History Cafe

By Jon Rosebank, Penelope MiddelboeHistory

History Cafe episodes

October 14 #41 The Violence the Suffragettes wouldn't admit to - Ep 5 The Secret History of the Suffragettes
From 1912 the WSPU – the Pankhurst Suffragettes – are out of control and dangerous. But that is not how they're remembered. Anyone who disagrees with the violence either leaves or is thrown out. Whatever they later claim about their ‘wonderful leadership’, it is their young, poor members who are inventing new and increasingly dangerous ways of intimidating the government. The WSPU leadership claims it never threatened life, only property, but this is manifestly not true. Axes are thrown, full theatres set on fire, bombs put on trains, acid poured into mail-boxes and the leaders do nothing to contain this ‘terrorism’ with deadly intent.
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38 min
October 07 #37 Hunger strikes and forced feeding - Ep 4 The Secret History of the Suffragettes
The militant strategy of the WSPU – the Pankhurst Suffragettes - is delivering them headlines. It gets them nowhere with the government but it makes enormous sums of advertising revenue from fancy retailers, and funds Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst’s society lifestyle. Rich London ladies in silks and satins pour in the money, while working-class activists take all the risks. WSPU officer Theresa Billington drafts a constitution to give everyone a say but Emmeline Pankhurst tears it up and manoeuvres anyone with a socialist agenda out. Who exactly is this organisation for?
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39 min
September 30 #36 The Pankhursts didn't want the poor to get the vote - Ep 3 The Secret History of the Suffragettes
The WSPU – the Pankhurst Suffragettes - begin in the Manchester Labour Party in the 1890s and learn their publicity-grabbing tactics from Labour. But these tactics turn out to have the worst possible effect – making women’s votes even less likely than before. They are so bad, in fact, it makes you wonder whether the Suffragette leadership had some other agenda.
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31 min
September 23 #35 Most women didn't want the vote - Ep 2 The Secret History of the Suffragettes
We go back to the great number of unsung women and men who made great strides towards women’s votes and female emancipation by 1900. Emmeline Pankhurst sets up her Women’s Social and Political Union in 1903 as a pressure group for votes for poor working-women in the cotton mills. By then a majority of MPs is already consistently in favour. But the public are uninterested and no government will therefore act. The question is whether the WSPU can find a formula for making ministers give votes to women.
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28 min
September 16 #34 Getting the vote in 1918: 'marvellous leadership' - Ep 1 The Secret History of the Suffragettes
Mrs Pankhurst claims she won women the vote through ‘marvellous leadership.’ An all-male conference of MPs counters that it gifted women the vote. We reveal that neither is true.
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36 min
September 09 #130 'The real mystery of 1492' - Ep 7 Columbus - legend and loser
European sailors in Columbus’s time had only rudimentary instruments, with no means of measuring longitude, and only a vague idea of how far north-south they were. So how on earth did they find the island of Hispaniola, over and over again, after weeks out of sight of land? There are some outlandish theories...
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33 min
August 26 #129 ‘It’s a joke’ - Ep 6 Columbus - legend and loser
Columbus may now be dressing up like a friar and searching for the Garden of Eden but he and his brother are still cutting off the Arawaks’ hands if they fail to deliver a monthly quantity of gold. Horrified, Ferdinand and Isabella send a judge to bring the Admiral of the Ocean Sea and his family, home in chains.
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34 min
August 19 #128 No more Mr Nice Guy - Ep 5 Columbus - legend and loser
When Columbus’s second voyage - the showy Armada of 1493 - reaches Hispaniola they find that the Arawak, including the chief who rescued Columbus from the shipwrecked Santa Maria on Christmas Eve 1492, have had enough. The avaricious, raping crew left behind at fort Navidad are now a pile of bleached bones.
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39 min
August 12 #127 'They eat human flesh' - Ep 4 Columbus - legend and loser
Columbus is told where to find ‘pieces of gold as big as the ship’s great stern post.’ And that where the gold is, there are people called ‘Caribs’ who not only have bows and arrows, but also eat human flesh.

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33 min
August 05 #126 'Seven head of women' - Ep 3 Columbus - legend and loser
Within two days of Columbus making first landfall on an island he named San Salvador after his God, Columbus had kidnapped several men to take to Spain to train as interpreters. To prevent them escaping, he then rounded up ‘seven head of women,’ along with three children.
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37 min

About History Cafe

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True history storytelling at the History Café. Join BBC Historian Jon Rosebank & HBO, BBC & C4 script and series editor Penelope Middelboe as we give history a new take. Drop in to the History…