BBC Radio Podcasts from In Our Time: History
Cyrus the Great
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Persian ruler Cyrus the Great.
Catherine of Aragon
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the woman so important that two Tudor royals married her.
The Battle of Valmy
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the day in 1792 when the French Revolution risked defeat.
Plutarch's Parallel Lives
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the influential Greek biographer and his main work
The Hanoverian Succession
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the politics that led to the coronation of George I.
The Antikythera Mechanism
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the mysterious ancient Greek astronomical computer.
The Venetian Empire
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the rise and eventual decline of the Venetian Empire.
The Haymarket Affair
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 1886 bombing in Chicago amid violent labour conflict.
Benjamin Disraeli
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the most prominent Victorian politicians.
The Orkneyinga Saga
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Saga of the Earls of Orkney up to the 13th century.
Marsilius of Padua
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the great figures in the history of political ideas
Empress Dowager Cixi
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the woman who dominated China's court for almost 50 years.
Napoleon's Hundred Days
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Napoleon Bonaparte's surprise coup in 1815 before Waterloo
Julian the Apostate
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the emperor who aimed to return Christian Rome to paganism
The Mokrani Revolt
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss a major Algerian uprising against French rule in 1871.
The Sack of Rome 1527
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Holy Roman Emperor's army's notorious attack on Romans
The Hanseatic League
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the medieval trading network the Hanseatic League.
Nefertiti
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and impact of ancient Egypt's best-known queen.
Tiberius
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the man born in Republican Rome who became second Emperor.
Marguerite de Navarre
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss writer and Renaissance queen Marguerite de Navarre.
The Theory of the Leisure Class
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Veblen on conspicuous consumption and conspicuous leisure.
The Barbary Corsairs
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the impact of North African privateers on law and language
The Federalist Papers
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Hamilton, Madison and Jay's urgings for a US Constitution.
The Economic Consequences of the Peace
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Keynes' influential attack on the Treaty of Versailles
Louis XIV: The Sun King
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and reign of the French king who built Versailles
The Shimabara Rebellion
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 1637-8 Christian uprising in Japan.
The Battle of Crécy
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 1346 conflict between the armies of France and England
Cnut
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Dane who became a powerful King of England in 1016.
Solon the Lawgiver
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the statesman who transformed Athens in the 6th century BC
Mercantilism
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the idea which dominated European economies for 300 years.
Megaliths
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss what we know about ancient stones placed in the landscape.
Chartism
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 19th-century campaign for greater democracy.
Tycho Brahe
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 16th-century astronomer, renowned for his accuracy.
The Great Stink
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 1858 crisis from the flow of sewage into the Thames.
The Irish Rebellion of 1798
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the causes and early consequences of the 1798 rebellion.
Demosthenes' Philippics
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the speeches that set the standard for political attacks.
The Morant Bay Rebellion
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the events in Jamaica in 1865 and their consequences.
The Knights Templar
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the rise and abrupt fall of the famous military order.
Angkor Wat
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the great Cambodian temple complex, begun 900 years ago.
Comenius
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 17th-century Czech educator committed to toleration.
The Davidian Revolution
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the lasting impact of David I, King of Scotland c1084-1153
Olympe de Gouges
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the author of The Declaration of the Rights of Woman, 1791
Homo erectus
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the two-million-year span of our most adaptable ancestor.
The Arthashastra
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ancient Indian Sanskrit text the Arthashastra.
Peter Kropotkin
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the prominent Russian anarchist and his idea of Mutual Aid
The Temperance Movement
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the enthusiasm in Britain for abstaining from alcohol.
The Gold Standard
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss what happened when world currencies were tied to gold
The Hittites
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the great powers of the Late Bronze Age.
The May Fourth Movement
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas and protests in 1919 that shaped modern China.
The Battle of Trafalgar
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Nelson's famous victory and death on 21 October 1805.
The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Europe's largest republic, before its partition in 1772.
