History
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274 episodes
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
Featuring: Ruth Kinna, Christopher Phelps, Gary Gerstle
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
Featuring: Lawrence Goldman, Emily Jones, Daisy Hay
HistoryFellows of the Royal SocietyEnglish Anglicans19th-century English poetsEnglish male novelistsEnglish non-fiction writersVictorian novelists19th-century English novelistsVictorian era19th-century Anglicans19th-century English dramatists and playwrightsKnights of the GarterWriters from the London Borough of Camden19th-century English politiciansEnglish biographersLords Privy SealMembers of the Privy Council of the United KingdomPeople of the Victorian eraRectors of the University of GlasgowUK MPs 1865–1868The Orkneyinga Saga
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the myth and history in the Saga of the Earls of Orkney as they fought to control some of the most strategically important islands around Britain.
06 June 2024
Featuring: Judith Jesch, Jane Harrison, Alex Woolf
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
Featuring: Annabel Brett, George Garnett, Serena Ferente
Empress Dowager Cixi
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the woman who arrived at the Chinese court as a concubine only to become its most powerful figure for the final 50 years of Qing imperial rule.
23 May 2024
Featuring: Yangwen Zheng, Rana Mitter, Ronald Po
Napoleon's Hundred Days
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Napoleon Bonaparte's astonishing return to power in France from exile on Elba in 1815 and how that galvanised the Allies into facing him at Waterloo
18 April 2024
Featuring: Michael Rowe, Katherine Astbury, Zack White
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
Featuring: James Corke-Webster, Lea Niccolai, Shaun Tougher
The Mokrani Revolt
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss when Algerians tried to take advantage of French defeat in Europe in 1871 and drive the colonists out, inspiring the later independence movement.
07 March 2024
Featuring: Natalya Benkhaled-Vince, Hannah-Louise Clark, Jim House
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
Featuring: Stephen Bowd, Jessica Goethals, Catherine Fletcher
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
Featuring: Justyna Wubs-Mrozewicz, Georg Christ, Sheilagh Ogilvie
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
Featuring: Aidan Dodson, Joyce Tyldesley, Kate Spence
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
Featuring: Matthew Nicholls, Shushma Malik, Catherine Steel
HistoryJulio-Claudian dynasty1st-century BC RomansAncient Roman adopteesJulii CaesaresRoman pharaohs1st-century Roman emperorsPeople in the canonical gospelsRoman quaestorsAncient Roman triumphatorsBurials at the Mausoleum of Augustus, Ancient Roman military personnelClaudii Nerones, Roman-era Olympic competitorsMarguerite 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
Featuring: Sara Barker, Emily Butterworth, Emma Herdman
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
Featuring: Matthew Watson, Bill Waller, Mary Wrenn
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
Featuring: Joanna Nolan, Claire Norton, Michael Talbot
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
Featuring: Frank Cogliano, Kathleen Burk, Nicholas Guyatt
The Economic Consequences of the Peace
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the book that popularised the idea the Treaty of Versailles was disastrous, supporting the argument of Germany in the 1930s and feeding appeasement.
28 September 2023
Featuring: Margaret MacMillan, Michael Cox, Patricia Clavin
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
Featuring: Catriona Seth, Guy Rowlands, Penny Roberts
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
Featuring: Satona Suzuki, Erica Baffelli, Christopher Harding
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
Featuring: Anne Curry, Andrew Ayton, Erika Graham-Goering
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
Featuring: Erin Goeres, Pragya Vohra, Elizabeth Tyler
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
Featuring: Melissa Lane, Hans van Wees, William Allan
Mercantilism
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the system of economic thinking which dominated Europe between the 16th and 18th centuries.
16 March 2023
Featuring: D'Maris Coffman, Craig Muldrew, Helen Paul
Megaliths
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss what we know about ancient stones placed in the landscape and stone monuments, which are often visually striking and can be up to 6,000 years old.
2 Mar 2023
Featuring: Vicki Cummings, Julian Thomas, Susan Greaney
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
Featuring: Joan Allen, Emma Griffin, Robert Saunders
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
Featuring: Ole Grell, Adam Mosley, Emma Perkins
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
Featuring: Rosemary Ashton, Stephen Halliday, Paul Dobraszczyk
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
Featuring: Ian McBride, Catriona Kennedy, Liam Chambers
Demosthenes' Philippics
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ferocious speeches Demosthenes gave to stir up his fellow Athenians against their enemy Philip II of Macedon and so abandon appeasement.
17 November 2022
Featuring: Paul Cartledge, Kathryn Tempest, Jon Hesk
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
Featuring: Matthew J Smith, Diana Paton, Lawrence Goldman
The Knights Templar
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the growth and great military and financial strength of the famous order whose knights had a mission to protect pilgrims in the Holy Land.
6 October 2022
Featuring: Helen Nicholson, Mike Carr, Jonathan Phillips
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
Featuring: Piphal Heng, Ashley Thompson, Simon Warrack
Jan Amos Komenský
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Czech man who tried to use education to build a better understanding between the peoples of Europe who were otherwise divided by religious wars.
19 May 2022
Featuring: Vladimir Urbanek, Suzanna Ivanic, Howard Hotson
The Davidian Revolution
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss great changes in Scotland associated with David I, from the founding of trading towns such as Edinburgh to new monasteries and new ways of governing
5 May 2022
Featuring: Richard Oram, Alice Taylor, Alex Woolf
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
Featuring: Catriona Seth, Katherine Astbury, Sanja Perovic
Culture18th-century philosophersFrench political philosophersFrench women philosophersWomen religious writersExecuted philosophersDeist philosophersExecuted writers18th-century French women writersFrench deists18th-century French philosophersWomen in the French RevolutionFrench abolitionistsFrench women dramatists and playwrightsFrench people executed by guillotine during the French Revolution, Executed French womenHomo 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
Featuring: Peter Kjærgaard, José Joordens, Mark Maslin
The Arthashastra
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ancient Indian Sanskrit text the Arthashastra.
