Frank Furedi, author and social commentator, is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Kent. Author of more than 26 books, Furedi's studies have been devoted to an exploration of the cultural developments in Western societies. His most recent book, The War on the Past (Polity, 2024), was a lively attack on attempts by progressives to render our historical inheritance toxic. His research has been oriented towards the way that risk and uncertainty are managed by contemporary culture. His two influential books, The Culture of Fear and Paranoid Parenting, investigated the interaction between risk consciousness and perceptions of fear, trust relations and social capital in contemporary society.