Portrait of Lord Melvyn Bragg, host of In Our Time

History

This is a top level category. The other top level categories are:

285 episodes

  1. Paul von Hindenburg

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the rise of a retired German officer recalled to duty who became an idealised, heroic figure and, as president, appointed Hitler as chancellor.

    22 May 2025

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Anna von der Goltz, Christopher Clark, Colin Storer

     
  2. The Battle of Clontarf

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Brian Boru's victory over Sigtrygg Silkbeard and his Viking allies outside Dublin in 1014, one of the best known events in Irish history.

    10 April 2025

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Seán Duffy, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Alex Woolf

     
  3. The Gracchi

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the impact on Roman politics of the brothers Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus and how the reaction to them helped destabilise the Republic.

    03 April 2025

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Catherine Steel, Federico Santangelo, Kathryn Tempest

     
  4. Cyrus the Great

    A discussion of the life and legacy of Cyrus the Great, who is said to have destroyed Babylon and enabled the Jews to rebuild the temple at Jerusalem - a contested story.

    13 March 2025

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Mateen Arghandehpour, Lindsay Allen, Lynette Mitchell

     
  5. Catherine of Aragon

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Spanish Infanta so prized by the Tudors that, after her first husband the Prince of Wales died, she went on to marry his brother Henry VIII.

    13 February 2025

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Lucy Wooding, Maria Hayward, Gonzalo Velasco Berenguer

     
  6. The Battle of Valmy

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Prussian-led plans to end the French Revolution in 1792 and their surprise defeat by an army buoyed with citizens singing the Marseillaise.

    16 January 2025

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Michael Rowe, Heidi Mehrkens, Colin Jones

     
  7. Plutarch's Parallel Lives

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the work of the influential Greek biographer Plutarch who compared and contrasted famous Romans and Greeks in pairs to reveal their inner lives

    19 December 2024

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Judith Mossman, Andrew Erskine, Paul Cartledge

     
  8. The Hanoverian Succession

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the struggle by Whig politicians in London to have a Protestant from Hanover crowned at Westminster Abbey rather than the Catholic son of James II.

    28 November 2024

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Andreas Gestrich, Elaine Chalus, Mark Knights

     
  9. The Antikythera Mechanism

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 2,000-year-old Greek astronomical computer, one of the most important discoveries in marine archaeology.

    14 November 2024

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Mike Edmunds, Jo Marchant, Liba Taub

     
  10. The Venetian Empire

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the remarkable rise of the Venetians who settled on some marshy islands on a lagoon after the fall of Rome and went on to build an empire.

    31 October 2024

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Maartje van Gelder, Stephen Bowd, Georg Christ

     
  11. The Haymarket Affair

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the bombing at a Chicago workers' rally in 1886 and the trial, execution and subsequent pardoning of anarchists blamed for inciting the attack.

    3 October 2024

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Ruth Kinna, Christopher Phelps, Gary Gerstle

     
  12. Benjamin Disraeli

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the most famous politicians of the Victorian age, who broadened his fame and spread his ideas through popular novels.

    19 September 2024

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Lawrence Goldman, Emily Jones, Daisy Hay

     
  13. Marsilius of Padua

    Melvyn Bragg & guests discuss one of the first to argue that political power came from the people, not from God or hereditary monarchy, and they could elect or remove their rulers.

    30 May 2024

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Annabel Brett, George Garnett, Serena Ferente

     
  14. Julian the Apostate

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the philosopher-emperor of Rome who sought to undo the empire's ties with Christianity in the 4th century AD and promote paganism

    21 March 2024

    listen ↗

    Featuring: James Corke-Webster, Lea Niccolai, Shaun Tougher

     
  15. The Sack of Rome 1527

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the slaughter and chaos as a hungry army of the Holy Roman Emperor swarmed through Rome, holding the pope hostage and weakening the Papal States.

    22 February 2024

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Stephen Bowd, Jessica Goethals, Catherine Fletcher

     
  16. The Hanseatic League

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Hanseatic League or Hansa which dominated North European and Baltic trade in the medieval period.

    1 February 2024

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Justyna Wubs-Mrozewicz, Georg Christ, Sheilagh Ogilvie

     
  17. Nefertiti

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss how the discovery of the bust of Nefertiti in 1912 has shaped ideas about her and about life in ancient Egypt and the royal city of Amarna.

    18 January 2024

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Aidan Dodson, Joyce Tyldesley, Kate Spence

     
  18. Tiberius

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the means by which Tiberius became the first Roman to succeed an Emperor and his reputation for financial prudence, cruelty and breeding paranoia.

    14 December 2023

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Matthew Nicholls, Shushma Malik, Catherine Steel

     
  19. Marguerite de Navarre

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Marguerite, Queen of Navarre (1492 – 1549), author of the Heptaméron, a major literary landmark in the French Renaissance.

    23 November 2023

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Sara Barker, Emily Butterworth, Emma Herdman

     
  20. The Theory of the Leisure Class

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Thorstein Veblen's critique of wasteful capitalism, as he saw it, in America's Gilded Age with conspicuous leisure and conspicuous consumption.

    16 November 2023

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Matthew Watson, Bill Waller, Mary Wrenn

     
  21. The Barbary Corsairs

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the sailors from around Europe and North Africa, licensed by the Barbary States to capture people to be sold into slavery until the 19th century.

    09 November 2023

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Joanna Nolan, Claire Norton, Michael Talbot

     
  22. The Federalist Papers

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the essays written in 1787/8 by some of the authors of the US Constitution which offer insight into the interpretation of the Constitution.

    12 October 2023

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Frank Cogliano, Kathleen Burk, Nicholas Guyatt

     
  23. Louis XIV: The Sun King

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and reign of the French king who built Versailles and took on the personal rule of his kingdom, becoming known as an absolute monarch.

    25 May 2023

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Catriona Seth, Guy Rowlands, Penny Roberts

     
  24. The Shimabara Rebellion

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 1637-8 Christian uprising in Japan, which led the Shogun to close the country to foreigners for the next 250 years.

    11 May 2023

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Satona Suzuki, Erica Baffelli, Christopher Harding

     
  25. The Battle of Crécy

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the brutal 1346 conflict between the French army, led by Philip VI, and the English, under Edward III, after years of simmering tension.

    13 April 2023

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Anne Curry, Andrew Ayton, Erika Graham-Goering

     
  26. Cnut

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Danish prince who became King of England in 1016, and restored stability and prosperity to the troubled country he inherited.

    6 April 2023

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Erin Goeres, Pragya Vohra, Elizabeth Tyler

     
  27. Solon the Lawgiver

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the statesman and poet whose political and legal reforms transformed Athens in the 6th century BC.

    23 March 2023

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Melissa Lane, Hans van Wees, William Allan

     
  28. Chartism

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 19th-century campaign for greater democracy: the changes demanded in the People's Charter included votes for all men and secret ballots.