The Manhattan Project
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the race to build an atom bomb before anyone else in WW2
Herodotus
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Greek writer known as the father of history.
Edward Gibbon
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the author of Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
Booth's Life and Labour Survey
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Charles Booth's landmark survey of London's poor and rich.
The Interregnum
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the upheavals of 1649-60 in the British Isles
The Second Barons' War
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Simon de Montfort's fatal struggle with Henry III's forces
Ovid
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the most influential poets of Rome's Augustan Age.
The Franco-American Alliance 1778
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the French fight against Britain in America and its impact
Pierre-Simon Laplace
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the great French mathematician behind metrication.
The Russo-Japanese War
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 1904-5 clash of Japanese and Russian empires.
David Ricardo
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Ricardo's argument on free trade after the Napoleonic wars
Marcus Aurelius
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and meditations of 'the last good Roman emperor'.
The Plague of Justinian
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the scale and impact of the plague that raged in 541AD.
The Cultural Revolution
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Mao's uprising against his own party from 1966-76
The Zong Massacre
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the infamous drowning of enslaved Africans in 1781.
Maria Theresa
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the woman who ruled Austria, shaking up the European order
Cave Art
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss how and why Stone Age people decorated caves with images.
Pericles
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the celebrated Athenian statesman and orator.
The Covenanters
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Presbyterian solidarity in C17th Scotland and its impact.
The Valladolid Debate
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the dispute in 1550 over enslavement of native Americans.
Battle of the Teutoburg Forest
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Germanic tribes' destruction of three Roman legions.
Alcuin
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the scholar who revived learning for its own sake in C8th
The Siege of Paris 1870-71
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Paris under Prussian siege and then under the Commune
Tutankhamun
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb and what that revealed
Coffee
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the history of coffee and its impact
Lawrence of Arabia
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Lawrence of Arabia for this year's Listener Week
Li Shizhen
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the heights of medical knowledge under the Ming dynasty
Melisende, Queen of Jerusalem
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the most powerful woman in the C12th Kingdom of Jerusalem
The Treaty of Limerick
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the treaty ending the Williamite War in Ireland in 1691
Napoleon's Retreat from Moscow
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss why Napoleon's apparent victory turned to defeat in 1812.
Doggerland
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Stone Age human habitats now covered by the North Sea.
The Mytilenaean Debate
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Athenians' change of mind in the Peloponnesian War.
The Inca
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the advanced Andean empire, dominant until Pizarro arrived
President Ulysses S Grant
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Grant's role in reconstructing the USA after the Civil War
The Gordon Riots
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the causes of the violence of June 1780 and repercussions.
Nero
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the most notorious rulers of ancient Rome.
The Great Irish Famine
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the causes and consequences of the Famine of 1845-49.
The Danelaw
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Danish impact on England in 9th and 10th centuries.
William Cecil
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the most powerful man in the court of Elizabeth I.
Antarah ibn Shaddad
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the poetry and context of this pre-Islamic Arabian knight
Owain Glyndwr
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the fight for Welsh independence in the early 15th century
The Poor Laws
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Poor Law of 1834 and the rise of the workhouse
The Thirty Years War
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the devastating war across the Holy Roman Empire 1618-1648
The Long March
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Red Army's retreat across China, from October 1934
Horace
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Roman poet Horace, who flourished under Augustus.
Marie Antoinette
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Austrian princess, guillotined as Queen of France.
The Fable of the Bees
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Mandeville's work on the public benefit of private vices.
Is Shakespeare History? The Romans
Melvyn Bragg discusses the impact of Shakespeare's approach to history (programme 2 of 2).
Is Shakespeare History? The Plantagenets
Melvyn Bragg discusses the impact of Shakespeare's approach to history (programme 1 of 2)
The Mexican-American War
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 1846-48 war that cost Mexico half its territory.
Montesquieu
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss republicanism, despotism and the separation of powers.
Persepolis
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Achaemenid Empire's great ceremonial capital.
