In Our Time

By BBC Radio 4History

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In Our Time episodes

February 02, 2017 Hannah Arendt
In a programme first broadcast in 2017, Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the political philosophy of Hannah Arendt. She developed many of her ideas in response to the rise of totalitarianism in the C20th, partly informed by her own experience as a Jew in Nazi Germany before her escape to France and then America. She wanted to understand how politics had taken such a disastrous turn and, drawing on ideas of Greek philosophers as well as her peers, what might be done to create a better political life. Often unsettling, she wrote of 'the banality of evil' when covering the trial of Eichmann, one of the organisers of the Holocaust.
With
Lyndsey Stonebridge
Professor of Modern Literature and History at the University of East Anglia
Frisbee Sheffield
Lecturer in Philosophy at Girton College, University of Cambridge
and
Robert Eaglestone
Professor of Contemporary Literature and Thought at Royal Holloway, University London
Producer: Simon Tillotson.
48 min
January 26, 2017 Parasitism
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the relationship between parasites and hosts, where one species lives on or in another to the benefit of the parasite but at a cost to the host, potentially leading to disease or death of the host. Typical examples are mistletoe and trees, hookworms and vertebrates, cuckoos and other birds. In many cases the parasite species do so well in or on a particular host that they reproduce much faster and can adapt to changes more efficiently, and it is thought that almost half of all animal species have a parasitic stage in their lifetime. What techniques do hosts have to counter the parasites, and what impact do parasites have on the evolution of their hosts?
With
Steve Jones
Emeritus Professor of Genetics at University College, London
Wendy Gibson
Professor of Protozoology at the University of Bristol
and
Kayla King
Associate Professor in the Department of Zoology at the University of Oxford
Producer: Simon Tillotson.
46 min
January 19, 2017 Mary, Queen of Scots
In a programme first broadcast in 2017, Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the history of Mary, Queen of Scots, who had potential to be one of the most powerful rulers in Europe, yet she was also one of the most vulnerable. In France, when she was the teenage bride to their future king, she was seen as rightful heir to the thrones of England and Ireland, as well as Queen of Scotland and one day of France, which would have been an extraordinary union. She was widowed too young, though and, a Catholic returning to Protestant Scotland, she struggled to overcome rivalries in her own country. She fled to Protestant England, where she was implicated in plots to overthrow Elizabeth, and it was Elizabeth herself who signed Mary's death warrant.
With
David Forsyth
Principal Curator, Scottish Medieval-Early Modern Collections at National Museums Scotland
Anna Groundwater
Teaching Fellow in Historical Skills and Methods at the University of Edinburgh
And
John Guy
Fellow of Clare College, University of Cambridge
Producer: Simon Tillotson.
53 min
January 12, 2017 Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morality
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Nietzsche's On The Genealogy of Morality - A Polemic, which he published in 1887 towards the end of his working life and in which he considered the price humans have paid, and were still paying, to become civilised. In three essays, he argued that having a guilty conscience was the price of living in society with other humans. He suggested that Christian morality, with its consideration for others, grew as an act of revenge by the weak against their masters, 'the blond beasts of prey', as he calls them, and the price for that slaves' revolt was endless self-loathing. These and other ideas were picked up by later thinkers, perhaps most significantly by Sigmund Freud who further explored the tensions between civilisation and the individual.
With
Stephen Mulhall
Professor of Philosophy and a Fellow and Tutor at New College, University of Oxford
Fiona Hughes
Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Essex
And
Keith Ansell-Pearson
Professor of Philosophy at the University of Warwick
Producer: Simon Tillotson.
49 min
December 29, 2016 Johannes Kepler
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the German astronomer Johannes Kepler (1571 - 1630). Although he is overshadowed today by Isaac Newton and Galileo, he is considered by many to be one of the greatest scientists in history. The three laws of planetary motion Kepler developed transformed people's understanding of the Solar System and laid the foundations for the revolutionary ideas Isaac Newton produced later. Kepler is also thought to have written one of the first works of science fiction. However, he faced a number of challenges. He had to defend his mother from charges of witchcraft, he had few financial resources and his career suffered as a result of his Lutheran faith.
