In Our Time

BBC Podcasts
  • 4.6 (366)
  • HISTORY
In Our Time

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Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas, people and events that have shaped our world.

  1. 21 NOV • SUBSCRIBER EARLY ACCESS

    Little Women

    To access this episode early and ad-free, subscribe to BBC Podcast Premium on Apple Podcasts. The episode will be available for free with adverts on 21 November. Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Louisa May Alcott's 1868 novel, credited with starting the new genre of young adult fiction. When Alcott (1832-88) wrote Little Women, she only did so as her publisher refused to publish her father's book otherwise and as she hoped it would make money. It made Alcott's fortune. This coming of age story of Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy March, each overcoming their own moral flaws, has delighted generations of readers and was so popular from the start that Alcott wrote the second part in 1869 and further sequels and spin-offs in the coming years. Her work has inspired countless directors, composers and authors to make many reimagined versions ever since, with the sisters played by film actors such as Katherine Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, Winona Ryder, Claire Danes, Kirsten Dunst, Saoirse Ronan and Emma Watson. With Bridget Bennett Professor of American Literature and Culture at the University of Leeds Erin Forbes Senior Lecturer in African American and U.S. Literature at the University of Bristol And Tom Wright Reader in Rhetoric and Head of the Department of English Literature at the University of Sussex Producer: Simon Tillotson Reading list: Louisa May Alcott (ed. Madeline B Stern), Behind a Mask: The Unknown Thrillers of Louisa May Alcott (William Morrow & Co, 1997) Kate Block, Jenny Zhang, Carmen Maria Machado and Jane Smiley, March Sisters: On Life, Death, and Little Women (Library of America, 2019) Anne Boyd Rioux, Meg, Jo, Beth, Amy: The Story of Little Women and Why It Still Matters (W. W. Norton & Company, 2018) Azelina Flint, The Matrilineal Heritage of Louisa May Alcott and Christina Rossetti (Routledge, 2021) Robert Gross, The Transcendentalists and Their World (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2022) John Matteson, Eden’s Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father (W. W. Norton & Company, 2007) Bethany C. Morrow, So Many Beginnings: A Little Women Remix (St Martin’s Press, 2021) Anne K. Phillips and Gregory Eiselein (eds.), Critical Insights: Louisa May Alcott (Grey House Publishing Inc, 2016) Harriet Reisen, Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women (Picador, 2010) Daniel Shealy (ed.), Little Women at 150 (University of Mississippi Press, 2022) Elaine Showalter, A Jury of Her Peers: American Women Writers from Anne Bradstreet to Annie Proulx (Virago, 2009) Simon Sleight and Shirleene Robinson (eds.), Children, Childhood and Youth in the British World (Palgrave, 2016), especially “The ‘Willful’ Girl in the Anglo-World: Sentimental Heroines and Wild Colonial Girls” by Hilary Emmett Madeleine B. Stern, Louisa May Alcott: A Biography (first published 1950; Northeastern University Press, 1999) In Our Time is a BBC Studios Audio Production

    47 min

  2. 14 NOV • SUBSCRIBER EARLY ACCESS

    Hayek's The Road to Serfdom

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Austrian-British economist Friedrich Hayek's The Road to Serfdom (1944) in which Hayek (1899-1992) warned that the way Britain was running its wartime economy would not work in peacetime and could lead to tyranny. His target was centralised planning, arguing this disempowered individuals and wasted their knowledge, while empowering those ill-suited to run an economy. He was concerned about the support for the perceived success of Soviet centralisation, when he saw this and Fascist systems as two sides of the same coin. When Reader's Digest selectively condensed Hayek’s book in 1945, and presented it not so much as a warning against tyranny as a proof against socialism, it became phenomenally influential around the world. With Bruce Caldwell Research Professor of Economics at Duke University and Director of the Center for the History of Political Economy Melissa Lane The Class of 1943 Professor of Politics at Princeton University and the 50th Professor of Rhetoric at Gresham College in London And Ben Jackson Professor of Modern History and fellow of University College at the University of Oxford Producer: Simon Tillotson Reading list: Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free Markets Since the Depression (Harvard University Press, 2012) Bruce Caldwell, Hayek’s Challenge: An Intellectual Biography of F.A. Hayek (University of Chicago Press, 2004) Bruce Caldwell, ‘The Road to Serfdom After 75 Years’ (Journal of Economic Literature 58, 2020) Bruce Caldwell and Hansjoerg Klausinger, Hayek: A Life 1899-1950 (University of Chicago Press, 2022) M. Desai, Marx’s Revenge: The Resurgence of Capitalism and the Death of Statist Socialism (Verso, 2002) Edward Feser (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Hayek (Cambridge University Press, 2006) Andrew Gamble, Hayek: The Iron Cage of Liberty (Polity, 1996) Friedrich Hayek, Collectivist Economic Planning (first published 1935; Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2015), especially ‘The Nature and History of the Problem’ and ‘The Present State of the Debate’ by Friedrich Hayek Friedrich Hayek (ed. Bruce Caldwell), The Road to Serfdom: Text and Documents: The Definitive Edition (first published 1944; Routledge, 2008. Also vol. 2 of The Collected Works of F. A. Hayek, University of Chicago Press, 2007) Friedrich Hayek, The Road to Serfdom: Condensed Version (Institute of Economic Affairs, 2005; The Reader’s Digest condensation of the book) Friedrich Hayek, ‘The Use of Knowledge in Society’ (American Economic Review, vol. 35, 1945; vol. 15 of The Collected Works of F. A. Hayek, University of Chicago Press) Friedrich Hayek, Individualism and Economic Order (first published 1948; University of Chicago Press, 1996), especially the essays ‘Economics and Knowledge’ (1937), ‘Individualism: True and False’ (1945), and ‘The Use of Knowledge in Society’ (1945) Friedrich Hayek, The Constitution of Liberty (first published 1960; Routledge, 2006) Friedrich Hayek, Law. Legislation and Liberty: A new statement of the liberal principles of justice and political economy (first published 1973 in 3 volumes; single vol. edn, Routledge, 2012) Ben Jackson, ‘Freedom, the Common Good and the Rule of Law: Hayek and Lippmann on Economic Planning’ (Journal of the History of Ideas 73, 2012) Robert Leeson (ed.), Hayek: A Collaborative Biography Part I (Palgrave, 2013), especially ‘The Genesis and Reception of The Road to Serfdom’ by Melissa Lane In Our Time is a BBC Studios Audio Production