    9 Feb 2023

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Joan Allen, Emma Griffin, Robert Saunders

     
  29. Tycho Brahe

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the innovative 16th-century Danish astronomer, renowned for the accuracy of his observations, all taken before the invention of the telescope.

    2 February 2023

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Ole Grell, Adam Mosley, Emma Perkins

     
  30. The Great Stink

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the impact of the terrible stench of sewage in the Thames in central London in the hot summer of 1858 and the work of Joseph Bazalgette to fix it.

    29 December 2022

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Rosemary Ashton, Stephen Halliday, Paul Dobraszczyk

     
  31. The Irish Rebellion of 1798

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the uprising in 1798 led by the United Irishmen, who were inspired by American and French revolutions, and the impact this had across Ireland.

    8 December 2022

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Ian McBride, Catriona Kennedy, Liam Chambers

     
  32. The Morant Bay Rebellion

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss why people in Jamaica protested in 1865, why the British governor killed so many in response and what then changed on both sides of the Atlantic.

    3 November 2022

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Matthew J Smith, Diana Paton, Lawrence Goldman

     
  33. Angkor Wat

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the astonishing and massive Cambodian temple commissioned by Suryavarman II in the 12th century, a centre for Hinduism, Buddhism and Animism.

    23 June 2022

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Piphal Heng, Ashley Thompson, Simon Warrack

     
  34. Olympe de Gouges

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life, ideas and works of the Frenchwoman who wrote The Declaration of the Rights of Woman in 1791 during the French Revolution

    21 April 2022

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Catriona Seth, Katherine Astbury, Sanja Perovic

     
  35. Homo erectus

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of our ancestors whose span on Earth extended at least five times more than Homo sapiens has so far, and who was found from Africa to Asia.

    14 April 2022

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Peter Kjærgaard, José Joordens, Mark Maslin

     
  36. The Arthashastra

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ancient Indian Sanskrit text the Arthashastra.

    3 March 2022

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Jessica Frazier, James Hegarty, Deven Patel

     
  37. Peter Kropotkin

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and ideas of the Russian prince who became an anarchist and who argued that mutual aid was the key to evolution not survival of the fittest

    24 February 2022

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Ruth Kinna, Lee Dugatkin, Simon Dixon

     
  38. The Temperance Movement

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the British experience of teetotalism from the early 19th Century when abstaining from alcohol was a way for the new urban workers to get on in life.

    3 February 2022

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Annemarie McAllister, James Kneale, David Buckingham

     
  39. The Gold Standard

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the age of gold, from 1870, when many nations tied their currencies to gold in the hope of economic stability and increasing trade around the world

    20 January 2022

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Catherine Schenk, Helen Paul, Matthias Morys

     
  40. The Hittites

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the empire based in the Land of Hatti during the Late Bronze Age, in modern Turkey, and the discoveries there over the last century.

    23 December 2021

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Claudia Glatz, Ilgi Gercek, Christoph Bachhuber

     
  41. The May Fourth Movement

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the upheaval in China in 1919 after humiliation in the Versailles Treaty and the sharing of ideas that led to the foundation of the Communist Party.

    9 December 2021

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Rana Mitter, Elisabeth Forster, Song-Chuan Chen

     
  42. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the rise and fall of the largest republic in Europe, which for centuries elected its kings to rule alongside parliament and avoided religious wars.

    14 October 2021

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Robert I. Frost, Katarzyna Kosior, Norman Davies

     
  43. Herodotus

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Greek writer whose Histories aimed to 'preserve the great and marvellous deeds of Greeks and barbarians, especially why they fought each other'.

    23 September 2021

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Tom Harrison, Esther Eidinow, Paul Cartledge

     
  44. Edward Gibbon

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and ideas of the writer of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, one of the most celebrated works of its kind.

    17 June 2021

    listen ↗

    Featuring: David Womersley, Charlotte Roberts, Karen O'Brien

     
  45. Booth's Life and Labour Survey

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Charles Booth's ambitious project to discover how many people in late Victorian London were living in poverty, and understand why

    10 June 2021

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Emma Griffin, Sarah Wise, Lawrence Goldman

     
  46. The Interregnum

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the unstable rule in England between the execution of Charles I and restoration of Charles II and the impact in Scotland and, infamously, Ireland

    27 May 2021

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Clare Jackson, Micheál Ó Siochrú, Laura Stewart

     
  47. The Second Barons' War

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the vicious war (1264-7) that followed Simon de Montfort's seizure of power from Henry III and his family while supporting new, broader parliaments.

    6 May 2021

    listen ↗

    Featuring: David Carpenter, Louise Wilkinson, Sophie Thérèse Ambler

     
  48. Ovid

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Roman poet whose influence is arguably greater than any poet of the classical age, besides Homer, even though his writing led to his exile.

    29 April 2021

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Maria Wyke, Gail Trimble, Dunstan Lowe

     
  49. Pierre-Simon Laplace

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the great French mathematician who tackled questions on the stability of the Solar System and planet rotation and devised the basis for metrication

    8 April 2021

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Marcus du Sautoy, Timothy Gowers, Colva Roney-Dougal

     
  50. The Russo-Japanese War

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Japan's unexpected victory over Russia in 1904-5 which gave Japan a new status in the world and pushed Russia into revolution.

    1 April 2021

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Simon Dixon, Naoko Shimazu, Oleg Benesch

     
  51. David Ricardo

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Ricardo's argument that Britain's economy was being held back by the interests of landlords and protectionism, and his call for free trade.

    25 March 2021

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Matthew Watson, Helen Paul, Richard Whatmore

     
  52. Marcus Aurelius

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life, meditations and reputation of this stoic and philosopher king, who Machiavelli called the last of the 'Five Good Emperors'.

    25 February 2021

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Simon Goldhill, Angie Hobbs, Catharine Edwards

     
  53. The Cultural Revolution

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the decade of upheaval in China under Mao's revolt within his own party, led at first by the Red Guards, from 1966 until his death in 1976

    17 December 2020

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Rana Mitter, Sun Peidong, Julia Lovell

     
  54. The Zong Massacre

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the drowning of 132 enslaved Africans, purportedly as there was not enough drinking water to go round. The owners profited; nobody was prosecuted.

    26 November 2020

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Vincent Brown, Bronwen Everill, Jake Subryan Richards

     
  55. Maria Theresa

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the reign of the Empress who upended the European order while strengthening Austria through reforms, alliances and strategic marriages.

    22 October 2020

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Catriona Seth, Martyn Rady, Thomas Biskup

     
  56. Cave Art

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the cave peoples, human or Neanderthal, who made hand outlines, abstract symbols and multicoloured images of prey animals in the Stone Age.

    24 September 2020

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Alistair Pike, Chantal Conneller, Paul Pettitt

     
  57. Pericles

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and influence of the most powerful statesman in the new democracy of Athens, flourishing between the Persian and Peloponnesian wars.