With
David Wootton
Professor of History at the University of York
Ulinka Rublack
Professor of Early Modern European History at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of St John's College
Adam Mosley
Associate Professor in the Department of History at Swansea University
Producer: Victoria Brignell.
49 min
December 22, 2016 Four Quartets
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Four Quartets, TS Eliot's last great work which he composed, against a background of imminent and actual world war, as meditations on the relationship between time and humanity.
With
David Moody
Emeritus Professor of English and American Literature at the University of York
Fran Brearton
Professor of Modern Poetry at Queen's University, Belfast
And
Mark Ford
Professor of English and American Literature at University College London
Producer: Simon Tillotson
Jeremy Irons will be reading TS Eliot's greatest poems, from Prufrock to The Waste Land to Four Quartets, across New Year's Day here on Radio 4.
49 min
December 15, 2016 The Gin Craze
In a programme first broadcast in December 2016, Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the craze for gin in Britain in the mid-18th century and the attempts to control it. With the arrival of William of Orange, it became an act of loyalty to drink Protestant, Dutch gin rather than Catholic brandy, and changes in tariffs made everyday beer less affordable. Within a short time, production increased and large sections of the population that had rarely or never drunk spirits before were consuming two pints of gin a week. As Hogarth indicated in his print 'Beer Street and Gin Lane' (1751) in support of the Gin Act, the damage was severe, and addiction to gin was blamed for much of the crime in cities such as London.
With
Angela McShane
Research Fellow in History at the Victoria and Albert Museum and University of Sheffield
Judith Hawley
Professor of 18th century literature at Royal Holloway, University of London
Emma Major
Senior Lecturer in English at the University of York
Producer: Simon Tillotson
53 min
December 08, 2016 Harriet Martineau
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Harriet Martineau who, from a non-conformist background in Norwich, became one of the best known writers in the C19th. She had a wide range of interests and used a new, sociological method to observe the world around her, from religion in Egypt to slavery in America and the rights of women everywhere. She popularised writing about economics for those outside the elite and, for her own popularity, was invited to the coronation of Queen Victoria, one of her readers.
With
Valerie Sanders
Professor of English at the University of Hull
Karen O'Brien
Professor of English Literature at the University of Oxford
And
Ella Dzelzainis
Lecturer in 19th Century Literature at Newcastle University
Producer: Simon Tillotson.
52 min
December 01, 2016 Garibaldi and the Risorgimento
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Giuseppe Garibaldi and the Italian Risorgimento. According to the historian AJP Taylor, Garibaldi was the only wholly admirable figure in modern history. Born in Nice in 1807, one of Garibaldi's aims in life was the unification of Italy and, in large part thanks to him, Italy was indeed united substantially in 1861 and entirely in 1870. With his distinctive red shirt and poncho, he was a hero of Romantic revolutionaries around the world. His fame was secured when, with a thousand soldiers, he invaded Sicily and toppled the monarchy in the Italian south. The Risorgimento was soon almost complete.
This topic is the one chosen from over 750 different ideas suggested by listeners in October, for our yearly Listener Week.
With
Lucy Riall
Professor of Comparative History of Europe at the European University Institute
and Professor of History at Birkbeck, University of London
Eugenio Biagini
Professor of Modern and Contemporary History at the University of Cambridge
and
David Laven
Associate Professor of History at the University of Nottingham
Producer: Simon Tillotson.
50 min
November 24, 2016 Baltic Crusades
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Baltic Crusades, the name given to a series of overlapping attempts to convert the pagans of North East Europe to Christianity at the point of the sword. From the 12th Century, Papal Bulls endorsed those who fought on the side of the Church, the best known now being the Teutonic Order which, thwarted in Jerusalem, founded a state on the edge of the Baltic, in Prussia. Some of the peoples in the region disappeared, either killed or assimilated, and the consequences for European history were profound.
With
Aleks Pluskowski
Associate Professor of Archaeology at the University of Reading
Nora Berend
Fellow of St Catharine's College and Reader in European History at the Faculty of History at the University of Cambridge
and
Martin Palmer
Director of the International Consultancy on Religion, Education, and Culture
Producer: Simon Tillotson.
47 min