Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Greek writer known as the father of history. Read more
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Herodotus
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Greek writer known as the father of history.
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Anne Bronte's novel of a woman's fight for independence.
The Manhattan Project
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the race to build an atom bomb before anyone else in WW2
The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Europe's largest republic, before its partition in 1772.
Iris Murdoch
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the philosophy of the celebrated author of The Bell.
Corals
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the simple animals which form the now-threatened reefs.
The Song of Roland
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss a masterpiece of French epic poetry from the 12th century.
William and Caroline Herschel
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the siblings at the forefront of 18th-century astronomy
The Decadent Movement
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Beardsley, Wilde and art for art's sake in the 1890s.
Plato's Gorgias
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Plato's exploration of the nature of power and freedom.
The Battle of Trafalgar
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Nelson's famous victory and death on 21 October 1805.
The May Fourth Movement
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas and protests in 1919 that shaped modern China.
A Christmas Carol
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Charles Dickens' celebrated story of Scrooge's redemption.
The Hittites
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the great powers of the Late Bronze Age.
Fritz Lang
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss a giant of cinema in Weimar Germany and Hollywood.
Thomas Hardy's Poetry
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Hardy's goal of being a great poet and how he succeeded.
The Gold Standard
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss what happened when world currencies were tied to gold
Colette
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss a major force in French culture in the 20th century.
The Temperance Movement
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the enthusiasm in Britain for abstaining from alcohol.
Walter Benjamin
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the most influential thinkers of the last century.
Romeo and Juliet
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Shakespeare's tragedy of young star-crossed love in Verona
Peter Kropotkin
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the prominent Russian anarchist and his idea of Mutual Aid
The Arthashastra
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ancient Indian Sanskrit text the Arthashastra.
Seismology
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss how the study of earthquakes helps reveal Earth's secrets.
Charisma
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Max Weber's idea of charismatic authority in leadership
Antigone
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Sophocles' tragedy of an autocrat who defies family ties.
The Sistine Chapel
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Michelangelo's iconic frescoes in Renaissance Rome.
Polidori's The Vampyre
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 1819 work that inspired two centuries of vampire tales
Homo erectus
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the two-million-year span of our most adaptable ancestor.
Olympe de Gouges
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the author of The Declaration of the Rights of Woman, 1791
Early Christian Martyrdom
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Eusebius of Caesarea and his stories of Christian martyrs.