    17 September 2020

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Edith Hall, Paul Cartledge, Peter Liddel

     
  58. The Valladolid Debate

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the influential debate in 1550 over whether it was right or not to enslave the people who lived on Spain's newly conquered land in the Americas.

    20 February 2020

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Caroline Dodds Pennock, John Edwards, Julia McClure

     
  59. Battle of the Teutoburg Forest

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Germanic tribes' destruction of three legions of the Roman general Varus in 9 AD, so limiting the expansion of the Roman Empire across the Rhine

    13 February 2020

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Matthew Nicholls, Ellen O'Gorman, Peter Heather

     
  60. Alcuin

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the cleric, educator and poet from York who put learning for its own sake at the heart of the Carolingian Renaissance

    30 January 2020

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Joanna Story, Andy Orchard, Mary Garrison

     
  61. Tutankhamun

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the the work of Howard Carter's team in 1922, and the extraordinary contents of Tutankhamun's tomb and what it revealed of Egyptian history

    26 December 2019

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Elizabeth Frood, Christina Riggs, John Taylor

     
  62. Coffee

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the history of coffee, from its origins in Ethiopia to its role in the spread of ideas, its part in the slave trade and its social impact.

    12 December 2019

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Judith Hawley, Markman Ellis, Jonathan Morris

     
  63. Lawrence of Arabia

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Lawrence of Arabia, the legend and its context, an idea drawn from over 1200 suggested by listeners this autumn

    5 December 2019

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Hussein Omar, Catriona Pennell, Neil Faulkner

     
  64. Melisende, Queen of Jerusalem

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the most powerful queen in the Kingdom of Jerusalem in C12th, after the First Crusade, ruling with her husband Fulk and then their son Baldwin III

    21 November 2019

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Natasha Hodgson, Katherine Lewis, Danielle Park

     
  65. The Treaty of Limerick

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the impact of the treaty ending the Williamite War in 1691, with the disbanding of the Jacobite army and assertion of rights for the defeated gentry

    7 November 2019

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Jane Ohlmeyer, Clare Jackson, Thomas O'Connor

     
  66. Napoleon's Retreat from Moscow

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss why Napoleon invaded Russia in 1812, thought he was victorious yet had to retreat, losing most of his army and, soon after, his empire.

    19 September 2019

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Janet Hartley, Michael Rowe, Michael Rapport

     
  67. Doggerland

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the growing understanding of the humans, plants and animals once living on land now under the North Sea, submerged in the Stone Age.

    27 June 2019

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Vincent Gaffney, Carol Cotterill, Rachel Bynoe

     
  68. The Mytilenaean Debate

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Athenians' vote to kill all the men of Mytilene, then their change of mind next day and their race to stop the first vote being implemented.

    20 June 2019

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Angela Hobbs, Lisa Irene Hau, Paul Cartledge

     
  69. The Inca

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the South American people who dominated from the Andes to the Pacific coast until the arrival of the Spanish Conquistadors.

    13 June 2019

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Frank Meddens, Helen Cowie, Bill Sillar

     
  70. President Ulysses S Grant

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Grant's role in rebuilding America in the decade after the Civil War and his impact on African-Americans and Native Americans.

    30 May 2019

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Erik Mathisen, Susan-Mary Grant, Robert Cook

     
  71. The Gordon Riots

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss why a Westminster protest against 'Popery' in June 1780 led to widespread rioting across London, lethally suppressed.

    2 May 2019

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Ian Haywood, Catriona Kennedy, Mark Knights

     
  72. Nero

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the reputation of Nero, popular with his subjects but vilified in his lifetime and after and associated with the Beast in the Book of Revelation.

    25 April 2019

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Maria Wyke, Matthew Nicholls, Shushma Malik

     
  73. The Great Irish Famine

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss why so many were vulnerable to the failure of the potato crops in Ireland in the 1840s, what relief was given and why so many died or left.

    4 April 2019

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Cormac O'Grada, Niamh Gallagher, Enda Delaney

     
  74. The Danelaw

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss how a series of Danish invasions, settlements and battles with Anglo-Saxons changed England in the 9th and 10th centuries.

    28 March 2019

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Judith Jesch, John Hines, Jane Kershaw

     
  75. William Cecil

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and influence of the 1st Baron Burghley, Elizabeth I's powerful Secretary of State who advanced England's interests throughout her reign

    7 March 2019

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Diarmaid MacCulloch, Susan Doran, John Guy

     
  76. Antarah ibn Shaddad

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the poetry of Antarah (525-608AD), his historical context before Islam, how his work relates to other poets in that period, and his legacy

    28 February 2019

    listen ↗

    Featuring: James Montgomery, Marlé Hammond, Harry Munt

     
  77. The Thirty Years War

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss a topic suggested by listeners: the war which was centred on the Holy Roman Empire from 1618 and was unequalled in scale until C20th

    6 December 2018

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Peter Wilson, Ulinka Rublack, Toby Osborne

     
  78. The Long March

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the history and symbolism of the Chinese Red Army's escape from the Kuomintang in 1934/5 and Mao Zedong's emergence from it as the future leader

    29 November 2018

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Rana Mitter, Sun Shuyun, Julia Lovell

     
  79. Horace

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Horace, one of the greatest poets of his age, the origin of phrases such as carpe diem, nil desperandum and dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.

    15 November 2018

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Emily Gowers, William Fitzgerald, Ellen O'Gorman

     
  80. Marie Antoinette

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Austrian princess who, while still a child, married the future Louis XVI of France only to face hostility and death under the French Revolution.

    8 November 2018

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Catriona Seth, Katherine Astbury, David McCallam

     
  81. The Fable of the Bees

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Bernard Mandeville's scandalous and influential work on private vices and public benefits, published first as The Grumbling Hive, a poem, in 1705.

    25 October 2018

    listen ↗

    Featuring: David Wootton, Helen Paul, John Callanan

     
  82. Is Shakespeare History? The Romans

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Shakespeare's treatment of Roman history, where he had scope to explore ideas too threatening for English histories.

    18 October 2018

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Jonathan Bate, Catherine Steel, Patrick Gray

     
  83. Is Shakespeare History? The Plantagenets

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Shakespeare's treatment of English Plantagenet history from Richard II to Richard III and all the Henrys in between, written under Elizabeth I.

    11 October 2018

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Emma Smith, Gordon McMullan, Katherine Lewis

     
  84. The Mexican-American War

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 1846-48 American war against Mexico, in which America won over a million square kilometres of Mexican territory, including California.

    28 June 2018

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Frank Cogliano, Jacqueline Fear-Segal, Thomas Rath

     
  85. Montesquieu

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas of the French political philosopher (1689-1755) whose work on liberty and republicanism, banned at home, influenced the US constitution.

    14 June 2018

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Richard Bourke, Rachel Hammersley, Richard Whatmore

     
  86. Margaret of Anjou

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss how the Queen of England fought to hold on to power for the sake of her son, when her husband's mental illness made him unable to rule.