3 March 2022
Featuring: Jessica Frazier, James Hegarty, Deven Patel
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
Featuring: Ruth Kinna, Lee Dugatkin, Simon Dixon
HistorySocial philosophersPhilosophy writers20th-century atheists19th-century atheists20th-century essayistsAnti-consumeristsHistorians of the French Revolution19th-century essayists19th-century non-fiction writers from the Russian EmpireAnarchist writersRussian atheistsBurials at Novodevichy CemeteryHuman geographersMembers of the International Workingmen's AssociationRussian anarchistsEmigrants from the Russian Empire to the United Kingdom, 19th-century philosophers from the Russian Empire, Russian communists, 20th-century Russian philosophers, Russian revolutionaries, Emigrants from the Russian Empire to SwitzerlandThe 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
Featuring: Annemarie McAllister, James Kneale, David Buckingham
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
Featuring: Catherine Schenk, Helen Paul, Matthias Morys
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
Featuring: Claudia Glatz, Ilgi Gercek, Christoph Bachhuber
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
Featuring: Rana Mitter, Elisabeth Forster, Song-Chuan Chen
The Battle of Trafalgar
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Nelson's decisive naval victory in 1805, long celebrated in Britain and remembered as a watershed in Spain yet overshadowed in France by Austerlitz.
2 December 2021
Featuring: James Davey, Marianne Czisnik, Kenneth Johnson
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
Featuring: Robert I. Frost, Katarzyna Kosior, Norman Davies
The Manhattan Project
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss how the discovery of nuclear fission in Germany led quickly to the development of the first atom bomb in the USA and its lethal use over Japan
7 October 2021
Featuring: Bruce Cameron Reed, Cynthia Kelly, Frank Close
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
Featuring: Tom Harrison, Esther Eidinow, Paul Cartledge
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
Featuring: David Womersley, Charlotte Roberts, Karen O'Brien
CultureFellows of the Royal SocietyTheorists on Western civilizationEnglish essayistsEnglish male non-fiction writersBritish male essayists18th-century English male writersBritish critics of religionsIrony theoristsRhetoric theorists18th-century English non-fiction writersAlumni of Magdalen College, Oxford18th-century English historiansBritish MPs 1774–1780English ProtestantsEnglish rhetoriciansFreemasons of the Premier Grand Lodge of EnglandPeople educated at Westminster School, LondonMembers of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies, British MPs 1780–1784Booth'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
Featuring: Emma Griffin, Sarah Wise, Lawrence Goldman
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
Featuring: Clare Jackson, Micheál Ó Siochrú, Laura Stewart
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
Featuring: David Carpenter, Louise Wilkinson, Sophie Thérèse Ambler
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
Featuring: Maria Wyke, Gail Trimble, Dunstan Lowe
The Franco-American Alliance 1778
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss why France supported the USA in its revolutionary war against Britain and how that related to the French Revolution a few years later.
22 April 2021
Featuring: Frank Cogliano, Kathleen Burk, Michael Rapport
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
Featuring: Marcus du Sautoy, Timothy Gowers, Colva Roney-Dougal
HistoryFellows of the Royal SocietyFellows of the American Academy of Arts and SciencesMembers of the Royal Swedish Academy of SciencesMembers of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and SciencesMembers of the French Academy of SciencesMembers of the Académie Française18th-century French mathematiciansFrench deistsDeterministsFrench physicistsGrand Officers of the Legion of HonourFrench agnosticsLinear algebraistsFrench mathematicians, French fluid dynamicists, French probability theoristsThe 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
Featuring: Simon Dixon, Naoko Shimazu, Oleg Benesch
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
Featuring: Matthew Watson, Helen Paul, Richard Whatmore
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
Featuring: Simon Goldhill, Angie Hobbs, Catharine Edwards
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
Featuring: Rana Mitter, Sun Peidong, Julia Lovell
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
Featuring: Vincent Brown, Bronwen Everill, Jake Subryan Richards
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
Featuring: Catriona Seth, Martyn Rady, Thomas Biskup
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
Featuring: Alistair Pike, Chantal Conneller, Paul Pettitt
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
Featuring: Edith Hall, Paul Cartledge, Peter Liddel
The Covenanters
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Scottish Presbyterian pledges to advance their beliefs in the face of episcopacy and Roman Catholicism, and their impact across Britain and Ireland.
