In Our Time

By BBC Radio 4History

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In Our Time episodes

April 25, 2013 Montaigne
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Essays of Michel de Montaigne. Born near Bordeaux in 1533, Montaigne retired from a life of public service aged 38 and began to write. He called these short works 'essais', or 'attempts'; they deal with an eclectic range of subjects, from the dauntingly weighty to the apparently trivial. Although he never considered himself a philosopher, he is often now seen as one of the most outstanding Sceptical thinkers of early modern Europe. His approachable style, intelligence and subtle thought have made him one of the most widely admired writers of the Renaissance.
With:
David Wootton
Anniversary Professor of History at York University
Terence Cave
Emeritus Professor of French Literature at the University of Oxford
Felicity Green
Chancellor's Fellow in History at the University of Edinburgh.
Producer: Thomas Morris.
43 min
April 18, 2013 The Putney Debates
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Putney Debates. For several weeks in late 1647, after the defeat of King Charles I in the first hostilities of the Civil War, representatives of the New Model Army and the radical Levellers met in a church in Putney to debate the future of England. There was much to discuss: who should be allowed to vote, civil liberties and religious freedom. The debates were inconclusive, but the ideas aired in Putney had a considerable influence on centuries of political thought.
With:
Justin Champion
Professor of the History of Early Modern Ideas at Royal Holloway, University of London
Ann Hughes
Professor of Early Modern History at Keele University
Kate Peters
Fellow in History at Murray Edwards College, Cambridge.
Producer: Thomas Morris.
42 min
April 18, 2013 The Putney Debates
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Putney Debates. For several weeks in late 1647, after the defeat of King Charles I in the first hostilities of the Civil War, representatives of the New Model Army and the radical Levellers met in a church in Putney to debate the future of England. There was much to discuss: who should be allowed to vote, civil liberties and religious freedom. The debates were inconclusive, but the ideas aired in Putney had a considerable influence on centuries of political thought.
With:
Justin Champion
Professor of the History of Early Modern Ideas at Royal Holloway, University of London
Ann Hughes
Professor of Early Modern History at Keele University
Kate Peters
Fellow in History at Murray Edwards College, Cambridge.
Producer: Thomas Morris.
42 min
April 11, 2013 The Amazons
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Amazons, a tribe of formidable female warriors first described in Greek literature. They appear in the Homeric epics and were described by Herodotus, and featured prominently in the decoration of Greek vases and public buildings. In later centuries, particularly in the Renaissance, the Amazons became a popular theme of literature and art. After the discovery of the New World, the largest river in South America was named the Amazon, since the warlike tribes inhabiting the river's margins reminded Spanish pioneers of the warriors of classical myth.
With:
Paul Cartledge
A.G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture at Cambridge University
Chiara Franceschini
Teaching Fellow at University College London and an Academic Assistant at the Warburg Institute
Caroline Vout
University Senior Lecturer in Classics and Fellow and Director of Studies at Christ's College, Cambridge.
Producer: Thomas Morris.
43 min
April 11, 2013 The Amazons
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Amazons, a tribe of formidable female warriors first described in Greek literature. They appear in the Homeric epics and were described by Herodotus, and featured prominently in the decoration of Greek vases and public buildings. In later centuries, particularly in the Renaissance, the Amazons became a popular theme of literature and art. After the discovery of the New World, the largest river in South America was named the Amazon, since the warlike tribes inhabiting the river's margins reminded Spanish pioneers of the warriors of classical myth.
With:
Paul Cartledge
A.G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture at Cambridge University
Chiara Franceschini
Teaching Fellow at University College London and an Academic Assistant at the Warburg Institute
Caroline Vout
University Senior Lecturer in Classics and Fellow and Director of Studies at Christ's College, Cambridge.
Producer: Thomas Morris.
43 min
April 04, 2013 Japan's Sakoku Period