    25 May 2018

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Katherine Lewis, James Ross, Joanna Laynesmith

     
  87. The Emancipation of the Serfs

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Tsar Alexander II's 1861 decree that freed 30 million Russians from serfdom, an act of reform that followed Russia's defeat in the Crimean War.

    17 May 2018

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Sarah Hudspith, Simon Dixon, Shane O'Rourke

     
  88. The Almoravid Empire

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Berber people who dominated the western Maghreb and the south of the Iberian Peninsula from C11th, defending Al-Andalus from Christian attack.

    3 May 2018

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Amira Bennison, Nicola Clarke, Hugh Kennedy

     
  89. Tocqueville: Democracy in America

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Alexis de Tocqueville and his study of the American democratic system, written as an example to France of how democracy might develop there.

    22 March 2018

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Robert Gildea, Susan-Mary Grant, Jeremy Jennings

     
  90. The Highland Clearances

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the causes and impact of the waves of migrations and evictions of people in the Highlands and Western Isles from the mid-18th century onwards.

    8 March 2018

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Tom Devine, Marjory Harper, Murray Pittock

     
  91. Sun Tzu and The Art of War

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Chinese military adviser Sun Tzu from the 6th century BC and the influential work of military strategy associated with him, The Art of War.

    1 March 2018

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Hilde de Weerdt, Tim Barrett, Imre Galambos

     
  92. Frederick Douglass

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and ideas of the prominent abolitionist, who in 1845 told his story in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave.

    9 February 2018

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Celeste-Marie Bernier, Karen Salt, Nicholas Guyatt

     
  93. The Siege of Malta, 1565

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the fierce contest for Malta, which the Ottomans tried to prise from the Knights Hospitaller who they they had already driven from Rhodes in 1522.

    11 January 2018

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Helen Nicholson, Diarmaid MacCulloch, Kate Fleet

     
  94. Thomas Becket

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Thomas Becket, chancellor turned archbishop, who was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral and whose tomb became a centre of pilgrimage across Europe.

    14 December 2017

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Laura Ashe, Michael Staunton, Danica Summerlin

     
  95. Thebes

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the myths of the ancient Greek city of Thebes, as told by Athenian dramatists, and the times when Thebes dominated Greek history.

    23 November 2017

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Edith Hall, Samuel Gartland, Paul Cartledge

     
  96. Picasso's Guernica

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Pablo Picasso's Guernica, which he painted in 1937 soon after the bombing of that Basque town in the Spanish Civil War, and its wider context.

    2 November 2017

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Mary Vincent, Gijs van Hensbergen, Dacia Viejo Rose

     
  97. The Congress of Vienna

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the peace plan for Europe after the Napoleonic Wars, with the redrawing of borders and balancing of the great powers so that none would be dominant.

    19 October 2017

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Tim Blanning, Kathleen Burk, John Bew

     
  98. Constantine the Great

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Constantine the Great, the Roman emperor who made Constantinople his capital rather than Rome and who legalised Christianity across the Empire.

    5 October 2017

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Christopher Kelly, Lucy Grig, Greg Woolf

     
  99. The American Populists

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the C19th MidWest and Southern farmers' struggle for a better deal, claiming they suffered while industry and railroads thrived at their expense.

    15 June 2017

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Lawrence Goldman, Mara Keire, Christopher Phelps

     
  100. The Egyptian Book of the Dead

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss The Book of the Dead, an ancient Egyptian collection of spells intended to assist the journey of the deceased through the underworld.

    27 April 2017

    listen ↗

    Featuring: John Taylor, Kate Spence, Richard Parkinson

     
  101. Roger Bacon

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss medieval English scholar Roger Bacon, an early pioneer of science who became known as Doctor Mirabilis.

    20 April 2017

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Jack Cunningham, Amanda Power, Elly Truitt

     
  102. Rosa Luxemburg

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Rosa Luxemburg, 'Red Rosa', a leading revolutionary and agitator in Poland and Germany until her arrest and murder in the Spartacus Revolt 1919.

    13 April 2017

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Jacqueline Rose, Mark Jones, Nadine Rossol

     
  103. The Battle of Salamis

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss The Battle of Salamis, 480BC, often called one of the most significant battles in history, in which the Greek fleet defeated the Persians.

    23 March 2017

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones, Lindsay Allen, Paul Cartledge

     
  104. Seneca the Younger

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Seneca: philosopher, playwright, tutor to Nero, one of the first great writers born in the new Roman empire after the fall of the Republic.

    23 February 2017

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Mary Beard, Catharine Edwards, Alessandro Schiesaro

     
  105. Mary, Queen of Scots

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the history of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, who might have united the French, English and Scottish thrones.

    19 January 2017

    listen ↗

    Featuring: David Forsyth, Anna Groundwater, John Guy

     
  106. Johannes Kepler

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the German astronomer Johannes Kepler.

    29 December 2016

    listen ↗

    Featuring: David Wootton, Ulinka Rublack, Adam Mosley

     
  107. Harriet Martineau

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Harriet Martineau who wrote extensively in the C19th on a wide range of subjects including abolition, and is called the mother of sociology.

    8 December 2016

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Valerie Sanders, Karen O'Brien, Ella Dzelzainis

     
  108. Garibaldi and the Risorgimento

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Giuseppe Garibaldi and his role in unifying Italy which, with his Red Shirts, he achieved substantially in 1861 and entirely in 1870.

    1 December 2016

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Lucy Riall, Eugenio Biagini, David Laven

     
  109. Baltic Crusades

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the fight, led by orders such as the Teutonic Knights and supported by the popes, to convert pagans in what became known as the Baltic Crusades.

    24 November 2016

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Aleks Pluskowski, Nora Berend, Martin Palmer

     
  110. Justinian's Legal Code

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss legal ideas developed under Byzantine emperor Justinian I in the C6th AD, which influenced the evolution of law in much of Western civilisation.

    17 November 2016

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Caroline Humfress, Simon Corcoran, Paul du Plessis

     
  111. The Fighting Temeraire

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss The Fighting Temeraire, JMW Turner's painting of a famous ship from the Battle of Trafalgar on its way to a breakers' yard on the Thames.

    10 November 2016

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Susan Foister, David Blayney Brown, James Davey

     
  112. Epic of Gilgamesh

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Gilgamesh Epic, often described as the earliest surviving great work of literature, with origins in Mesopotamia in the 3rd millennium BC.

    3 November 2016

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Andrew George, Frances Reynolds, Martin Worthington

     
  113. John Dalton

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss scientist John Dalton, who pioneered the development of atomic theory and carried out research into meteorology and colour blindness.

    27 October 2016

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Jim Bennett, Aileen Fyfe, James Sumner

     
  114. The 12th Century Renaissance

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the origins and impact of the philosophical, scientific, religious and architectural changes of the 12th century in western Europe.

