listworldabout

← back

Material

8 episodes

1. 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

   

   wikipedia article ↗

    
   History12th century BC, Late Bronze Age collapseSocietal collapseVolcanic wintersAncient Near East, Bronze Age AsiaIron Age12th century12th century BCMaterial

2. 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

   

   wikipedia article ↗

    
   HistoryHistory of United States expansionism1848 in California, Pre-statehood history of CaliforniaMaterial

3. 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: Steven Gunn, John Guy, Penny Roberts

   

   wikipedia article ↗

    
   HistoryTudor England16th centuryMaterial

4. 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

   

   wikipedia article ↗

    
   HistoryHistory of international tradeHistory of banking19th centuryEconomicsMaterial

5. 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

   

   wikipedia article ↗

    
   HistoryIron AgeHistorical eras2nd-millennium BC establishmentsMaterial

6. 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

   

   wikipedia article ↗

    
   HistoryHistory of Greater ManchesterMaterial

7. The Science of Glass

   Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the puzzling science of glass which, though hard and brittle, retains aspects of a liquid once cooled into its solid form.

   28 May 2015

   listen ↗

   Featuring: Paul McMillan, Dame Athene Donald, Jim Bennett

   

   wikipedia article ↗

    
   ScienceMaterial

8. The Silk Road

   Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Silk Road, the trade routes which spanned Asia for over a thousand years, carrying Buddhism to China and paper-making and gunpowder westwards.

   3 December 2009

   listen ↗

   Featuring: Frances Wood, Tim Barrett, Naomi Standen

   

   wikipedia article ↗

    
   CultureHistory of foreign trade in ChinaAncient history of AfghanistanEurasian historyHistory of international relationsAncient MesopotamiaWorld Heritage Sites in ChinaEconomicsMaterialMesopotamia