Trust: A History

Geoffrey Hosking argues that social trust is mediated through symbolic systems, such as religion and money, and the institutions associated with them, such as churches and banks.

Historically these institutions have nourished trust, but the resulting trust networks have tended to create quite tough boundaries around themselves, across which distrust is projected against outsiders.

He asserts that in the modern world it has become common to entrust major resources to institutions we know little about, and suggests that we need to learn from historical experience and temper this with more traditional forms of trust, or become an ever more distrustful society, with potentially very destabilising consequences.

Trust: A History by Geoffrey Hosking. Books will be available for purchase at the launch. All welcome but registration essential. Please RSVP to Sarah-Jane Gregori (s.gregori@ucl.ac.uk) by 8 October.

Published by Oxford University Press, 2014. ISBN: 978-0-19-871238-1.