    20 October 2016

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Laura Ashe, Elisabeth van Houts, Giles Gasper

     
  115. The Bronze Age Collapse

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Bronze Age collapse, the term used to describe what many perceive as sudden, chaotic change around 1200 BC, mainly in the eastern Mediterranean.

    16 June 2016

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Linda Hulin, Simon Stoddart

     
  116. Margery Kempe and English Mysticism

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Margery Kempe (1373-1438), the English mystic who went to Jerusalem and dictated her life story, said to be the first autobiography in English.

    2 June 2016

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Miri Rubin, Katherine Lewis, Anthony Bale

     
  117. The Gettysburg Address

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address of 1863, one of the most influential statements of national purpose.

    26 May 2016

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Catherine Clinton, Susan-Mary Grant, Tim Lockley

     
  118. Titus Oates and his 'Popish Plot'

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Titus Oates and his role in starting and spreading rumours of a 'Popish Plot' against Charles II.

    12 May 2016

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Clare Jackson, Mark Knights, Peter Hinds

     
  119. 1816, the Year Without a Summer

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the link between the eruption of Mt Tambora in 1815, the largest and most lethal in recorded history, with famines in Europe and America in 1816.

    21 April 2016

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Clive Oppenheimer, Jane Stabler, Lawrence Goldman

     
  120. Agrippina the Younger

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Roman empress Agrippina the Younger, one of the most notorious and influential of the Roman empresses in the 1st century AD.

    31 March 2016

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Catharine Edwards, Alice König, Matthew Nicholls

     
  121. The Maya Civilization

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Maya civilization in central America, from consolidation of power in the great cities after AD250 to their abandonment by the 16th century.

    10 March 2016

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Elizabeth Graham, Matthew Restall, Benjamin Vis

     
  122. The Dutch East India Company

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Dutch East India Company, which dominated the Asian spice trade in the 17th century and is sometimes called the first multinational corporation.

    3 March 2016

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Anne Goldgar, Chris Nierstrasz, Helen Paul

     
  123. Eleanor of Aquitaine

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Eleanor of Aquitaine (c1122-1204), who was a ruler in her own right as well as married to the king of France and then to the king of England.

    28 January 2016

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Lindy Grant, Nicholas Vincent, Julie Barrau

     
  124. Thomas Paine's Common Sense

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Thomas Paine's pamphlet Common Sense, which was published in 1776 and bolstered support for American independence.

    21 January 2016

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Kathleen Burk, Nicholas Guyatt, Peter Thompson

     
  125. Voyages of James Cook

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the science behind Capt James Cook's three voyages of discovery, from 1768 to 1779, one of over a thousand ideas suggested by listeners.

    3 December 2015

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Simon Schaffer, Rebekah Higgitt, Sophie Forgan

     
  126. The Battle of Lepanto

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the sea battle of Lepanto, in which the Christian forces of the Holy League defeated the Ottoman fleet of Selim II in 1571.

    12 November 2015

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Diarmaid MacCulloch, Kate Fleet, Noel Malcolm

     
  127. The Empire of Mali

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the empire of Mali, famous for the wealth of its rulers such as Mansa Musa and the largest empire in west Africa.

    29 October 2015

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Amira Bennison, Marie Rodet, Kevin MacDonald

     
  128. Holbein at the Tudor Court

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Hans Holbein's role in the Tudor Court, painting Henry VIII as he asserted himself as supreme head of the Church during the Reformation.

    15 October 2015

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Susan Foister, John Guy, Maria Hayward

     
  129. Alexander the Great

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and legacy of Alexander the Great, king of Macedon and conqueror of the Persian Empire.

    1 October 2015

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Paul Cartledge, Diana Spencer, Rachel Mairs

     
  130. Frederick the Great

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Frederick II, king of Prussia from 1740 to 1786.

    2 July 2015

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Tim Blanning, Katrin Kohl, Thomas Biskup

     
  131. Prester John

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Prester John, the legendary Christian king said to rule over a lost nation in 'The Indies' and ready to support Christians in Europe.

    4 June 2015

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Marianne O'Doherty, Martin Palmer, Amanda Power

     
  132. Josephus

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Flavius Josephus, author of The Jewish War.

    21 May 2015

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Tessa Rajak, Philip Alexander, Martin Goodman

     
  133. The Lancashire Cotton Famine

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the cotton famine in Lancashire during the American Civil War, when the supply of cotton from the south was blocked and mills closed.

    14 May 2015

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Chandrika Kaul, Emma Griffin, David Brown

     
  134. Matteo Ricci and the Ming dynasty

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Matteo Ricci's 16th-century mission to Ming Dynasty China, an important early encounter between east and west.

    16 April 2015

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Mary Laven, Craig Clunas, Anne Gerritsen

     
  135. The California Gold Rush

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the California Gold Rush of the 1850s, when a chance discovery of gold led to massive demographic changes to parts of America.

    2 April 2015

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Kathleen Burk, Jacqueline Fear-Segal, Frank Cogliano

     
  136. The Curies

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the scientific achievements of the Curie family, Marie and Pierre and their daughter Irene Joliot-Curie, all three of whom won Nobel Prizes.

    26 March 2015

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Patricia Fara, Robert Fox, Steven T Bramwell

     
  137. The Eunuch

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the history and significance of eunuchs, castrated men who played important roles in many civilisations.

    26 February 2015

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Karen Radner, Shaun Tougher, Michael Hoeckelmann

     
  138. The Wealth of Nations

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Adam Smith's celebrated economic treatise The Wealth of Nations.

    19 February 2015

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Richard Whatmore, Donald Winch, Helen Paul

     
  139. Ashoka the Great

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the emperor Ashoka the Great, one of the most celebrated rulers in Indian history.

    5 February 2015

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Jessica Frazier, Naomi Appleton, Richard Gombrich

     
  140. Thucydides

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ancient Greek historian Thucydides and his work entitled The History of the Peloponnesian War.

    29 January 2015

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Paul Cartledge, Katherine Harloe, Neville Morley

     
  141. Brunel

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the Victorian engineer responsible for bridges, tunnels and railways still in use today.

    13 November 2014

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Julia Elton, Ben Marsden, Crosbie Smith

     
  142. Hatshepsut

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Hatshepsut, the woman considered one of Egypt's most successful pharaohs.

    6 November 2014

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Elizabeth Frood, Kate Spence, Campbell Price

     
  143. The Haitian Revolution

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Haitian Revolution of 1791-1804.

    23 October 2014

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Kate Hodgson, Tim Lockley, Karen Salt

     
  144. The Battle of Talas

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Battle of Talas, a conflict between Arab and Chinese forces which took place in central Asia in AD751.

    9 October 2014

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Hilde de Weerdt, Michael Höckelmann, Hugh Kennedy

     
  145. Julius Caesar

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life and reputation of Julius Caesar, one of the most intriguing figures of Roman history.

    2 October 2014

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Christopher Pelling, Catherine Steel, Maria Wyke

     
  146. Hildegard of Bingen

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the medieval mystic, composer and writer Hildegard of Bingen.

