Portrait of Lord Melvyn Bragg, host of In Our Time

David Wootton

Anniversary Professor of History at the University of York

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16 episodes

Appears in multiple episodes with: Justin Champion

Covers topics in categories such as:

ScienceCulturePhilosophyReligionAnglican saintsOntologistsSocial philosophersTheorists on Western civilizationPhilosophers of mindPhilosophers of historyPhilosophers of cultureMetaphysiciansPhilosophers of religionPhilosophers of scienceEpistemologistsAge of EnlightenmentAphoristsCritics of the Catholic ChurchCensored booksPhilosophers of law17th-century English male writers18th-century philosophersGerman LutheransChristian humanistsPhilosophers of mathematicsNatural philosophersEnglish AnglicansNatural law ethicistsCatholic philosophersPhilosophers of languageEmpiricistsVirtueFrench women philosophers17th-century writers in LatinFrench philosophers of scienceFrench philosophers of educationAlumni of St John's College, Cambridge17th-century English writersScientific RevolutionBritish philosophers of educationRhetoric theoristsBritish critics of religionsPolitical realistsEconomics booksEnglish inventorsEnglish physicistsCritics of atheismPicaresque novelsMale characters in literature17th-century English philosophersEnglish political philosophersGood and evilFrench physicists18th-century French philosophers18th-century French writersContributors to the Encyclopédie (1751–1772)18th-century French mathematicians18th-century French women writers16th-century writers in LatinCopernican RevolutionPeople educated at Westminster School, LondonFrench Roman Catholic writersPeople with hypochondriasisRoman Catholic mystics17th-century Christian mysticsNovels set in EnglandFrench novels adapted into filmsOrgans (anatomy)Religion and politicsPeople in the canonical gospelsDeaths in childbirthDeaths from pulmonary embolism18th-century French scientistsFrench women physicistsPreclassical economicsHistoryUniversity of Tübingen alumniAustrian LutheransMembers of the Lincean AcademyChristian astrologersBritish scientific instrument makers17th-century English architectsCartesianismConverts to Roman CatholicismFrench fluid dynamicists, French mathematicians, French probability theoristsChristian apologistsFrench male essayistsFrench travel writersSkeptic philosophersFrench male writersAnti-Catholic publicationsNovels set in GermanyFrench novels adapted into operasNovels about rapeFrench philosophical novelsAnti-Catholicism in France1759 novels1649 establishments in England17th century in LondonAncient Greek medicineMaterialistsBritish critics of ChristianityEnglish theologiansThomas HobbesEtiquetteDragonsDemocracy
  1. Emilie du Châtelet

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 18th-century mathematical genius whose insights into Newton and Leibniz were part of the great advance in science in the Enlightenment.

    4 February 2021

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    Also featuring: Patricia Fara, Judith Zinsser

     
  2. 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

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    Also featuring: Helen Paul, John Callanan

     
  3. Johannes Kepler

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the German astronomer Johannes Kepler.

    29 December 2016

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    Also featuring: Ulinka Rublack, Adam Mosley

     
  4. Robert Hooke

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Robert Hooke, the 17th-century scientist with a wide variety of interests from elasticity to microscopes who fell out with Newton.

    18 February 2016

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    Also featuring: Patricia Fara, Rob Iliffe

     
  5. Pascal

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life and work of the French polymath Blaise Pascal.

    19 September 2013

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    Also featuring: Michael Moriarty, Michela Massimi

     
  6. Montaigne

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and work of Michel de Montaigne. Best known for his influential Essays, Montaigne is regarded as the father of modern sceptical thought.

    25 April 2013

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    Also featuring: Terence Cave, Felicity Green

     
  7. Voltaire's Candide

    Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Voltaire's satirical novel Candide, first published in 1759.

    3 May 2012

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    Also featuring: Nicholas Cronk, Caroline Warman

     
  8. 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

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    Also featuring: Justin Champion, Diane Purkiss

     
  9. The Four Humours

    Melvyn Bragg discusses the four humours, a medical theory that saw the body as a concoction of four essential juices.

    20 December 2007

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    Also featuring: Vivian Nutton, Noga Arikha

     
  10. The Encyclopédie

    Melvyn Bragg discusses the French encyclopédie, one of the great achievements of the Enlightenment with contributors such as Voltaire, Rousseau, D’Alembert and Dennis Diderot.

    26 October 2006

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    Also featuring: Judith Hawley, Caroline Warman

     
  11. The Heart

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the history of ideas about the heart, a symbol to our spiritual, emotional, and moral core.

    1 June 2006

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    Also featuring: Fay Bound Alberti, Jonathan Sawday

     
  12. Hobbes

    Melvyn Bragg discusses Thomas Hobbes, the great 17th century philosopher who famously said that ungoverned man lived a life that was ‘solitary, poor, brutish and short’.

    1 December 2005

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    Also featuring: Quentin Skinner, Annabel Brett

     
  13. Politeness

    Melvyn Bragg discusses politeness, the revolution in manners that transformed the social scene in eighteenth century Britain.  

    30 September 2004

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    Also featuring: Amanda Vickery, John Mullan

     
  14. Toleration

    Melvyn Bragg discusses what had happened in England to make diverse religions ‘tolerable’. What was the philosophy and politics behind the idea of toleration, and does it differ from tolerance?

    20 May 2004

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    Also featuring: Justin Champion, Sarah Barber

     
  15. The Devil

    Melvyn Bragg discusses how the Devil came into being and why it took so long for him to become an established figure in Christianity.

    11 December 2003

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    Also featuring: Martin Palmer, Alison Rowlands

     
  16. Democracy

    Melvyn Bragg discusses the origins of democracy, across cultures and centuries of Europe and the Middle East.

    18 October 2001

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    Also featuring: Melissa Lane, Tim Winter