In Our Time

By BBC Radio 4History

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In Our Time episodes

February 11, 2016 Rumi's Poetry
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the poetry of Rumi, the Persian scholar and Sufi mystic of the 13th Century. His great poetic works are the Masnavi or "spiritual couplets" and the Divan, a collection of thousands of lyric poems. He is closely connected with four modern countries: Afghanistan, as he was born in Balkh, from which he gains the name Balkhi; Uzbekistan from his time in Samarkand as a child; Iran as he wrote in Persian; and Turkey for his work in Konya, where he spent most of his working life and where his followers established the Mevlevi Order, also known as the Whirling Dervishes.
With
Alan Williams
British Academy Wolfson Research Professor at the University of Manchester
Carole Hillenbrand
Professor of Islamic History at the University of St Andrews and Professor Emerita of Edinburgh University
And
Lloyd Ridgeon
Reader in Islamic Studies at the University of Glasgow
Producer: Simon Tillotson.
47 min
February 04, 2016 Chromatography
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the origins, development and uses of chromatography. In its basic form, it is familiar to generations of schoolchildren who put a spot of ink at the bottom of a strip of paper, dip it in water and then watch the pigments spread upwards, revealing their separate colours. Chemists in the 19th Century started to find new ways to separate mixtures and their work was taken further by Mikhail Tsvet, a Russian-Italian scientist who is often credited with inventing chromatography in 1900. The technique has become so widely used, it is now an integral part of testing the quality of air and water, the levels of drugs in athletes, in forensics and in the preparation of pharmaceuticals.
With
Andrea Sella
Professor of Chemistry at University College London
Apryll Stalcup
Professor of Chemical Sciences at Dublin City University
And
Leon Barron
Senior Lecturer in Forensic Science at King's College London.
48 min
January 28, 2016 Eleanor of Aquitaine
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life, times and influence of Eleanor of Aquitaine (c1122-1204) who was one of the most powerful women in Twelfth Century Europe, possibly in the entire Middle Ages. She inherited land from the Loire down to the Pyrenees, about a third of modern France. She married first the King of France, Louis VII, joining him on the Second Crusade. She became stronger still after their marriage was annulled, as her next husband, Henry Plantagenet became Henry II of England. Two of their sons, Richard and John, became kings and she ruled for them when they were abroad. By her death in her eighties, Eleanor had children and grandchildren in power across western Europe. This led to competing claims of inheritance and, for much of the next 250 years, the Plantagenet and French kings battled over Eleanor's land.
With
Lindy Grant
Professor of Medieval History at the University of Reading
Nicholas Vincent
Professor of Medieval History at the University of East Anglia
And
Julie Barrau
University Lecturer in British Medieval History at the University of Cambridge
Producer: Simon Tillotson.
45 min
January 21, 2016 Thomas Paine's Common Sense
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Thomas Paine and his pamphlet "Common Sense" which was published in Philadelphia in January 1776 and promoted the argument for American independence from Britain. Addressed to The Inhabitants of America, it sold one hundred and fifty thousand copies in the first few months and is said, proportionately, to be the best-selling book in American history. Paine had arrived from England barely a year before. He vigorously attacked monarchy generally and George the Third in particular. He argued the colonies should abandon all hope of resolving their dispute with Britain and declare independence immediately. Many Americans were scandalised. More were inspired and, for Paine's vision of America's independent future, he has been called a Founding Father of the United States.
With
Kathleen Burk
Professor Emerita of Modern and Contemporary History at University College London
Nicholas Guyatt
University Lecturer in American History at the University of Cambridge
And
Peter Thompson
Associate Professor of American History at the University of Oxford and Fellow of St Cross College
Producer: Simon Tillotson.
46 min
January 14, 2016 Saturn
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the planet Saturn with its rings of ice and rock and over 60 moons. In 1610, Galileo used an early telescope to observe Saturn, one of the brightest points in the night sky, but could not make sense of what he saw: perhaps two large moons on either side. When he looked a few years later, those supposed moons had disappeared. It was another forty years before Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens solved the mystery, realizing the moons were really a system of rings. Successive astronomers added more detail, with the greatest leaps forward in the last forty years. The Pioneer 11 spacecraft and two Voyager missions have flown by, sending back the first close-up images, and Cassini is still there, in orbit, confirming Saturn, with its rings and many moons, as one of the most intriguing and beautiful planets in our Solar System.