12 March 2020
Featuring: Roger Mason, Laura Stewart, Scott Spurlock
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
Featuring: Caroline Dodds Pennock, John Edwards, Julia McClure
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
Featuring: Matthew Nicholls, Ellen O'Gorman, Peter Heather
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
Featuring: Joanna Story, Andy Orchard, Mary Garrison
HistoryAnglican saintsScholastic philosophersMedieval Latin-language poetsMedieval English theologiansChristian hagiographers9th-century philosophersGrammarians of LatinAnglo-Saxon poets, Anglo-Saxon writers, 8th-century English writers, 8th-century Christian theologians, 8th-century writers in LatinThe Siege of Paris (1870-71)
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Prussian siege of Paris from 1870 and the Commune which emerged, until that was violently suppressed by French forces in 1871
16 January 2020
Featuring: Karine Varley, Robert Gildea, Julia Nicholls
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
Featuring: Elizabeth Frood, Christina Riggs, John Taylor
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
Featuring: Judith Hawley, Markman Ellis, Jonathan Morris
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
Featuring: Hussein Omar, Catriona Pennell, Neil Faulkner
Li Shizhen
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the work of the Chinese doctor who investigated natural remedies, under the Ming, and compiled the greatest collection of treatments of his time
28 November 2019
Featuring: Craig Clunas, Anne Gerritsen, Roel Sterckx
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
Featuring: Natasha Hodgson, Katherine Lewis, Danielle Park
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
Featuring: Jane Ohlmeyer, Clare Jackson, Thomas O'Connor
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
Featuring: Janet Hartley, Michael Rowe, Michael Rapport
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
Featuring: Vincent Gaffney, Carol Cotterill, Rachel Bynoe
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
Featuring: Angela Hobbs, Lisa Irene Hau, Paul Cartledge
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
Featuring: Frank Meddens, Helen Cowie, Bill Sillar
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
Featuring: Erik Mathisen, Susan-Mary Grant, Robert Cook
HistoryMembers of the American Philosophical SocietyHall of Fame for Great Americans inducteesAmerican people of English descent19th-century American male writersActivists for African-American civil rightsAmerican slave ownersCongressional Gold Medal recipientsUnited States Military Academy alumniPeople of the Six Years' War, 19th-century American memoiristsCommanding Generals of the United States Army, Presidents of the United StatesThe 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
Featuring: Ian Haywood, Catriona Kennedy, Mark Knights
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
Featuring: Maria Wyke, Matthew Nicholls, Shushma Malik
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
Featuring: Cormac O'Grada, Niamh Gallagher, Enda Delaney
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
Featuring: Judith Jesch, John Hines, Jane Kershaw
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
Featuring: Diarmaid MacCulloch, Susan Doran, John Guy
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
Featuring: James Montgomery, Marlé Hammond, Harry Munt
Owain Glyndŵr
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the man behind a major revolt against England, from 1400-1412, taking control of large areas of Wales until defeated by the future Henry V
31 January 2019
Featuring: Huw Pryce, Helen Fulton, Chris Given-Wilson
The Poor Laws
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 19th century legislation intended to discourage poor people from seeking relief instead of work, with handouts replaced by the workhouse
20 December 2018
Featuring: Emma Griffin, Samantha Shave, Steven King
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
Featuring: Peter Wilson, Ulinka Rublack, Toby Osborne
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
Featuring: Rana Mitter, Sun Shuyun, Julia Lovell
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
Featuring: Emily Gowers, William Fitzgerald, Ellen O'Gorman
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
Featuring: Catriona Seth, Katherine Astbury, David McCallam
HistoryFrench Roman CatholicsWomen in the French RevolutionNobility from ViennaDaughters of kingsQueens consort of FranceRoyal reburialsNavarrese royal consortsBurials at the Basilica of Saint-DenisPeople of the War of the First CoalitionFrench people executed by guillotine during the French Revolution, Executed French womenDaughters of emperors, Austrian Roman Catholics, Austrian princessesDauphines of France, Dauphines of ViennoisThe 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
Featuring: David Wootton, Helen Paul, John Callanan
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
Featuring: Jonathan Bate, Catherine Steel, Patrick Gray
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
Featuring: Emma J. Smith, Gordon McMullan, Katherine Lewis
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
Featuring: Frank Cogliano, Jacqueline Fear-Segal, Thomas Rath
HistoryWars involving the United StatesUnited States Marine Corps in the 18th and 19th centuriesHistory of United States expansionismHistory of the foreign relations of the United StatesConflicts in 1848Pre-statehood history of California, 1848 in CaliforniaWars fought in Texas, Wars fought in ArizonaMontesquieu
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
Featuring: Richard Bourke, Rachel Hammersley, Richard Whatmore
HistoryFellows of the Royal SocietyEnlightenment philosophersPhilosophers of lawFrench Roman CatholicsFrench political philosophersMembers of the Académie FrançaiseFrench philosophers of historyMembers of the Prussian Academy of Sciences18th-century French male writers18th-century French philosophersContributors to the Encyclopédie (1751–1772)French political writersPersepolis
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 'City of the Persians' that flourished for almost 200 years from the reign of Darius I until its destruction by Alexander III of Macedon.
7 June 2018
Featuring: Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones, Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis, Lindsay Allen
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
Featuring: Katherine Lewis, James Ross, Joanna Laynesmith
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
Featuring: Sarah Hudspith, Simon Dixon, Shane O'Rourke
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
Featuring: Amira Bennison, Nicola Clarke, Hugh Kennedy
Roman Slavery
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the impact that slaves had on the Roman Republic and Empire and the impact the Romans had on slaves, from the first conquests to the fall of Rome.
5 April 2018
Featuring: Neville Morley, Ulrike Roth, Myles Lavan
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
Featuring: Robert Gildea, Susan-Mary Grant, Jeremy Jennings
HistoryPhilosophers of lawWriters from ParisUniversity of Paris alumniFrench Roman CatholicsNatural law ethicistsFrench political philosophersMembers of the Académie FrançaiseFrench philosophers of historyFrench male non-fiction writersHistorians of the French Revolution19th-century French philosophersKnights of the Legion of HonourFrench political scientistsFrench political writers19th-century French male writersEconomic sociologistsFrench philosophers of culture, French sociologistsThe 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
Featuring: Tom Devine, Marjory Harper, Murray Pittock
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
Featuring: Hilde de Weerdt, Tim Barrett, Imre Galambos
HistoryPhilosophers of cultureAphoristsPhilosophers of educationPhilosophers of social scienceTheoretical historiansPeople whose existence is disputedPhilosophers of warPolitical realistsMilitary theoristsJourney to the West characters6th-century BC Chinese writers, Zhou dynasty philosophers, Deified Chinese men, Chinese political philosophers, 5th-century BC Chinese writers, Zhou dynasty writersFrederick 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
Featuring: Celeste-Marie Bernier, Karen Salt, Nicholas Guyatt
HistoryAnglican saints19th-century male writers19th-century American male writersDeaths from coronary thrombosisAmerican male journalistsAmerican lecturersActivists for African-American civil rightsAmerican autobiographersWriters from Baltimore19th-century American businesspeopleUnderground Railroad peoplePeople of the Six Years' War, 19th-century American memoiristsThe 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
Featuring: Helen Nicholson, Diarmaid MacCulloch, Kate Fleet
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
Featuring: Laura Ashe, Michael Staunton, Danica Summerlin
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
Featuring: Edith Hall, Samuel Gartland, Paul Cartledge
The Picts
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Picts who, according to Bede, formed one of the five nations of Britain, with the English, Britons, Scots and Latins, but who disappeared.