    26 June 2014

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Miri Rubin, William Flynn, Almut Suerbaum

     
  147. The Sino-Japanese War

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Second Sino-Japanese War.

    8 May 2014

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Rana Mitter, Barak Kushner, Tehyun Ma

     
  148. Strabo's Geographica

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Strabo's Geographica, the only surviving work from the ancient world that describes the entire world known to the Greeks and Romans.

    10 April 2014

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Paul Cartledge, Maria Pretzler, Benet Salway

     
  149. Weber's The Protestant Ethic

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Max Weber's book The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.

    27 March 2014

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Peter Ghosh, Sam Whimster, Linda Woodhead

     
  150. Spartacus

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life of Spartacus, a Roman gladiator who was involved in a series of slave uprisings against the Roman Republic in the 1st century BC.

    6 March 2014

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Mary Beard, Maria Wyke, Theresa Urbainczyk

     
  151. Chivalry

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss chivalry, which governed the behaviour of the knights of medieval Europe.

    13 February 2014

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Miri Rubin, Matthew Strickland, Laura Ashe

     
  152. The Phoenicians

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Phoenicians, the celebrated maritime traders of the ancient Mediterranean.

    6 February 2014

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Mark Woolmer, Josephine Quinn, Cyprian Broodbank

     
  153. The Battle of Tours

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Battle of Tours of 732, in which a Frankish army led by Charles Martel defeated an invading Arab force.

    16 January 2014

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Hugh N. Kennedy, Rosamond McKitterick, Matthew Innes

     
  154. Plato's Symposium

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Plato's Symposium, one of the Greek philosopher's best-known works and an influential text about the nature of love.

    3 January 2014

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Angie Hobbs, Richard L. Hunter, Frisbee Sheffield

     
  155. The Medici

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Medici family, who dominated Florence's political and cultural life during the Renaissance.

    26 December 2013

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Evelyn Welch, Robert Black, Catherine Fletcher

     
  156. Pliny the Younger

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Roman lawyer and statesman Pliny the Younger, whose letters offer a fascinating insight into his life and the ancient world.

    12 December 2013

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Catharine Edwards, Roy Gibson, Alice König

     
  157. The Berlin Conference

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Berlin Conference, the international summit which formalised European colonial activity in Africa.

    31 October 2013

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Richard Drayton, Richard Rathbone, Joanna Lewis

     
  158. The Corn Laws

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Corn Laws, cause of one of the most explosive political debates in the 19th century.

    24 October 2013

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Lawrence Goldman, Boyd Hilton, Cheryl Schonhardt-Bailey

     
  159. The Mamluks

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Mamluks, medieval rulers of Egypt and Syria from 1250 to 1517.

    26 September 2013

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Amira Bennison, Robert Irwin, Doris Behrens-Abouseif

     
  160. The Physiocrats

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Physiocrats, an important group of economic thinkers in 18th-century France.

    20 June 2013

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Richard Whatmore, Joel Felix, Helen Paul

     
  161. Queen Zenobia

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Queen Zenobia, Empress of the Palmyrene Empire and leader of a rebellion against Ancient Rome.

    30 May 2013

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Edith Hall, Kate Cooper, Richard Stoneman

     
  162. Alfred Russel Wallace

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Victorian pioneer of evolutionary theory Alfred Russel Wallace.

    21 March 2013

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Steve Jones, George Beccaloni, Ted Benton

     
  163. Ice ages

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss ice ages, periods when the temperature of the Earth has dropped to low levels.

    14 February 2013

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Jane Francis, Richard Corfield, Carrie Lear

     
  164. The War of 1812

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the War of 1812, the conflict between America and Great Britain which is sometimes referred to as the second American War of Independence.

    31 January 2013

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Kathleen Burk, Lawrence Goldman, Frank Cogliano

     
  165. The South Sea Bubble

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the South Sea Bubble, the speculation mania in early 18th-century England which ended in the financial ruin of many of its investors.

    20 December 2012

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Anne Murphy, Helen Paul, Roey Sweet

     
  166. The Borgias

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Borgias, the most notorious family in Renaissance Italy, famed for their treachery and corruption under the papacy of Alexander VI.

    22 November 2012

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Evelyn Welch, Catherine Fletcher, Christine Shaw

     
  167. Hannibal

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Hannibal, the Carthaginian general who famously led an army across the Alps.

    11 October 2012

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Ellen O'Gorman, Mark Woolmer, Louis Rawlings

     
  168. Gerald of Wales

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the medieval scholar Gerald of Wales, the author of colourful and influential works about his journeys around Ireland and Wales.

    4 October 2012

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Henrietta Leyser, Michelle Brown, Huw Pryce

     
  169. The Druids

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Druids, the mysterious priests of ancient Britain, Gaul and Ireland.

    20 September 2012

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Barry Cunliffe, Miranda Aldhouse-Green, Justin Champion

     
  170. Hadrian's Wall

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Hadrian's Wall, the best known and perhaps most impressive relic of the Roman occupation of Britain.

    12 July 2012

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Greg Woolf, David Breeze, Lindsay Allason-Jones

     
  171. Annie Besant

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life of 19th-century writer and campaigner Annie Besant.

    21 June 2012

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Lawrence Goldman, David Stack, Yasmin Khan

     
  172. Marco Polo

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the travels of the celebrated Venetian explorer Marco Polo.

    24 May 2012

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Frances Wood, Joan Pau Rubies, Debra Higgs Strickland

     
  173. The Battle of Bosworth Field

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485, the celebrated climactic encounter of the Wars of the Roses.

    26 April 2012

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Anne Curry, Stephen Gunn, David Grummitt

     
  174. The An Lushan Rebellion

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the An Lushan Rebellion, a major uprising against the imperial rule of the Chinese Tang Dynasty.

    16 February 2012

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Frances Wood, Naomi Standen, Hilde de Weerdt

     
  175. 1848: Year of Revolution

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss 1848, the year that saw Europe engulfed in revolution. Governments from Paris to Palermo were toppled, but the effects were not to last.

    19 January 2012

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Tim Blanning, Lucy Riall, Mike Rapport

     
  176. The Siege of Tenochtitlan

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Siege of Tenochtitlan, the event which precipitated the fall of the Aztec Empire in 1521.

    27 October 2011

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Alan Knight, Elizabeth Graham, Caroline Dodds Pennock

     
  177. The Minoan Civilisation

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Minoan Civilisation of Bronze Age Crete.

    7 July 2011

    listen ↗

    Featuring: John Bennet, Ellen Adams, Yannis Hamilakis

     
  178. The Battle of Stamford Bridge

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Battle of Stamford Bridge, a decisive English victory over Viking forces which took place in September 1066.

    2 June 2011

    listen ↗

    Featuring: John Hines, Elizabeth Ashman Rowe, Stephen Baxter

     
  179. Xenophon

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life and work of the ancient Greek historian and soldier Xenophon.

