Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas, people and events that have shaped our world.
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Sources of Early Chinese History
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the sources for early Chinese history. The first attempts to make a record of historical events in China date from the Shang dynasty of the second millennium BC. The earliest surviving records were inscribed on bones or tortoise shells; in later centuries, chroniclers left detailed accounts on paper or silk. In the last hundred years, archaeologists have discovered a wealth of new materials, including a cache of previously unknown texts which were found in a sealed cave on the edge of the Gobi Desert. Such sources are are shedding new light on Chinese history, although interpreting ancient sources from the period before the invention of printing presents a number of challenges. With: Roel Sterckx Joseph Needham Professor of Chinese History at the University of Cambridge Tim Barrett Professor of East Asian History at SOAS, University of London Hilde de Weerdt Professor of Chinese History at Leiden University Producer: Thomas Morris.
The Battle of Tours
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Battle of Tours. In 732 a large Arab army invaded Gaul from northern Spain, and travelled as far north as Poitiers. There they were defeated by Charles Martel, whose Frankish and Burgundian forces repelled the invaders. The result confirmed the regional supremacy of Charles, who went on to establish a strong Frankish dynasty. The Battle of Tours was the last major incursion of Muslim armies into northern Europe; some historians, including Edward Gibbon, have seen it as the decisive moment that determined that the continent would remain Christian. With: Hugh Kennedy Professor of Arabic at SOAS, University of London Rosamond McKitterick Professor of Medieval History at the University of Cambridge Matthew Innes Vice-Master and Professor of History at Birkbeck, University of London.
Plato's Symposium
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Plato's Symposium, one of the Greek philosopher's most celebrated works. Written in the 4th century BC, it is a dialogue set at a dinner party attended by a number of prominent ancient Athenians, including the philosopher Socrates and the playwright Aristophanes. Each of the guests speaks of Eros, or erotic love. This fictional discussion of the nature of love, how and why it arises and what it means to be in love, has had a significant influence on later thinkers, and is the origin of the modern notion of Platonic love.With:Angie Hobbs Professor of the Public Understanding of Philosophy at the University of SheffieldRichard Hunter Regius Professor of Greek at the University of CambridgeFrisbee Sheffield Director of Studies in Philosophy at Christ's College, University of Cambridge.Producer: Thomas Morris.
The Medici
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Medici family, who dominated Florence's political and cultural life for three centuries. The House of Medici came to prominence in Italy in the fifteenth century as a result of the wealth they had built up through banking. With the rise of Cosimo de' Medici, they became Florence's most powerful and influential dynasty, effectively controlling the city's government. Their patronage of the arts turned Florence into a leading centre of the Renaissance and the Medici Bank was one of the most successful institutions of its day. As well as producing four popes, members of the House of Medici married into various European royal families.With:Evelyn Welch Professor of Renaissance Studies at King's College, University of LondonRobert Black Professor of Renaissance History at the University of LeedsCatherine Fletcher Lecturer in Public History at the University of SheffieldProducer: Victoria Brignell.
Complexity
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss complexity and how it can help us understand the world around us. When living beings come together and act in a group, they do so in complicated and unpredictable ways: societies often behave very differently from the individuals within them. Complexity was a phenomenon little understood a generation ago, but research into complex systems now has important applications in many different fields, from biology to political science. Today it is being used to explain how birds flock, to predict traffic flow in cities and to study the spread of diseases.With:Ian Stewart Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at the University of WarwickJeff Johnson Professor of Complexity Science and Design at the Open UniversityProfessor Eve Mitleton-Kelly Director of the Complexity Research Group at the London School of Economics.Producer: Thomas Morris.
Pliny the Younger
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life and work of Pliny the Younger, famous for his letters. A prominent lawyer in Rome in the first century AD, Pliny later became governor of the province of Bithynia, on the Black Sea coast of modern Turkey. Throughout his career he was a prolific letter-writer, sharing his thoughts with great contemporaries including the historian Tacitus, and asking the advice of the Emperor Trajan. Pliny's letters offer fascinating insights into life in ancient Rome and its empire, from the mundane details of irrigation schemes to his vivid eyewitness account of the eruption of Vesuvius.With:Catharine Edwards Professor of Classics and Ancient History at Birkbeck, University of LondonRoy Gibson Professor of Latin at the University of ManchesterAlice König Lecturer in Latin and Classical Studies at the University of St AndrewsProducer: Thomas Morris.
Hindu Ideas of Creation
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Hindu ideas about Creation. According to most Western religious traditions, a deity was the original creator of the Universe. Hinduism, on the other hand, has no single creation story. For thousands of years, Hindu thinkers have taken a variety of approaches to the question of where we come from, with some making the case for divine intervention and others asking whether it is even possible for humans to comprehend the nature of creation. The origin of our existence, and the nature of the Universe we live in, is one of the richest strands of Hindu thought.With:Jessica Frazier Lecturer in Religious Studies at the University of Kent and a Research Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies at the University of OxfordChakravarthi Ram-Prasad Professor of Comparative Religion and Philosophy at Lancaster UniversityGavin Flood Professor of Hindu Studies and Comparative Religion at the University of Oxford.Producer: Thomas Morris.
The Microscope
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the development of the microscope, an instrument which has revolutionised our knowledge of the world and the organisms that inhabit it. In the seventeenth century the pioneering work of two scientists, the Dutchman Antonie van Leeuwenhoek and Robert Hooke in England, revealed the teeming microscopic world that exists at scales beyond the capabilities of the naked eye. The microscope became an essential component of scientific enquiry by the nineteenth century, but in the 1930s a German physicist, Ernst Ruska, discovered that by using a beam of electrons he could view structures much tinier than was possible using visible light. Today light and electron microscopy are among the most powerful tools at the disposal of modern science, and new techniques are still being developed.With:Jim Bennett Visiting Keeper at the Science Museum in LondonSir Colin Humphreys Professor of Materials Science and Director of Research at the University of CambridgeMichelle Peckham Professor of Cell Biology at the University of LeedsProducer: Thomas Morris.