9 November 2017
Featuring: Katherine Forsyth, Alex Woolf, Gordon Noble
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
Featuring: Mary Vincent, Gijs van Hensbergen, Dacia Viejo Rose
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
Featuring: Tim Blanning, Kathleen Burk, John Bew
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
Featuring: Christopher Kelly, Lucy Grig, Greg Woolf
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
Featuring: Lawrence Goldman, Mara Keire, Christopher Phelps
The Battle of Lincoln 1217
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the battle at Lincoln on 20th May 1217 between the forces of the boy-king Henry III, led by William Marshal, and supporters of Louis of France.
4 May 2017
Featuring: Louise Wilkinson, Stephen Church, Thomas Asbridge
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
Featuring: John Taylor, Kate Spence, Richard Parkinson
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
Featuring: Jack Cunningham, Amanda Power, Elly Truitt
HistoryPhilosophers of literaturePhilosophers of mindMetaphysiciansPhilosophers of scienceNatural philosophersCatholic philosophersPhilosophers of languageEmpiricistsScholastic philosophersEnglish philosophers13th-century writers in Latin13th-century philosophersGrammarians of LatinCatholic clergy scientistsEnglish alchemistsMedieval orientalists, English translatorsRosa 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
Featuring: Jacqueline Rose, Mark Jones, Nadine Rossol
History19th-century German philosophersJewish philosophersMarxist theoristsJewish socialists20th-century German philosophersGerman Marxist writersEuropean democratic socialists19th-century German writersGerman Ashkenazi JewsGerman revolutionariesGerman women philosophers19th-century German journalists20th-century German women writersCommunist women writersEmigrants from the Russian Empire to Germany, Political party foundersGerman anti-capitalists, Jewish communists, German socialist feministsThe 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
Featuring: Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones, Lindsay Allen, Paul Cartledge
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
Featuring: Mary Beard, Catharine Edwards, Alessandro Schiesaro
Culture1st-century RomansExecuted philosophersMale essayistsExecuted writersSilver Age Latin writersLetter writers in Latin1st-century writersSuffect consuls of Imperial RomeRoman-era Stoic philosophersSuicides in Ancient RomeAncient Roman satirists1st-century executionsForced suicidesPeople executed by the Roman EmpirePeople from Córdoba, SpainAncient Roman encyclopedistsMary, 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
Featuring: David Forsyth, Anna Groundwater, John Guy
Johannes Kepler
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the German astronomer Johannes Kepler.
29 December 2016
Featuring: David Wootton, Ulinka Rublack, Adam Mosley
The Gin Craze
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the economic and social factors that led to the craze for gin in the 18th century and the moves to control it
15 December 2016
Featuring: Angela McShane, Judith Hawley, Emma Major
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
Featuring: Valerie Sanders, Karen O'Brien, Ella Dzelzainis
HistoryVictorian novelists19th-century atheists19th-century English novelistsEnglish travel writersEnglish atheistsEnglish women novelists19th-century English women writersEnglish abolitionistsFeminism and historyEnglish women philosophersWriters from NorwichEnglish writers with disabilities19th-century British economistsEnglish Unitarians19th-century English philosophersBritish women essayistsEnglish suffragistsVictorian women writersBritish scientists with disabilitiesBritish atheism activistsEnglish people of French descentPositivists19th-century English short story writersEnglish historical novelists, 19th-century English historiansGaribaldi 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
Featuring: Lucy Riall, Eugenio Biagini, David Laven
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
Featuring: Aleks Pluskowski, Nora Berend, Martin Palmer
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
Featuring: Caroline Humfress, Simon Corcoran, Paul du Plessis
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
Featuring: Susan Foister, David Blayney Brown, James Davey
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
Featuring: Andrew George, Frances Reynolds, Martin Worthington
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
Featuring: Jim Bennett, Aileen Fyfe, James Sumner
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
Featuring: Laura Ashe, Elisabeth van Houts, Giles Gasper
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
Featuring: Linda Hulin, Simon Stoddart
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
Featuring: Miri Rubin, Katherine Lewis, Anthony Bale
HistoryAnglican saintsWomen religious writersWomen mysticsEnglish religious writers15th-century English writersEnglish women non-fiction writersRoman Catholic mysticsEnglish Roman CatholicsEnglish autobiographersWriters from King's LynnPre-Reformation Anglican saintsFemale saints of medieval England15th-century English women writers, 15th-century deaths, English Catholic mystics, 14th-century English women writers, Middle English literature, 14th-century Christian mysticsThe 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
Featuring: Catherine Clinton, Susan-Mary Grant, Tim Lockley
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
Featuring: Clare Jackson, Mark Knights, Peter Hinds
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
Featuring: Clive Oppenheimer, Jane Stabler, Lawrence Goldman
The Sikh Empire
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the rise of the Sikh empire under Ranjit Singh, who became Maharaja of the Punjab at Lahore in 1801 and united most of the Sikh kingdoms.