With
Carolin Crawford
Public Astronomer at the Institute of Astronomy and Fellow of Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge
Michele Dougherty
Professor of Space Physics at Imperial College London
And
Andrew Coates
Deputy Director in charge of the Solar System at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory at UCL.
47 min
December 31, 2015 Tristan and Iseult
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Tristan and Iseult, one of the most popular stories of the Middle Ages. From roots in Celtic myth, it passed into written form in Britain a century after the Norman Conquest and almost immediately spread throughout northern Europe. It tells of a Cornish knight and an Irish queen, Tristan and Iseult, who accidentally drink a love potion, at the same time, on the same boat, travelling to Cornwall. She is due to marry Tristan's king, Mark. Tristan and Iseult seemed ideally matched and their love was heroic, but could that excuse their adultery, in the minds of medieval listeners, particularly when the Church was so clear they were wrong?
With
Laura Ashe
Associate Professor of English at Worcester College, University of Oxford
Juliette Wood
Associate Lecturer in the School of Welsh at Cardiff University
And
Mark Chinca
Reader in Medieval German Literature at the University of Cambridge
Producer: Simon Tillotson.
46 min
December 24, 2015 Michael Faraday
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the eminent 19th-century scientist Michael Faraday. Born into a poor working-class family, he received little formal schooling but became interested in science while working as a bookbinder's apprentice. He is celebrated today for carrying out pioneering research into the relationship between electricity and magnetism. Faraday showed that if a wire was turned in the presence of a magnet or a magnet was turned in relation to a wire, an electric current was generated. This ground-breaking discovery led to the development of the electric generator and ultimately to modern power stations. During his life he became the most famous scientist in Britain and he played a key role in founding the Royal Institution's Christmas lectures which continue today.
With:
Geoffrey Cantor
Professor Emeritus of the History of Science at the University of Leeds
Laura Herz
Professor of Physics at the University of Oxford
Frank James
Professor of the History of Science at the Royal Institution
Producer: Victoria Brignell.
46 min
December 17, 2015 Circadian Rhythms
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the evolution and role of Circadian Rhythms, the so-called body clock that influences an organism's daily cycle of physical, behavioural and mental changes. The rhythms are generated within organisms and also in response to external stimuli, mainly light and darkness. They are found throughout the living world, from bacteria to plants, fungi to animals and, in humans, are noticed most clearly in sleep patterns.
With
Russell Foster
Professor of Circadian Neuroscience at the University of Oxford
Debra Skene
Professor of Neuroendocrinology at the University of Surrey
And
Steve Jones
Emeritus Professor of Genetics at University College London.
49 min
December 10, 2015 Chinese Legalism
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the origins and rise of Legalism in China, from the start of the Warring States Period (c475 - 221 BC) to the time of The First Emperor Qin Shi Huang (pictured), down to Chairman Mao and the present day. Advanced by the Qin statesman Shang Yang and later blended together by Han Fei, the three main aspects of Legalism were the firm implementation of laws, use of techniques such as responsibility and inscrutability, and taking advantage of the ruler's position. The Han dynasty that replaced the Qin discredited this philosophy for its apparent authoritarianism, but its influence continued, re-emerging throughout Chinese history.
With
Frances Wood
Former Curator of the Chinese Collections at the British Library
Hilde de Weerdt
Professor of Chinese History at Leiden University
And
Roel Sterckx
Joseph Needham Professor of Chinese History at the University of Cambridge.
Producer: Simon Tillotson.
46 min
December 03, 2015 Voyages of James Cook
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the scientific advances made in the three voyages of Captain James Cook, from 1768 to 1779. Cook's voyages astonished Europeans, bringing back detailed knowledge of the Pacific and its people, from the Antarctic to the Bering Straits. This topic is one of more than a thousand different ideas suggested by listeners in October and came from Alysoun Hodges in the UK, Fiachra O'Brolchain in Ireland, Mhairi Mackay in New Zealand, Enzo Vozzo in Australia, Jeff Radford in British Columbia and Mark Green in Alaska.
With
Simon Schaffer
Professor of the History of Science at the University of Cambridge
Rebekah Higgitt
Lecturer in the History of Science at the University of Kent
And
Sophie Forgan
Retired Principle Lecturer at the University of Teesside
Chairman of Trustees of the Captain Cook Museum, Whitby
Producer: Simon Tillotson.
48 min