Pocahontas
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life of Pocahontas, the Native American woman who to English eyes became a symbol of the New World. During the colonisation of Virginia in the first years of the seventeenth century, Pocahontas famously saved the life of an English prisoner, John Smith. Later captured, she converted to Christianity, married a settler and travelled to England where she was regarded as a curiosity. She died in 1617 at the age of 22 and was buried in Gravesend; her story has fascinated generations on both sides of the Atlantic, and has been reinterpreted and retold by many writers and artists.With:Susan Castillo Harriet Beecher Stowe Emeritus Professor of American Studies at King's College LondonTim Lockley Reader in American Studies at the University of WarwickJacqueline Fear-Segal Reader in American History and Culture at the University of East AngliaProducer: Thomas Morris.
The Tempest
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Shakespeare's play The Tempest. Written in around 1610, it is thought to be one of the playwright's final works and contains some of the most poetic and memorable passages in all his output. It was influenced by accounts of distant lands written by contemporary explorers, and by the complex international politics of the early Jacobean age.The Tempest is set entirely on an unnamed island inhabited by the magician Prospero, his daughter Miranda and the monstrous Caliban, one of the most intriguing characters in Shakespeare's output. Its themes include magic and the nature of theatre itself - and some modern critics have seen it as an early meditation on the ethics of colonialism.With:Jonathan Bate Provost of Worcester College, OxfordErin Sullivan Lecturer and Fellow at the Shakespeare Institute, University of BirminghamKatherine Duncan-Jones Emeritus Fellow of Somerville College, OxfordProducer: Thomas Morris.
Ordinary Language Philosophy
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Ordinary Language Philosophy, a school of thought which emerged in Oxford in the years following World War II. With its roots in the work of Ludwig Wittgenstein, Ordinary Language Philosophy is concerned with the meanings of words as used in everyday speech. Its adherents believed that many philosophical problems were created by the misuse of words, and that if such 'ordinary language' were correctly analysed, such problems would disappear. Philosophers associated with the school include some of the most distinguished British thinkers of the twentieth century, such as Gilbert Ryle and JL Austin.With:Stephen Mulhall Professor of Philosophy at New College, OxfordRay Monk Professor of Philosophy at the University of SouthamptonJulia Tanney Reader in Philosophy of Mind at the University of KentProducer: Thomas Morris.
The Berlin Conference
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Berlin Conference of 1884. In the 1880s, as colonial powers attempted to increase their spheres of influence in Africa, tensions began to grow between European nations including Britain, Belgium and France. In 1884 the German Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, brought together many of Europe's leading statesmen to discuss trade and colonial activities in Africa. Although the original purpose of the summit was to settle the question of territorial rights in West Africa, negotiations eventually dealt with the entire continent. The conference was part of the process known as the Scramble for Africa, and the decisions reached at it had effects which have lasted to the present day. The conference is commonly seen as one of the most significant events of the so-called Scramble for Africa; in the following decades, European nations laid claim to most of the continent.With:Richard Drayton Rhodes Professor of Imperial History at King's College LondonRichard Rathbone Emeritus Professor of African History at SOAS, University of LondonJoanna Lewis Assistant Professor of Imperial History at the LSE, University of London.Producer: Thomas Morris.
The Corn Laws
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Corn Laws. In 1815 the British Government passed legislation which artificially inflated the price of corn. The measure was supported by landowners but strongly opposed by manufacturers and the urban working class. In the 1830s the Anti-Corn Law League was founded to campaign for their repeal, led by the Radical Richard Cobden. The Conservative government of Sir Robert Peel finally repealed the laws in 1846, splitting his party in the process, and the resulting debate had profound consequences for the political and economic future of the country.With:Lawrence Goldman Fellow in Modern History at St Peter's College, OxfordBoyd Hilton Former Professor of Modern British History at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Trinity CollegeCheryl Schonhardt-Bailey Reader in Political Science at the London School of EconomicsProducer: Thomas Morris.
The Book of Common Prayer
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Book of Common Prayer. In 1549, at the height of the English Reformation, a new prayer book was published containing versions of the liturgy in English. Generally believed to have been supervised by Thomas Cranmer, the Book of Common Prayer was at the centre of the decade of religious turmoil that followed, and disputes over its use were one of the major causes of the English Civil War in the 1640s. The book was revised several times before the celebrated final version was published in 1662. It is still in use in many churches today, and remains not just a liturgical text of great importance but a literary work of profound beauty and influence.With:Diarmaid MacCulloch Professor of the History of the Church at the University of OxfordAlexandra Walsham Professor of Modern History at the University of CambridgeMartin Palmer Director of the International Consultancy on Religion, Education, and CultureProducer: Thomas Morris.
Galen
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Roman physician and medical theorist Galen. The most celebrated doctor in the ancient world, Galen was Greek by birth but spent most of his career in Rome, where he was personal physician to three Emperors. He was one of the most prolific authors of his age, and a sixth of all surviving ancient literature in Greek was written by him. Celebrated in his own lifetime, he was regarded as the preeminent medical authority for centuries after his death, both in the Arab world and in medieval Europe. It was only the discoveries of Renaissance science which removed Galen from his dominant position in the pantheon of medicine.With:Vivian Nutton Emeritus Professor of the History of Medicine at University College LondonHelen King Professor of Classical Studies at the Open UniversityCaroline Petit Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow in Classics at the University of WarwickProducer: Thomas Morris.