7 April 2016
Featuring: Gurharpal Singh, Chandrika Kaul, Susan Stronge
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
Featuring: Catharine Edwards, Alice König, Matthew Nicholls
Bedlam
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the early years of Europe's oldest psychiatric hospital, which opened as St Mary of Bethlehem outside Bishopsgate and soon became known as Bedlam.
17 March 2016
Featuring: Hilary Marland, Justin Champion, Jonathan Andrews
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
Featuring: Elizabeth Graham, Matthew Restall, Benjamin Vis
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
Featuring: Anne Goldgar, Chris Nierstrasz, Helen Paul
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
Featuring: Lindy Grant, Nicholas Vincent, Julie Barrau
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
Featuring: Kathleen Burk, Nicholas Guyatt, Peter Thompson
HistorySocial philosophersTheorists on Western civilizationWriters about activism and social changePhilosophers of historyMembers of the American Philosophical SocietyEnlightenment philosophers18th-century philosophersHall of Fame for Great Americans inducteesAmerican male non-fiction writersClassical liberalism19th-century male writers18th-century English male writers19th-century English writersDeist philosophers18th-century English writersEnglish inventorsEnglish libertariansAmerican political philosophersCritics of JudaismEnglish republicansAmerican philosophers of education19th-century American philosophersAmerican deistsAmerican philosophers of cultureAmerican philosophers of religionDeputies to the French National Convention18th-century English people19th-century American writersAnti-monarchistsBritish deistsNaturalized citizens of FranceRadicalsPolitical activists from PennsylvaniaUniversal basic income writers18th-century American writers, Founding Fathers of the United States, People of the American EnlightenmentAmerican religious skeptics, American nationalists18th-century American male writers, American foreign policy writersVoyages 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
Featuring: Simon Schaffer, Rebekah Higgitt, Sophie Forgan
The Salem Witch Trials
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Salem witch trials of 1692 and 1693, which led to the execution of 20 people in the New England colony of Massachusetts.
29 November 2015
Featuring: Susan Castillo, Simon Middleton, Marion Gibson
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
Featuring: Diarmaid MacCulloch, Kate Fleet, Noel Malcolm
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
Featuring: Amira Bennison, Marie Rodet, Kevin MacDonald
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
Featuring: Susan Foister, John Guy, Maria Hayward
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
Featuring: Paul Cartledge, Diana Spencer, Rachel Mairs
Frederick the Great
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Frederick II, king of Prussia from 1740 to 1786.
2 July 2015
Featuring: Tim Blanning, Katrin Kohl, Thomas Biskup
History18th-century classical composersGerman critics of ChristianityGerman opera librettists18th-century German composersGerman classical composersPeople of the Age of EnlightenmentRoyal reburialsGerman FreemasonsWriters from BerlinGerman male classical composersPeople of the Silesian Wars18th-century male musicians18th-century German LGBTQ peopleGerman military writersGerman art collectors, Recipients of the Order of the White Eagle (Poland), People of the War of the Bavarian Succession, 18th-century art collectorsPrester 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
Featuring: Marianne O'Doherty, Martin Palmer, Amanda Power
Josephus
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Flavius Josephus, author of The Jewish War.
21 May 2015
Featuring: Tessa Rajak, Philip Alexander, Martin Goodman
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
Featuring: Chandrika Kaul, Emma Griffin, David Brown
Rabindranath Tagore
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore, winner of the 1913 Nobel Prize for Literature.
7 May 2015
Featuring: Chandrika Kaul, Bashabi Fraser, John Stevens
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
Featuring: Mary Laven, Craig Clunas, Anne Gerritsen
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
Featuring: Kathleen Burk, Jacqueline Fear-Segal, Frank Cogliano
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
Featuring: Patricia Fara, Robert Fox, Steven T Bramwell
HistoryFrench atheistsUniversity of Paris alumniLegion of Honour refusalsFormer Roman CatholicsFrench Nobel laureatesBurials at the Panthéon, ParisNobel laureates in PhysicsNobel laureates in ChemistryCorresponding members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of SciencesExperimental physicistsDiscoverers of chemical elementsFrench agnosticsFrench women physicistsWomen Nobel laureatesWomen inventors19th-century French chemistsNaturalized citizens of FranceCorresponding Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences (1917–1925)Honorary members of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Recipients of the Matteucci MedalThe 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
Featuring: Karen Radner, Shaun Tougher, Michael Hoeckelmann
The Wealth of Nations
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Adam Smith's celebrated economic treatise The Wealth of Nations.
19 February 2015
Featuring: Richard Whatmore, Donald Winch, Helen Paul
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
Featuring: Jessica Frazier, Naomi Appleton, Richard Gombrich
Thucydides
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ancient Greek historian Thucydides and his work entitled The History of the Peloponnesian War.
29 January 2015
Featuring: Paul Cartledge, Katherine Harloe, Neville Morley
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
Featuring: Julia Elton, Ben Marsden, Crosbie Smith
Hatshepsut
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Hatshepsut, the woman considered one of Egypt's most successful pharaohs.
6 November 2014
Featuring: Elizabeth Frood, Kate Spence, Campbell Price
The Haitian Revolution
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Haitian Revolution of 1791-1804.