    26 May 2011

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Paul Cartledge, Edith Hall, Simon Goldhill

     
  180. Custer's Last Stand

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Battle of the Little Bighorn, also known as Custer's Last Stand, the bloody 1876 battle between Native Americans and the US Cavalry.

    19 May 2011

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Kathleen Burk, Adam Smith, Saul David

     
  181. Octavia Hill

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Victorian reformer Octavia Hill, pioneer of social housing and campaigner for public open spaces.

    7 April 2011

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Dinah Birch, Lawrence Goldman, Gillian Darley

     
  182. The Iron Age

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the dawn of the European Iron Age, a period of great upheaval when technology and societies were changed forever.

    24 March 2011

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Barry Cunliffe, Sue Hamilton, Timothy Champion

     
  183. The Taiping Rebellion

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Taiping Rebellion, a Chinese civil war which claimed around 20 million lives in the 19th century.

    24 February 2011

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Rana Mitter, Frances Wood, Julia Lovell

     
  184. The Battle of Bannockburn

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Battle of Bannockburn of 1314, an important victory for Scotland in its fight to win independence from England.

    3 February 2011

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Matthew Strickland, Fiona Watson, Michael Brown

     
  185. The Mexican Revolution

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Mexican Revolution of 1910, the popular uprising which lasted ten years and resulted in the overthrow of President Porfino Diaz.

    20 January 2011

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Alan Knight, Paul Garner, Patience Schell

     
  186. Consequences of the Industrial Revolution

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the far-reaching consequences of the Industrial Revolution, which brought widespread social and intellectual change to Britain.

    30 December 2010

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Jane Humphries, Emma Griffin, Lawrence Goldman

     
  187. The Industrial Revolution

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Industrial Revolution, a period of rapid technological development which brought widespread social and intellectual change to Britain.

    23 December 2010

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Jeremy Black, Pat Hudson, William Ashworth

     
  188. Cleopatra

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Cleopatra, the Egyptian pharaoh whose charisma, intelligence and beauty made her one of the most celebrated rulers of the ancient world.

    2 December 2010

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Catharine Edwards, Maria Wyke, Susan Walker

     
  189. The Spanish Armada

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Spanish Armada, the fleet which attempted to invade Elizabethan England in 1588.

    7 October 2010

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Diane Purkiss, Maria Jose Rodriguez-Salgado, Nicholas Rodger

     
  190. Athelstan

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the reign of King Athelstan, whose military exploits united much of England, Scotland and Wales under one ruler for the first time.

    1 July 2010

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Sarah Foot, John Hines, Richard Gameson

     
  191. The Indian Mutiny

    Melvyn Bragg and guests Faisal Devji, Shruti Kapila and Chandrika Kaul discuss the Indian Mutiny of 1857 and the rebellion which followed.

    18 February 2010

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Chandrika Kaul, Faisal Devji, Shruti Kapila

     
  192. The Glencoe Massacre

    Melvyn Bragg and guests Karin Bowie, Murray Pittock and Daniel Szechi discuss the 1692 Glencoe Massacre, why it happened, and its lasting repercussions.

    21 January 2010

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Murray Pittock, Karin Bowie, Daniel Szechi

     
  193. The Trial of Charles I

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the trial of Charles I, recounting the high drama in Westminster Hall and the ideas that led to the execution.

    4 June 2009

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Justin Champion, Diane Purkiss, David Wootton

     
  194. The Boxer Rebellion

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Boxer Rebellion, when the Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists purged China of foreign influences in the summer of 1900.

    19 March 2009

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Frances Wood, Rana Mitter, R. G. Tiedemann

     
  195. Carthage's Destruction

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the complete destruction of Carthage by Rome, a pivotal moment in world history.

    12 February 2009

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Mary Beard, Jo Quinn, Ellen O'Gorman

     
  196. History of History

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss how the writing of history has changed over time, from ancient epics to medieval hagiographies and modern deconstructions.

    22 January 2009

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Paul Cartledge, John Burrow, Miri Rubin

     
  197. The Fire of London

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss The Great Fire of London in 1666 and how the city rose from the ashes.

    11 December 2008

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Lisa Jardine, Vanessa Harding, Jonathan Sawday

     
  198. The Great Reform Act

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Great Reform Act of 1832, a landmark in British political history.

    27 November 2008

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Dinah Birch, Michael Bentley, Catherine Hall

     
  199. Bolivar

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and times of Simon Bolivar, hero of the revolutionary wars that liberated Spanish America from Spain.

    30 October 2008

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Anthony McFarlane, John Fisher, Catherine Davies

     
  200. The Black Death

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Black Death and the way medieval communities responded to it.

    22 May 2008

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Miri Rubin, Samuel Cohn, Paul Binski

     
  201. The Enclosures of the 18th Century

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 18th and 19th century enclosure movement which divided the British countryside both literally and figuratively.

    1 May 2008

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Rosemary Sweet, Murray Pittock, Mark Overton

     
  202. The Charge of the Light Brigade

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Charge of the Light Brigade and its iconic status in the British historical imagination.

    10 January 2008

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Mike Broers, Trudi Tate, Saul David

     
  203. The Sassanid Empire

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Sassanian Empire, a grand imperial rival to the Roman Empire.

    13 December 2007

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Hugh N. Kennedy, Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis, James Howard-Johnston

     
  204. The Siege of Orléans

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Siege of Orléans, when Joan of Arc came to the rescue of France and routed the English army with the help of God.

    24 May 2007

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Anne Curry, Malcolm Vale, Matthew Bennett

     
  205. Genghis Khan

    Melvyn Bragg discusses Genghis Khan and the Mongol Empire, one of the largest contiguous empires the world has ever seen.

    1 February 2007

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Peter Jackson, Naomi Standen, George Lane

     
  206. Constantinople Siege and Fall

    Melvyn Bragg discusses the 1453 siege of Constantinople. A bitter and bloody 53 days that ended a thousand years of the Byzantine Empire.

    28 December 2006

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Roger Crowley, Judith Herrin, Colin Imber

     
  207. The Peasants' Revolt

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 - “When Adam delved and Eve span, who was then the Gentleman?"

    16 November 2006

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Miri Rubin, Caroline Barron, Alastair Dunn

     
  208. The Great Exhibition of 1851

    Melvyn Bragg discusses the 1851 Great Exhibition. Housed in the magnificent Crystal Palace, the exhibition showcased Victorian Britain's technical ingenuity and industrial might.

    27 April 2006

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Jeremy Black, Hermione Hobhouse, Clive Emsley

     
  209. Catherine the Great

    Melvyn Bragg discusses Catherine the Great who set out to transform Russia from a semi-barbaric country into a model of the ideals of the 18th century French Enlightenment.

    23 February 2006

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Janet Hartley, Simon Dixon, Tony Lentin

     
  210. The Peterloo Massacre

    Melvyn Bragg discusses The Peterloo Massacre on 16 August 1819, when British cavalry charged a vast crowd of protestors in Manchester.

