Black's History Week

The 19th Century is most famous for its railways, but Professor Jeremy Black and Graham Stewart are here to tell us that roads were significant as well. How did they develop, in scale and in quality? What sort of science and engineering was involved? And what accidents took place?

Professor Jeremy Black and Graham Stewart discuss whether turnpikes transformed travel in eighteenth century Britain or represented a means of revenue-raising from traffic whilst offering marginal improvement in return?

On the long journey from the middle ages to the early modern period, the British road underwent radical changes in both purpose and design. Professor Jeremy Black and Graham Stewart walk the winding path of British transport history.  

What have the Romans done for us? For one thing, they built a lot of roads. In the first episode of a new series of podcasts on transport, Professor Jeremy Black and Graham Stewart discuss the development of British roads.

Ridley Scott's Napoleon bends history to breaking point. Professor Jeremy Black joins Graham Stewart to talk historical fact and fiction. 

How does geopolitics help us to understand international relations today? In the last episode of their series on geopolitics, Professor Jeremy Black and Graham Stewart attempt to transcend the glib explanations one finds elsewhere to reflect on technology, conflicting interests and the evolution of thought in the field.

Professor Jeremy Black and Graham Stewart discuss the subtle nature of Chinese geopolitics, with its debt servitude and its self-serving propaganda.

The 1990s were supposed to be the decade of American triumph – and for a time, it seemed like it was. Professor Jeremy Black joins Graham Stewart to talk post-Cold War geopolitics.

Professor Jeremy Black and Graham Stewart discuss the Cold War in the 1980s, its different military and diplomatic manifestations and the weaknesses of elegant geopolitical narratives.

Professor Jeremy Black and Graham Stewart discuss Ostpolitik and Atlanticism in a post-Vietnam age and the surprising level of agency enjoyed by the less powerful states in the Cold War.