In Our Time

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Feb 9, 2017 • 48min

John Clare

In a programme first broadcast in 2017, Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Northamptonshire poet John Clare who, according to one of Melvyn's guests Jonathan Bate, was 'the greatest labouring-class poet that England has ever produced'. Clare worked in a tavern, as a gardener and as a farm labourer in the early 19th century and achieved his first literary success with Poems Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery. He was praised for his descriptions of rural England and his childhood there, and his reaction to the changes he saw in the Agricultural Revolution with its enclosures, displacement and altered, disrupted landscape. Despite poor mental health and, from middle age onwards, many years in asylums, John Clare continued to write and he is now seen as one of the great poets of his age.With Sir Jonathan Bate Provost of Worcester College, University of OxfordMina Gorji Senior Lecturer in the English Faculty and fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridgeand Simon Kövesi Professor of English Literature at Oxford Brookes UniversityProducer: Simon Tillotson.
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36 snips
Feb 2, 2017 • 47min

Hannah Arendt

In a programme first broadcast in 2017, Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the political philosophy of Hannah Arendt. She developed many of her ideas in response to the rise of totalitarianism in the C20th, partly informed by her own experience as a Jew in Nazi Germany before her escape to France and then America. She wanted to understand how politics had taken such a disastrous turn and, drawing on ideas of Greek philosophers as well as her peers, what might be done to create a better political life. Often unsettling, she wrote of 'the banality of evil' when covering the trial of Eichmann, one of the organisers of the Holocaust.WithLyndsey Stonebridge Professor of Modern Literature and History at the University of East AngliaFrisbee Sheffield Lecturer in Philosophy at Girton College, University of CambridgeandRobert Eaglestone Professor of Contemporary Literature and Thought at Royal Holloway, University LondonProducer: Simon Tillotson.
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Jan 26, 2017 • 46min

Parasitism

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the relationship between parasites and hosts, where one species lives on or in another to the benefit of the parasite but at a cost to the host, potentially leading to disease or death of the host. Typical examples are mistletoe and trees, hookworms and vertebrates, cuckoos and other birds. In many cases the parasite species do so well in or on a particular host that they reproduce much faster and can adapt to changes more efficiently, and it is thought that almost half of all animal species have a parasitic stage in their lifetime. What techniques do hosts have to counter the parasites, and what impact do parasites have on the evolution of their hosts? With Steve Jones Emeritus Professor of Genetics at University College, LondonWendy Gibson Professor of Protozoology at the University of Bristoland Kayla King Associate Professor in the Department of Zoology at the University of OxfordProducer: Simon Tillotson.
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Jan 19, 2017 • 52min

Mary, Queen of Scots

In a programme first broadcast in 2017, Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the history of Mary, Queen of Scots, who had potential to be one of the most powerful rulers in Europe, yet she was also one of the most vulnerable. In France, when she was the teenage bride to their future king, she was seen as rightful heir to the thrones of England and Ireland, as well as Queen of Scotland and one day of France, which would have been an extraordinary union. She was widowed too young, though and, a Catholic returning to Protestant Scotland, she struggled to overcome rivalries in her own country. She fled to Protestant England, where she was implicated in plots to overthrow Elizabeth, and it was Elizabeth herself who signed Mary's death warrant. With David Forsyth Principal Curator, Scottish Medieval-Early Modern Collections at National Museums ScotlandAnna Groundwater Teaching Fellow in Historical Skills and Methods at the University of EdinburghAndJohn Guy Fellow of Clare College, University of CambridgeProducer: Simon Tillotson.
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25 snips
Jan 12, 2017 • 48min

Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morality

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Nietzsche's On The Genealogy of Morality - A Polemic, which he published in 1887 towards the end of his working life and in which he considered the price humans have paid, and were still paying, to become civilised. In three essays, he argued that having a guilty conscience was the price of living in society with other humans. He suggested that Christian morality, with its consideration for others, grew as an act of revenge by the weak against their masters, 'the blond beasts of prey', as he calls them, and the price for that slaves' revolt was endless self-loathing. These and other ideas were picked up by later thinkers, perhaps most significantly by Sigmund Freud who further explored the tensions between civilisation and the individual.WithStephen Mulhall Professor of Philosophy and a Fellow and Tutor at New College, University of OxfordFiona Hughes Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of EssexAndKeith Ansell-Pearson Professor of Philosophy at the University of WarwickProducer: Simon Tillotson.
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Dec 29, 2016 • 49min

Johannes Kepler

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the German astronomer Johannes Kepler (1571 - 1630). Although he is overshadowed today by Isaac Newton and Galileo, he is considered by many to be one of the greatest scientists in history. The three laws of planetary motion Kepler developed transformed people's understanding of the Solar System and laid the foundations for the revolutionary ideas Isaac Newton produced later. Kepler is also thought to have written one of the first works of science fiction. However, he faced a number of challenges. He had to defend his mother from charges of witchcraft, he had few financial resources and his career suffered as a result of his Lutheran faith. With David Wootton Professor of History at the University of YorkUlinka Rublack Professor of Early Modern European History at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of St John's CollegeAdam Mosley Associate Professor in the Department of History at Swansea University Producer: Victoria Brignell.
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Dec 22, 2016 • 49min

Four Quartets

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Four Quartets, TS Eliot's last great work which he composed, against a background of imminent and actual world war, as meditations on the relationship between time and humanity. With David Moody Emeritus Professor of English and American Literature at the University of YorkFran Brearton Professor of Modern Poetry at Queen's University, BelfastAndMark Ford Professor of English and American Literature at University College LondonProducer: Simon TillotsonJeremy Irons will be reading TS Eliot's greatest poems, from Prufrock to The Waste Land to Four Quartets, across New Year's Day here on Radio 4.
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13 snips
Dec 15, 2016 • 52min

The Gin Craze

Exploring the 18th-century gin craze in Britain, the podcast discusses the rise of gin consumption, the negative effects on society, the disparities between the treatment of the poor and the wealthy, the decline of gin drinking, the government's efforts to regulate gin, and the role of women in bars during the gin craze.
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Dec 8, 2016 • 51min

Harriet Martineau

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Harriet Martineau who, from a non-conformist background in Norwich, became one of the best known writers in the C19th. She had a wide range of interests and used a new, sociological method to observe the world around her, from religion in Egypt to slavery in America and the rights of women everywhere. She popularised writing about economics for those outside the elite and, for her own popularity, was invited to the coronation of Queen Victoria, one of her readers. WithValerie Sanders Professor of English at the University of HullKaren O'Brien Professor of English Literature at the University of OxfordAndElla Dzelzainis Lecturer in 19th Century Literature at Newcastle UniversityProducer: Simon Tillotson.
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Dec 1, 2016 • 50min

Garibaldi and the Risorgimento

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Giuseppe Garibaldi and the Italian Risorgimento. According to the historian AJP Taylor, Garibaldi was the only wholly admirable figure in modern history. Born in Nice in 1807, one of Garibaldi's aims in life was the unification of Italy and, in large part thanks to him, Italy was indeed united substantially in 1861 and entirely in 1870. With his distinctive red shirt and poncho, he was a hero of Romantic revolutionaries around the world. His fame was secured when, with a thousand soldiers, he invaded Sicily and toppled the monarchy in the Italian south. The Risorgimento was soon almost complete.This topic is the one chosen from over 750 different ideas suggested by listeners in October, for our yearly Listener Week.WithLucy Riall Professor of Comparative History of Europe at the European University Institute and Professor of History at Birkbeck, University of LondonEugenio Biagini Professor of Modern and Contemporary History at the University of CambridgeandDavid Laven Associate Professor of History at the University of NottinghamProducer: Simon Tillotson.

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