    15 December 2005

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Jeremy Black, Sarah Richardson, Clive Emsley

     
  211. The Field of the Cloth of Gold

    Melvyn Bragg discusses the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520, one of the greatest and most conspicuous displays of wealth and culture that Europe had ever seen.

    6 October 2005

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Stephen Gunn, John Guy, Penny Roberts

     
  212. The French Revolution's Reign of Terror

    Melvyn Bragg discusses the reign of terror during the French Revolution and whether it was an aberration of the revolutionary cause or its natural culmination.

    26 May 2005

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Mike Broers, Rebecca Spang, Tim Blanning

     
  213. Alfred and the Battle of Edington

    Melvyn Bragg discusses King Alfred, the defeat of the Vikings at Battle of Edington and Alfred's project to create a culture of Englishness.

    7 April 2005

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Richard Gameson, Sarah Foot, John Hines

     
  214. Tsar Alexander II's assassination

    Melvyn Bragg discusses the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in 1881, by a gang of Russian terrorists, which led to start of the revolutionary era in Russia.

    6 January 2005

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Orlando Figes, Dominic Lieven, Catriona Kelly

     
  215. The Roman Republic

    Melvyn Bragg discusses the rise and eventual downfall of the Roman Republic which survived for 500 years.

    30 December 2004

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Greg Woolf, Catherine Steel, Tom Holland

     
  216. Agincourt

    Melvyn Bragg discusses the events leading up to the unlikely English defeat of the French at Agincourt in 1415, and explores the cultural legacy of this emblematic victory.

    16 September 2004

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Anne Curry, Michael Jones, John Watts

     
  217. Washington and the American Revolution

    Melvyn Bragg discusses the first President of the United States, George Washington, and the people and ideas that saw the American Revolution overthrow British rule in 1775.

    24 June 2004

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Carol Berkin, Simon Middleton, Colin Bonwick

     
  218. Babylon

    Melvyn Bragg discusses the truth behind Babylon, the world’s oldest and most enigmatic of empires; from the the Tower of Babel and the Hanging Gardens to the Whore of Babylon.

    3 June 2004

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Eleanor Robson, Irving Finkel, Andrew George

     
  219. China's Warring States period

    Melvyn Bragg discusses an epoch of astonishing productivity in Chinese history after Confucius and before the Terracotta Army that has great parallels with the golden age of Greek culture.

    1 April 2004

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Chris Cullen, Vivienne Lo, Carol Michaelson

     
  220. Thermopylae

    Melvyn Bragg discusses the Battle of Thermopylae, a defining clash between East and West, when King Leonidas and his defeated Spartans passed into legend.

    5 February 2004

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Tom Holland, Simon Goldhill, Edith Hall

     
  221. The Alphabet

    Melvyn Bragg discusses the feat of astonishing intellectual engineering which provides us with millions of words in hundreds of languages. How did it develop and conquer three quarters of the globe?

    18 December 2003

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Eleanor Robson, Alan Millard, Rosalind Thomas

     
  222. The East India Company

    Melvyn Bragg discusses the powerful private trading company that redrew the map of India, built an empire and reinvented the fashions and the foodstuffs of Britain.

    26 June 2003

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Huw Bowen, Linda Colley, Maria Misra

     
  223. Roman Britain

    Melvyn Bragg discusses the Romans in Britain, a history of 400 years of occupation. Do those four centuries still colour our national life and character today?

    1 May 2003

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Greg Woolf, Mary Beard, Catharine Edwards

     
  224. The Spanish Civil War

    Melvyn Bragg discusses the causes, events and repercussions of the Spanish Civil War, which became an international battleground for the forces of Fascism and Communism as Europe geared up for war.

    3 April 2003

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Paul Preston, Helen Graham, Mary Vincent

     
  225. The British Empire

    Melvyn Bragg discusses the British Empire, what drove Britain to follow the imperial road and what was its legacy?

    8 November 2001

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Maria Misra, Peter Cain, Catherine Hall

     
  226. Napoleon and Wellington

    Melvyn Bragg discusses the comparative histories of Napoleon and the Duke of Wellington, two titans of nineteenth century history.

    25 October 2001

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Andrew Roberts, Mike Broers, Belinda Beaton

     
  227. Byzantium

    Melvyn Bragg discusses the culture, history and legacy of the eastern Byzantine Empire, and examines why it has so often been sidelined and undermined by historians.

    19 July 2001

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Charlotte Roueché, John Julius Norwich, Liz James

     
  228. The French Revolution's Legacy

    Melvyn Bragg discusses the legacy of the French Revolution. What kind of a watershed did the French Revolution mark in the tide of history?

    14 June 2001

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Stefan Collini, Anne Janowitz, Andrew Roberts

     
  229. The Glorious Revolution

    Melvyn Bragg examines the Glorious Revolution of 1688 but were the events of 1688 really either Glorious or Revolutionary?

    19 April 2001

    listen ↗

    Featuring: John Spurr, Rosemary Sweet, Scott Mandelbrote

     
  230. The Roman Empire's Collapse in the 5th century

    Melvyn Bragg discusses the causes and events leading to the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century and assesses the role of Christianity, the Ostrogoths, the Visigoths and the Vandals.

    5 April 2001

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Charlotte Roueché, David Womersley, Richard Alston

     
  231. The Restoration

    Melvyn Bragg examines the reign of Charles II and discusses whether the Restoration brought peace and prosperity to England or was an unstable period that culminated in revolution.

    15 February 2001

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Mark Goldie, Richard Ollard, Clare Jackson

     
  232. The Enlightenment in Britain

    Melvyn Bragg examines the part British thinkers played in the Enlightenment in the 18th century, and examines whether the shifts of thought in those years provided the platform for the modern world.

    18 January 2001

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Roy Porter, Linda Colley, Jeremy Black

     
  233. Hitler in History

    Melvyn Bragg examines the debate between various historiographical theories. How do Intentionalist, Structralist and Marxist views of history explain events in Nazi Germany?

    5 October 2000

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Ian Kershaw, Niall Ferguson, Mary Fulbrook

     
  234. The Wars of the Roses

    Melvyn Bragg discusses the 15th century wars between the royal Houses of Lancaster and York. Do they represent the breakdown of the feudal system or has the political instability been overstated?

    18 May 2000

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Helen Castor, Colin Richmond, Stephen Gunn

     
  235. History and Understanding the Past

    Melvyn Bragg examines whether we can ever predict the future by understanding the past. What kind of lessons is it possible for leaders, governments or people to take from history?

    30 March 2000

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Richard J. Evans, Eric Hobsbawm

     
  236. The British Empire's Legacy

    Melvyn Bragg discusses whether there is a need in Britain to re-examine its colonial past and examines the impact that imperial past has had on Britain’s current multicultural identity.

    31 December 1998

    listen ↗

    Featuring: Catherine Hall, Linda Colley