23 October 2014
Featuring: Kate Hodgson, Tim Lockley, Karen Salt
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
Featuring: Hilde de Weerdt, Michael Höckelmann, Hugh Kennedy
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
Featuring: Christopher Pelling, Catherine Steel, Maria Wyke
HistoryGolden Age Latin writersJulii CaesaresAncient Roman triumphators1st-century BC writersRoman Republican praetors1st-century BC historiansCharacters in Book VI of the AeneidCleopatraGenocide perpetratorsMemoirists1st-century BC Roman consuls, 1st-century BC Roman augursAncient Roman military writers, Roman people of the Gallic WarsHildegard of Bingen
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the medieval mystic, composer and writer Hildegard of Bingen.
26 June 2014
Featuring: Miri Rubin, William Flynn, Almut Suerbaum
HistoryAnglican saintsCatholic philosophersWomen religious writersWomen mysticsMedieval Latin-language poetsAngelic visionariesGerman classical composersGerman women philosophersRoman Catholic mystics12th-century writers in LatinDoctors of the ChurchManuscript illuminators12th-century Christian saintsPre-Reformation Anglican saintsMystic poetsBenedictine philosophersCreators of writing systemsHerbalistsThe Bluestockings
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Bluestockings, a group of prominent women intellectuals in 18th-century England.
5 June 2014
Featuring: Karen O'Brien, Elizabeth Eger, Nicole Pohl
The Sino-Japanese War
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Second Sino-Japanese War.
8 May 2014
Featuring: Rana Mitter, Barak Kushner, Tehyun Ma
The Domesday Book
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Domesday Book, a vast survey of England and Wales completed in 1086.
17 April 2014
Featuring: Stephen Baxter, Elisabeth van Houts, David Bates
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
Featuring: Paul Cartledge, Maria Pretzler, Benet Salway
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
Featuring: Peter Ghosh, Sam Whimster, Linda Woodhead
HistoryWriters about activism and social change19th-century German male writers19th-century German philosophersPhilosophers of economicsGerman political philosophersGerman philosophers of historyGerman philosophers of cultureCritics of work and the work ethic20th-century German philosophersHumboldt University of Berlin alumniGerman philosophers of scienceUniversity of Göttingen alumniMembers of the Bavarian Academy of SciencesHeidelberg University alumni19th-century German writersAcademic staff of the Humboldt University of BerlinGerman nationalistsPeople from the Province of SaxonyUniversity of Strasbourg alumniMax WeberGerman philosophers of technologyEconomic sociologistsDeaths from pneumonia in GermanyContinental philosophersEconomic historians, German sociologistsSpartacus
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
Featuring: Mary Beard, Maria Wyke, Theresa Urbainczyk
Chivalry
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss chivalry, which governed the behaviour of the knights of medieval Europe.
13 February 2014
Featuring: Miri Rubin, Matthew Strickland, Laura Ashe
The Phoenicians
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Phoenicians, the celebrated maritime traders of the ancient Mediterranean.
6 February 2014
Featuring: Mark Woolmer, Josephine Quinn, Cyprian Broodbank
Sources of Early Chinese History
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss early Chinese history and the documents in which it was recorded.
23 January 2014
Featuring: Roel Sterckx, Tim Barrett, Hilde de Weerdt
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
Featuring: Hugh N. Kennedy, Rosamond McKitterick, Matthew Innes
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
Featuring: Angie Hobbs, Richard L. Hunter, Frisbee Sheffield
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
Featuring: Evelyn Welch, Robert Black, Catherine Fletcher
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
Featuring: Catharine Edwards, Roy Gibson, Alice König
Pocahontas
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life of Pocahontas, the 17th-century Native American woman who to English eyes became a symbol of the New World.
21 November 2013
Featuring: Susan Castillo, Tim Lockley, Jacqueline Fear-Segal
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
Featuring: Richard Drayton, Richard Rathbone, Joanna Lewis
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
Featuring: Lawrence Goldman, Boyd Hilton, Cheryl Schonhardt-Bailey
The Mamluks
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Mamluks, medieval rulers of Egypt and Syria from 1250 to 1517.
26 September 2013
Featuring: Amira Bennison, Robert Irwin, Doris Behrens-Abouseif
The Physiocrats
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Physiocrats, an important group of economic thinkers in 18th-century France.
20 June 2013
Featuring: Richard Whatmore, Joel Felix, Helen Paul
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
Featuring: Edith Hall, Kate Cooper, Richard Stoneman
The Putney Debates
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Putney Debates of 1647, when factions of the New Model Army considered a possible new constitution for England.
18 April 2013
Featuring: Justin Champion, Ann Hughes, Kate Peters
Alfred Russel Wallace
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Victorian pioneer of evolutionary theory Alfred Russel Wallace.
21 March 2013
Featuring: Steve Jones, George Beccaloni, Ted Benton
HistoryFellows of the Royal SocietyRecipients of the Copley MedalEnglish people of Scottish descentRoyal Medal winnersMembers of the Order of MeritEnglish socialistsCharles DarwinVictorian writers20th-century British biologistsEnglish activistsGeorgists20th-century English non-fiction writersBritish botanical illustratorsBritish deists19th-century English scientists19th-century British writersPeople from MonmouthshireFellows of the Royal Geographical Society, 19th-century British biologists, 19th-century English naturalists, British evolutionary biologists, Fellows of the Zoological Society of London, Fellows of the Linnean Society of LondonIce ages
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss ice ages, periods when the temperature of the Earth has dropped to low levels.
14 February 2013
Featuring: Jane Francis, Richard Corfield, Carrie Lear
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
Featuring: Kathleen Burk, Lawrence Goldman, Frank Cogliano
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
Featuring: Anne Murphy, Helen Paul, Roey Sweet
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
Featuring: Evelyn Welch, Catherine Fletcher, Christine Shaw
Hannibal
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Hannibal, the Carthaginian general who famously led an army across the Alps.
