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Wednesday, October 8th from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. in Seeley Hall.

2025 Margaret MacMillan Lecture
What Can We Learn from 1933: Another Look at Rhyming History
Featuring Professor Benjamin Carter Hett, Professor of History, Hunter College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York.

Event Description:
Join us for the 2025 Margaret MacMillan Lecture featuring renowned historian and author Professor Benjamin Carter Hett. In his talk, What Can We Learn from 1933: Another Look at Rhyming History, Professor Hett will examine the collapse of democracy in Germany and the rise of Adolf Hitler—events that still resonate powerfully today. Through a close look at the political, institutional, and cultural dynamics of the Weimar Republic, Hett explores how liberal democratic systems can unravel from within, and what parallels can be drawn to current global trends. With democracy facing rising internal and external pressures around the world, this lecture offers both a cautionary tale and a call to vigilance.

Date:
Wednesday, October 8th
Timing:
6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. (Lecture)
7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. (Post-Event Reception)
Location:
ÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ – Seeley Hall

Please note this event is open to Trinity alumni, students, faculty, staff, and community members. The event is free, but registration is required.

Please get in touch with trinity.alumni@utoronto.ca if you have any questions.

About the Speaker:
Born in Rochester NY, Benjamin Carter Hett grew up in Edmonton AB. He earned a B.A. at the University of Alberta and a J.D. at the University of Toronto and practiced litigation in Toronto before going back to obtain an MA in history from U of T and finally a Ph.D. in history at Harvard. He has taught at Harvard College and the Harvard Law School and, since 2003, at Hunter College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York. He is the author of The Death of Democracy: Hitler’s Rise to Power and the Downfall of the Weimar Republic (Henry Holt, 2018), winner of the 2019 Vine Award for History and named one of the year’s best books by The Times of London and the Daily Telegraph, and The Nazi Menace: Hitler, Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin, and the Road to War (Henry Holt, 2020) named an editors’ choice by the New York Times Book Review.  His other books include Burning the Reichstag (Oxford, 2014), winner of the 2015 Hans Rosenberg Prize, and Crossing Hitler (Oxford, 2008), which won the 2007 Fraenkel Prize and was made into a documentary film and a television drama for the BBC. Hett has been the recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the American Council of Learned Societies. He is presently working on a project about Arthur Nebe and the German criminal police during the Second World War.