improves after a few seconds).