Margaret of Anjou
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Queen of England at the start of the Wars of the Roses
The Emancipation of the Serfs
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the freeing of a third of Russians from serfdom in 1861.
The Almoravid Empire
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the great empires of the Islamic west.
Roman Slavery
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the relationship between slavery and the power of Rome.
Tocqueville: Democracy in America
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Alexis de Tocqueville's analysis of American democracy.
The Highland Clearances
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss evictions and migrations in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Sun Tzu and The Art of War
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the influential ancient Chinese work on military strategy.
Frederick Douglass
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and ideas of Frederick Douglass, born to slavery.
The Siege of Malta, 1565
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Ottoman attack on the Knights Hospitaller in Malta.
Thomas Becket
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life, murder and impact of Thomas Becket (c 1118-1170)
Thebes
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Greek city of Thebes in myth, drama and history.
The Picts
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss history and culture of the Picts.
Picasso's Guernica
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the events behind and impact of Picasso's iconic work.
The Congress of Vienna
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Congress of Vienna, 1814-15.
Constantine the Great
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Roman emperor Constantine the Great.
The American Populists
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the rural protest movement in America's Gilded Age.
The Battle of Lincoln 1217
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the fight for the English crown at the Battle of Lincoln.
The Egyptian Book of the Dead
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ancient Egyptian funerary text, The Book of the Dead.
Roger Bacon
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the medieval scholar Roger Bacon.
Rosa Luxemburg
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and times of Rosa Luxemburg, revolutionary.
The Battle of Salamis
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the significance of The Battle of Salamis, 480BC.
Seneca the Younger
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the works, life and times of Seneca the Younger.
Mary, Queen of Scots
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the history of Mary, Queen of Scots.
Johannes Kepler
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss astronomer Johannes Kepler.
The Gin Craze
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the cause and impact of the gin craze in the 18th century.
Harriet Martineau
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and works of Harriet Martineau, writer.
Garibaldi and the Risorgimento
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Garibaldi and the Risorgimento, for our Listener Week.
Baltic Crusades
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss crusades against Baltic pagans from 12th Century onwards.
Justinian's Legal Code
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the great impact of legal changes under emperor Justinian.
The Fighting Temeraire
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss JMW Turner's The Fighting Temeraire.
Epic of Gilgamesh
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Gilgamesh, the great epic poem from ancient Mesopotamia.
John Dalton
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss scientist John Dalton.
The 12th Century Renaissance
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss a period of great change in western Europe.
The Bronze Age Collapse
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Bronze Age collapse.
Margery Kempe and English Mysticism
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Margery Kempe, the medieval English mystic.
The Gettysburg Address
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, 1863.
Titus Oates and his 'Popish Plot'
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Titus Oates and his fictitious Popish Plot.
1816, the Year Without a Summer
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss 1816, known as the year without a summer.
The Sikh Empire
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Maharaja Ranjit Singh and the Sikh Empire.
Agrippina the Younger
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Roman empress Agrippina the Younger.
Bedlam
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the early history of Bethlehem Hospital, known as Bedlam.
The Maya Civilization
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Maya civilization in central America.
The Dutch East India Company
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Dutch East India Company.
Eleanor of Aquitaine
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Eleanor of Aquitaine, the most powerful woman of her time.
Thomas Paine's Common Sense
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Thomas Paine's pamphlet Common Sense, published in 1776.
The Salem Witch Trials
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Salem witch trials.
The Battle of Lepanto
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Battle of Lepanto, 1571.
The Empire of Mali
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the empire of Mali.
Holbein at the Tudor Court
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Holbein at the court of Henry VIII.
Alexander the Great
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and legacy of Alexander the Great.
Frederick the Great
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Frederick II, king of Prussia from 1740 to 1786.
Prester John
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the legend of Prester John.
Josephus
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Flavius Josephus, author of The Jewish War.
