History Podcast
Historical themes, events and key individuals from Akhenaten to Xenophon.
Episodes to download
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The Second Barons' War
Thu 6 May 2021
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Simon de Montfort's fatal struggle with Henry III's forces
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Ovid
Thu 29 Apr 2021
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the most influential poets of Rome's Augustan Age.
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The Franco-American Alliance 1778
Thu 22 Apr 2021
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the French fight against Britain in America and its impact
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Pierre-Simon Laplace
Thu 8 Apr 2021
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the great French mathematician behind metrication.
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The Russo-Japanese War
Thu 1 Apr 2021
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 1904-5 clash of Japanese and Russian empires.
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David Ricardo
Thu 25 Mar 2021
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Ricardo's argument on free trade after the Napoleonic wars
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Marcus Aurelius
Thu 25 Feb 2021
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and meditations of 'the last good Roman emperor'.
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The Plague of Justinian
Thu 21 Jan 2021
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the scale and impact of the plague that raged in 541AD.
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The Cultural Revolution
Thu 17 Dec 2020
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Mao's uprising against his own party from 1966-76
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The Zong Massacre
Thu 26 Nov 2020
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the infamous drowning of enslaved Africans in 1781.
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Maria Theresa
Thu 22 Oct 2020
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the woman who ruled Austria, shaking up the European order
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Cave Art
Thu 24 Sep 2020
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss how and why Stone Age people decorated caves with images.
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Pericles
Thu 17 Sep 2020
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the celebrated Athenian statesman and orator.
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The Covenanters
Thu 12 Mar 2020
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Presbyterian solidarity in C17th Scotland and its impact.
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The Valladolid Debate
Thu 20 Feb 2020
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the dispute in 1550 over enslavement of native Americans.
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Battle of the Teutoburg Forest
Thu 13 Feb 2020
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Germanic tribes' destruction of three Roman legions.
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Alcuin
Thu 30 Jan 2020
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the scholar who revived learning for its own sake in C8th
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The Siege of Paris 1870-71
Thu 16 Jan 2020
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Paris under Prussian siege and then under the Commune
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Tutankhamun
Boxing Day 2019
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb and what that revealed
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Lawrence of Arabia
Thu 5 Dec 2019
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Lawrence of Arabia for this year's Listener Week
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Li Shizhen
Thu 28 Nov 2019
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the heights of medical knowledge under the Ming dynasty
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Melisende, Queen of Jerusalem
Thu 21 Nov 2019
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the most powerful woman in the C12th Kingdom of Jerusalem
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The Treaty of Limerick
Thu 7 Nov 2019
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the treaty ending the Williamite War in Ireland in 1691
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Napoleon's Retreat from Moscow
Thu 19 Sep 2019
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss why Napoleon's apparent victory turned to defeat in 1812.
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Doggerland
Thu 27 Jun 2019
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Stone Age human habitats now covered by the North Sea.
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The Mytilenaean Debate
Thu 20 Jun 2019
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Athenians' change of mind in the Peloponnesian War.
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The Inca
Thu 13 Jun 2019
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the advanced Andean empire, dominant until Pizarro arrived
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President Ulysses S Grant
Thu 30 May 2019
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Grant's role in reconstructing the USA after the Civil War
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The Gordon Riots
Thu 2 May 2019
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the causes of the violence of June 1780 and repercussions.
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