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Japan's Sakoku period, two centuries when the country deliberately isolated itself from the Western world. Sakoku began with a series of edicts in the 1630s which restricted the rights of Japanese to leave their country and expelled most of the Europeans living there. For the next two hundred years, Dutch traders were the only Westerners free to live in Japan. It was not until 1858 and the gunboat diplomacy of the American Commodore Matthew Perry that Japan's international isolation finally ended. Although historians used to think of Japan as completely isolated from external influence during this period, recent scholarship suggests that Japanese society was far less isolated from European ideas during this period than previously thought.
With:
Richard Bowring
Emeritus Professor of Japanese Studies at the University of Cambridge
Andrew Cobbing
Associate Professor of History at the University of Nottingham
Rebekah Clements
Research Fellow of Queens' College and Research Associate at the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Cambridge.
Producer: Thomas Morris.
43 min
April 04, 2013 Japan's Sakoku Period
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Japan's Sakoku period, two centuries when the country deliberately isolated itself from the Western world. Sakoku began with a series of edicts in the 1630s which restricted the rights of Japanese to leave their country and expelled most of the Europeans living there. For the next two hundred years, Dutch traders were the only Westerners free to live in Japan. It was not until 1858 and the gunboat diplomacy of the American Commodore Matthew Perry that Japan's international isolation finally ended. Although historians used to think of Japan as completely isolated from external influence during this period, recent scholarship suggests that Japanese society was far less isolated from European ideas during this period than previously thought.
With:
Richard Bowring
Emeritus Professor of Japanese Studies at the University of Cambridge
Andrew Cobbing
Associate Professor of History at the University of Nottingham
Rebekah Clements
Research Fellow of Queens' College and Research Associate at the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Cambridge.
Producer: Thomas Morris.
43 min
March 28, 2013 Water
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss one of the simplest and most remarkable of all molecules: water. Water is among the most abundant substances on Earth, covering more than two-thirds of the planet. Consisting of just three atoms, the water molecule is superficially simple in its structure but extraordinary in its properties. It is a rare example of a substance that can be found on Earth in gaseous, liquid and solid forms, and thanks to its unique chemical behaviour is the basis of all known life. Scientists are still discovering new things about it, such as the fact that there are at least fifteen different forms of ice.
Hasok Chang
Hans Rausing Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge
Andrea Sella
Professor of Chemistry at University College London
Patricia Hunt
Senior Lecturer in Chemistry at Imperial College London.
Producer: Thomas Morris.
40 min
March 28, 2013 Water
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss one of the simplest and most remarkable of all molecules: water. Water is among the most abundant substances on Earth, covering more than two-thirds of the planet. Consisting of just three atoms, the water molecule is superficially simple in its structure but extraordinary in its properties. It is a rare example of a substance that can be found on Earth in gaseous, liquid and solid forms, and thanks to its unique chemical behaviour is the basis of all known life. Scientists are still discovering new things about it, such as the fact that there are at least fifteen different forms of ice.
Hasok Chang
Hans Rausing Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge
Andrea Sella
Professor of Chemistry at University College London
Patricia Hunt
Senior Lecturer in Chemistry at Imperial College London.
Producer: Thomas Morris.
40 min
March 21, 2013 Alfred Russel Wallace
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the work of Alfred Russel Wallace, a pioneer of evolutionary theory. Born in 1823, Wallace travelled extensively, charting the distribution of animal species throughout the world. This fieldwork in the Amazon and later the Malay Archipelago led him to formulate a theory of evolution through natural selection. In 1858 he sent the paper he wrote on the subject to Charles Darwin, who was spurred into the writing and publication of his own masterpiece On the Origin of Species. Wallace was also the founder of the science of biogeography and made important discoveries about the nature of animal coloration. But despite his visionary work, Wallace has been overshadowed by the greater fame of his contemporary Darwin.
With:
Steve Jones
Emeritus Professor of Genetics at University College London
George Beccaloni
Curator of Cockroaches and Related Insects and Director of the Wallace Correspondence Project at the Natural History Museum
Ted Benton
Professor of Sociology at the University of Essex
Producer: Thomas Morris.
43 min