The Lancashire Cotton Famine
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Lancashire cotton famine during the American Civil War
Tagore
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Rabindranath Tagore.
Matteo Ricci and the Ming Dynasty
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Matteo Ricci's 16th-century travels in Ming China.
The California Gold Rush
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the California Gold Rush of the 1850s.
The Curies
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the scientific achievements of the Curie family.
The Eunuch
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the history and significance of eunuchs.
The Wealth of Nations
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Adam Smith's economic treatise The Wealth of Nations.
Ashoka the Great
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Indian ruler Ashoka the Great.
Thucydides
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the ancient Greek historian Thucydides.
Brunel
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
Hatshepsut
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the female Egyptian pharaoh Hatshepsut.
The Haitian Revolution
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Haitian Revolution of 1791-1804.
The Battle of Talas
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Battle of Talas in AD751.
Julius Caesar
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life and reputation of Julius Caesar.
Hildegard of Bingen
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the medieval writer and mystic Hildegard of Bingen.
The Bluestockings
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the 18th-century Bluestocking Society.
The Sino-Japanese War
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Second Sino-Japanese War.
The Domesday Book
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Domesday Book.
Strabo's Geographica
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Strabo's Geographica, an early work of geography.
Weber's The Protestant Ethic
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Weber's The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.
Spartacus
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Roman gladiator and rebel leader Spartacus.
Chivalry
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss medieval chivalry.
The Phoenicians
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Phoenicians of the ancient Mediterranean.
Sources of Early Chinese History
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the sources for early Chinese history.
The Battle of Tours
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Battle of Tours of 732.
Plato's Symposium
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Plato's Symposium.
The Medici
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Medici family, rulers of Renaissance Florence.
Pliny the Younger
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Roman letter-writer Pliny the Younger.
Pocahontas
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life of the Native American Pocahontas.
The Berlin Conference
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Berlin Conference and the Scramble for Africa.
The Corn Laws
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Corn Laws of the 19th century.
The Mamluks
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Mamluks, medieval rulers of Egypt and Syria.
The Physiocrats
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Physiocrats, important French economic thinkers.
Queen Zenobia
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Queen Zenobia, who led a rebellion against Ancient Rome.
The Putney Debates
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Putney Debates of 1647.
Alfred Russel Wallace
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the work of the biologist Alfred Russel Wallace.
Ice Ages
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss ice ages.
The War of 1812
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the War of 1812 between America and Great Britain.
The South Sea Bubble
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the South Sea Bubble of the early 18th century.
The Borgias
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Borgias, the most infamous family in Renaissance Italy
Hannibal
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the remarkable Carthaginian general Hannibal.
Gerald of Wales
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the medieval scholar Gerald of Wales.
The Druids
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Druids of ancient Europe.
Hadrian's Wall
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Hadrian's Wall.
Annie Besant
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the 19th-century writer and campaigner Annie Besant.
The An Lushan Rebellion
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the An Lushan Rebellion.
1848: Year of Revolution
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss 1848, the year that saw Europe engulfed in revolution.
The Ming Voyages
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Ming Voyages of discovery.
The Minoan Civilisation
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Minoan Civilisation of Bronze Age Crete.
The Battle of Stamford Bridge
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Battle of Stamford Bridge.
Xenophon
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the ancient Greek historian and soldier Xenophon.
Custer's Last Stand
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Custer's Last Stand.
Octavia Hill
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Victorian social reformer Octavia Hill.
The Iron Age
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the dawn of the Iron Age.
The Medieval University
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the foundation of the medieval universities.
The Taiping Rebellion
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Taiping Rebellion.
The Battle of Bannockburn
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Battle of Bannockburn.
The Mexican Revolution
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Mexican Revolution of 1910.
Consequences of the Industrial Revolution
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the influence of the Industrial Revolution.
The Industrial Revolution
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Industrial Revolution.
Cleopatra
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Cleopatra, the famed last pharaoh of Egypt.
The Volga Vikings
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Volga Vikings.