Latest book: Growing Up in the Culture Wars
Growing Up in the Culture Wars: Identity and Generational Conflict, co-authored with Ellie Lee, was published by Polity in October 2026. You’ll find reviews of the book and other related content on this site.
What’s up with Gen Z?
I very much enjoyed speaking at the Together conference on 7 November, with a terrific panel of young thinkers: Ada Akpala, Maeve Halligan, Sebastian Moore and Connie Shaw.
The death of decency
My talk for the keynote session ‘Is the Social Contract Broken?’, at the Battle of Ideas festival, 19 October 2026.
‘Gen Z Rules!’ Understanding the riots sweeping Europe
Joanna Williams reviews Growing Up in the Culture Wars: Identity and Generational Conflict. Williams writes: ‘The authors are careful not to suggest that young people today have it harder than those in the past. Clearly, having to stay at home during the Covid pandemic was not more dangerous than fighting on the front line in […]
New book explores how culture wars are shaping a generation
Press release by Canterbury Christ Church University, 23 October.
How do we raise children when everything is politicised?
During a special live recording of Take Me Home at this year’s Battle of Ideas Festival, Hilary and Sebastian are joined by Jennie Bristow and Ellie Lee, authors of Growing Up in the Culture Wars. They explore fraying generational bonds and the factors such as work, sex and politics that shape young people’s transition into […]
Generation Expert: Gen Z Have Been Conditioned to Give Up!
An in-depth interview with Elliot Bewick on the Next Generation podcast, about Growing Up in the Culture Wars.
Theo Hobson: ‘The trouble with humanities’
Hobson wrote a thoughtful review of my new book Growing Up in the Culture Wars, co-authored with Ellie Lee, in the Spectator on 31 August. The review begins: ‘Sociology is an academic discipline that I generally steer clear of. It seems as full of trendy guff as Education. But there is a minority report, a subculture that […]
Britain’s heatwave response was straight from the Covid playbook
Hundreds of school closures across England and Wales, train companies advising people not to travel, and businesses encouraging staff to work from home. Remind you of anything? It’s the Covid playbook, which is rapidly becoming the ‘new normal’ for how our supposedly advanced society responds to an unusual and difficult event. And given that in seasonal […]