11 October 2012
Featuring: Ellen O'Gorman, Mark Woolmer, Louis Rawlings
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
Featuring: Henrietta Leyser, Michelle Brown, Huw Pryce
The Druids
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Druids, the mysterious priests of ancient Britain, Gaul and Ireland.
20 September 2012
Featuring: Barry Cunliffe, Miranda Aldhouse-Green, Justin Champion
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
Featuring: Greg Woolf, David Breeze, Lindsay Allason-Jones
Annie Besant
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life of 19th-century writer and campaigner Annie Besant.
21 June 2012
Featuring: Lawrence Goldman, David Stack, Yasmin Khan
CultureEnglish non-fiction writersWomen mysticsEnglish socialists19th-century English women writersVictorian writersEnglish women activistsEnglish people of Irish descentEnglish suffragistsVictorian women writersEnglish activistsNew Age predecessorsBritish women's rights activistsFormer AnglicansSocial Democratic Federation membersFounders of Indian schools and collegesBritish reformersEnglish feminists, English feminist writersMarco Polo
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the travels of the celebrated Venetian explorer Marco Polo.
24 May 2012
Featuring: Frances Wood, Joan Pau Rubies, Debra Higgs Strickland
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
Featuring: Anne Curry, Stephen Gunn, David Grummitt
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
Featuring: Frances Wood, Naomi Standen, Hilde de Weerdt
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
Featuring: Tim Blanning, Lucy Riall, Mike Rapport
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
Featuring: Alan Knight, Elizabeth Graham, Caroline Dodds Pennock
The Ming Voyages
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Ming Voyages, the 15th-century naval expeditions led by the Chinese admiral Zheng He.
13 October 2011
Featuring: Rana Mitter, Julia Lovell, Craig Clunas
The Minoan Civilisation
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Minoan Civilisation of Bronze Age Crete.
7 July 2011
Featuring: John Bennet, Ellen Adams, Yannis Hamilakis
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
Featuring: John Hines, Elizabeth Ashman Rowe, Stephen Baxter
Xenophon
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life and work of the ancient Greek historian and soldier Xenophon.
26 May 2011
Featuring: Paul Cartledge, Edith Hall, Simon Goldhill
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
Featuring: Kathleen Burk, Adam Smith, Saul David
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
Featuring: Dinah Birch, Lawrence Goldman, Gillian Darley
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
Featuring: Barry Cunliffe, Sue Hamilton, Timothy Champion
The Medieval University
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the medieval universities: why they were founded and what they taught.
17 March 2011
Featuring: Miri Rubin, Ian Wei, Peter Denley
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
Featuring: Rana Mitter, Frances Wood, Julia Lovell
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
Featuring: Matthew Strickland, Fiona Watson, Michael Brown
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
Featuring: Alan Knight, Paul Garner, Patience Schell
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
Featuring: Jane Humphries, Emma Griffin, Lawrence Goldman
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
Featuring: Jeremy Black, Pat Hudson, William Ashworth
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
Featuring: Catharine Edwards, Maria Wyke, Susan Walker
The Volga Vikings
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Volga Vikings, a group of Norsemen who travelled to Russia and set up settlements there during the 8th and 9th centuries AD.
11 November 2010
Featuring: James Montgomery, Neil Price, Elizabeth Ashman Rowe
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
Featuring: Diane Purkiss, Maria Jose Rodriguez-Salgado, Nicholas Rodger
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
Featuring: Sarah Foot, John Hines, Richard Gameson
The City - a history, part 2
Melvyn Bragg presents the second of a two-part discussion about the history of the city.
1 April 2010
Featuring: Peter Hall, Tristram Hunt, Ricky Burdett
The City - a history, part 1
Melvyn Bragg and guests Peter Hall, Julia Merritt and Greg Woolf trace the rise of the city, from its origins in the Bronze Age to just before the coming of the railways.
25 March 2010
Featuring: Peter Hall, Julia Merritt, Greg Woolf
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
Featuring: Chandrika Kaul, Faisal Devji, Shruti Kapila
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
Featuring: Murray Pittock, Karin Bowie, Daniel Szechi
The Dreyfus Affair
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Dreyfus Affair, which tore France apart in the 1890s after a Jewish Army officer was wrongly convicted of spying and sent to Devil's Island.
8 October 2009
Featuring: Robert Gildea, Robert Tombs, Ruth Harris
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
Featuring: Justin Champion, Diane Purkiss, David Wootton
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
Featuring: Frances Wood, Rana Mitter, R. G. Tiedemann
HistoryWars involving FranceWars involving the United StatesWars involving the United KingdomPersecution of ChristiansUnited States Marine Corps in the 18th and 19th centuriesWars involving JapanWars involving the Russian EmpireWars involving the Habsburg monarchyRebellions in the Qing dynasty, Eight BannersCarthage's Destruction
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the complete destruction of Carthage by Rome, a pivotal moment in world history.
12 February 2009
Featuring: Mary Beard, Jo Quinn, Ellen O'Gorman
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
Featuring: Paul Cartledge, John Burrow, Miri Rubin
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
Featuring: Lisa Jardine, Vanessa Harding, Jonathan Sawday
The Great Reform Act
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Great Reform Act of 1832, a landmark in British political history.
27 November 2008
Featuring: Dinah Birch, Michael Bentley, Catherine Hall
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
Featuring: Anthony McFarlane, John Fisher, Catherine Davies
The Black Death
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Black Death and the way medieval communities responded to it.
22 May 2008
Featuring: Miri Rubin, Samuel Cohn, Paul Binski
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
Featuring: Rosemary Sweet, Murray Pittock, Mark Overton
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
Featuring: Mike Broers, Trudi Tate, Saul David
The Sassanid Empire
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Sassanian Empire, a grand imperial rival to the Roman Empire.
