History Podcast
Historical themes, events and key individuals from Akhenaten to Xenophon.
Episodes to download
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Nero
Thu 25 Apr 2019
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the most notorious rulers of ancient Rome.
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The Great Irish Famine
Thu 4 Apr 2019
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the causes and consequences of the Famine of 1845-49.
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The Danelaw
Thu 28 Mar 2019
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Danish impact on England in 9th and 10th centuries.
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William Cecil
Thu 7 Mar 2019
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the most powerful man in the court of Elizabeth I.
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Antarah ibn Shaddad
Thu 28 Feb 2019
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the poetry and context of this pre-Islamic Arabian knight
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Owain Glyndwr
Thu 31 Jan 2019
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the fight for Welsh independence in the early 15th century
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The Poor Laws
Thu 20 Dec 2018
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Poor Law of 1834 and the rise of the workhouse
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The Thirty Years War
Thu 6 Dec 2018
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the devastating war across the Holy Roman Empire 1618-1648
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The Long March
Thu 29 Nov 2018
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Red Army's retreat across China, from October 1934
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Horace
Thu 15 Nov 2018
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Roman poet Horace, who flourished under Augustus.
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Marie Antoinette
Thu 8 Nov 2018
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Austrian princess, guillotined as Queen of France.
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The Fable of the Bees
Thu 25 Oct 2018
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Mandeville's work on the public benefit of private vices.
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Is Shakespeare History? The Romans
Thu 18 Oct 2018
Melvyn Bragg discusses the impact of Shakespeare's approach to history (programme 2 of 2).
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Is Shakespeare History? The Plantagenets
Thu 11 Oct 2018
Melvyn Bragg discusses the impact of Shakespeare's approach to history (programme 1 of 2)
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The Mexican-American War
Thu 28 Jun 2018
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 1846-48 war that cost Mexico half its territory.
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Montesquieu
Thu 14 Jun 2018
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss republicanism, despotism and the separation of powers.
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Persepolis
Thu 7 Jun 2018
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Achaemenid Empire's great ceremonial capital.
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Margaret of Anjou
Thu 24 May 2018
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Queen of England at the start of the Wars of the Roses
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The Emancipation of the Serfs
Thu 17 May 2018
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the freeing of a third of Russians from serfdom in 1861.
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The Almoravid Empire
Thu 3 May 2018
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the great empires of the Islamic west.
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Roman Slavery
Thu 5 Apr 2018
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the relationship between slavery and the power of Rome.
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Tocqueville: Democracy in America
Thu 22 Mar 2018
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Alexis de Tocqueville's analysis of American democracy.
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The Highland Clearances
Thu 8 Mar 2018
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss evictions and migrations in the 18th and 19th centuries.
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Sun Tzu and The Art of War
Thu 1 Mar 2018
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the influential ancient Chinese work on military strategy.
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Frederick Douglass
Thu 8 Feb 2018
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and ideas of Frederick Douglass, born to slavery.
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The Siege of Malta, 1565
Thu 11 Jan 2018
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Ottoman attack on the Knights Hospitaller in Malta.
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Thomas Becket
Thu 14 Dec 2017
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life, murder and impact of Thomas Becket (c 1118-1170)
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Thebes
Thu 23 Nov 2017
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Greek city of Thebes in myth, drama and history.
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Picasso's Guernica
Thu 2 Nov 2017
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the events behind and impact of Picasso's iconic work.
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