13 December 2007
Featuring: Hugh N. Kennedy, Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis, James Howard-Johnston
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
Featuring: Anne Curry, Malcolm Vale, Matthew Bennett
The Opium Wars
Melvyn Bragg discusses the Opium Wars, a series of conflicts in the 19th Century which had a profound effect on British Chinese relations for generations.
12 April 2007
Featuring: Yangwen Zheng, Lars Laamann, Xun Zhou
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
Featuring: Peter Jackson, Naomi Standen, George Lane
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
Featuring: Roger Crowley, Judith Herrin, Colin Imber
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
Featuring: Miri Rubin, Caroline Barron, Alastair Dunn
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
Featuring: Jeremy Black, Hermione Hobhouse, Clive Emsley
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
Featuring: Janet Hartley, Simon Dixon, Tony Lentin
The Abbasid Caliphs
Melvyn Bragg discusses the Abbasid Caliphs, dynastic rulers of the Islamic world between the middle of the eighth and the tenth centuries, who headed a multi-cultural Muslim empire.
2 February 2006
Featuring: Hugh Kennedy, Robert Irwin, Amira Bennison
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
Featuring: Jeremy Black, Sarah Richardson, Clive Emsley
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
Featuring: Stephen Gunn, John Guy, Penny Roberts
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
Featuring: Mike Broers, Rebecca Spang, Tim Blanning
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
Featuring: Richard Gameson, Sarah Foot, John Hines
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
Featuring: Orlando Figes, Dominic Lieven, Catriona Kelly
The Roman Republic
Melvyn Bragg discusses the rise and eventual downfall of the Roman Republic which survived for 500 years.
30 December 2004
Featuring: Greg Woolf, Catherine Steel, Tom Holland
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
Featuring: Anne Curry, Michael Jones, John Watts
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
Featuring: Carol Berkin, Simon Middleton, Colin Bonwick
CultureFellows of the American Academy of Arts and SciencesMembers of the American Philosophical SocietyHall of Fame for Great Americans inducteesAmerican male non-fiction writersAmerican people of English descentAmerican slave ownersCongressional Gold Medal recipients18th-century American writers, Founding Fathers of the United States, People of the American EnlightenmentCommanding Generals of the United States Army, Presidents of the United States18th-century American male writers, American foreign policy writers18th-century American politicians, Signers of the United States Constitution, American FreemasonsBabylon
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
Featuring: Eleanor Robson, Irving Finkel, Andrew George
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
Featuring: Chris Cullen, Vivienne Lo, Carol Michaelson
The Mughal Empire
Melvyn Bragg discusses the achievements of the Mughal Emperors, examines how they maintained their vast territory and how much the British Raj owed to them.
26 February 2004
Featuring: Sanjay Subrahmanyam, Susan Stronge, Chandrika Kaul
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
Featuring: Tom Holland, Simon Goldhill, Edith Hall
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
Featuring: Eleanor Robson, Alan Millard, Rosalind Thomas
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
Featuring: Huw Bowen, Linda Colley, Maria Misra
The Jacobite Rebellion
Melvyn Bragg discusses the Jacobite Rebellion, the Stuart dynasty's final attempt to reclaim the throne of England.
8 May 2003
Featuring: Murray Pittock, Stana Nenadic, Allan Macinnes
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
Featuring: Greg Woolf, Mary Beard, Catharine Edwards
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
Featuring: Paul Preston, Helen Graham, Mary Vincent
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
Featuring: Maria Misra, Peter Cain, Catherine Hall
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
Featuring: Andrew Roberts, Mike Broers, Belinda Beaton
HistoryFrench Roman CatholicsPeople excommunicated by the Catholic ChurchFrench deistsRoyal reburialsLeaders who took power by coupPeople of the War of the First CoalitionPeople of the First French EmpireMonarchs who abdicatedMonarchs taken prisoner in wartimeKnights of the Golden Fleece of Spain, Grand Crosses of the Order of Saint Stephen of HungaryByzantium
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
Featuring: Charlotte Roueché, John Julius Norwich, Liz James
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
Featuring: Stefan Collini, Anne Janowitz, Andrew Roberts
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
Featuring: John Spurr, Rosemary Sweet, Scott Mandelbrote
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
Featuring: Charlotte Roueché, David Womersley, Richard Alston
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
Featuring: Mark Goldie, Richard Ollard, Clare Jackson
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
Featuring: Roy Porter, Linda Colley, Jeremy Black
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
Featuring: Ian Kershaw, Niall Ferguson, Mary Fulbrook
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
Featuring: Helen Castor, Colin Richmond, Stephen Gunn
New Wars
Melvyn Bragg discusses the history of modern warfare and examines whether today’s brutal and complex conflicts are truly different from anything the world has seen before.
13 April 2000
Featuring: Michael Howard, Mary Kaldor, Michael Rose
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
Featuring: Richard J. Evans, Eric Hobsbawm
Atrocity in the 20th Century
Melvyn Bragg discusses the conditions that allow man’s inhumanity to man on the scale seen in the 20th century, and explores whether a scientific study of the mind can ever uncover the roots of evil.
28 October 1999
Featuring: Jonathan Glover, Gwen Adshead
History as Science
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss whether history should be considered a science, and examines the importance of geography and ecology in determining world history since civilisation began.
11 March 1999
Featuring: Jared Diamond, Richard J. Evans
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
Featuring: Catherine Hall, Linda Colley
History's relevance in the 20th century
Melvyn Bragg discusses the relevance of the study of history in the 20th century and examines the place of imagination in the writing of it. What place does myth have in shaping our history?
3 December 1998
Featuring: Simon Schama, Lady Antonia Fraser