    52 min

  3. 7 NOV • SUBSCRIBER EARLY ACCESS

    Robert Graves

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the author of 'I, Claudius' who was also one of the finest poets of the twentieth century. Robert Graves (1895 -1985) placed his poetry far above his prose. He once declared that from the age of 15 poetry had been his ruling passion and that he lived his life according to poetic principles, writing in prose only to pay the bills and that he bred the pedigree dogs of his prose to feed the cats of his poetry. Yet it’s for his prose that he’s most famous today, including 'I Claudius', his brilliant account of the debauchery of Imperial Rome, and 'Goodbye to All That', the unforgettable memoir of his early life including the time during the First World War when he was so badly wounded at the Somme that The Times listed him as dead. With Paul O’Prey Emeritus Professor of Modern Literature at the University of Roehampton, London Fran Brearton Professor of Modern Poetry at Queen’s University, Belfast And Bob Davis Professor of Religious and Cultural Education at the University of Glasgow Producer: Simon Tillotson Robert Graves (ed. Paul O'Prey), In Broken Images: Selected Letters of Robert Graves 1914-1946 (Hutchinson, 1982) Robert Graves (ed. Paul O'Prey), Between Moon and Moon: Selected letters of Robert Graves 1946-1972 (Hutchinson, 1984) Robert Graves (ed. Beryl Graves and Dunstan Ward), The Complete Poems (Penguin Modern Classics, 2003) Robert Graves, I, Claudius (republished by Penguin, 2006) Robert Graves, King Jesus (republished by Penguin, 2011) Robert Graves, The White Goddess (republished by Faber, 1999) Robert Graves, The Greek Myths (republished by Penguin, 2017) Robert Graves (ed. Michael Longley), Selected Poems (Faber, 2013) Robert Graves (ed. Fran Brearton, intro. Andrew Motion), Goodbye to All That: An Autobiography: The Original Edition (first published 1929; Penguin Classics, 2014) William Graves, Wild Olives: Life in Majorca with Robert Graves (Pimlico, 2001) Richard Perceval Graves, Robert Graves: The Assault Heroic, 1895-1926 (Macmillan, 1986, vol. 1 of the biography) Richard Perceval Graves, Robert Graves: The Years with Laura, 1926-1940 (Viking, 1990, vol. 2 of the biography) Richard Perceval Graves, Robert Graves and the White Goddess, 1940-1985 (Orion, 1995, vol. 3 of the biography) Miranda Seymour: Robert Graves: Life on the Edge (Henry Holt & Co, 1995) In Our Time is a BBC Studios Audio Production

    54 min

  4. 31 OCT • SUBSCRIBER EARLY ACCESS

    The Haymarket Affair

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the notorious attack of 4th of May 1886 at a workers rally in Chicago when somebody threw a bomb that killed a policeman, Mathias J. Degan. The chaotic shooting that followed left more people dead and sent shockwaves across America and Europe. This was in Haymarket Square at a protest for an eight hour working day following a call for a general strike and the police killing of striking workers the day before, at a time when labour relations in America were marked by violent conflict. The bomber was never identified but two of the speakers at the rally, both of then anarchists and six of their supporters were accused of inciting murder. Four of them, George Engel, Adolph Fischer, Albert Parsons, and August Spies were hanged on 11th November 1887 only to be pardoned in the following years while a fifth, Louis Ling, had killed himself after he was convicted. The May International Workers Day was created in their memory. With Ruth Kinna Professor of Political Theory at Loughborough University Christopher Phelps Associate Professor of American Studies at the University of Nottingham And Gary Gerstle Paul Mellon Professor of American History Emeritus at the University of Cambridge Producer: Simon Tillotson Reading list: Paul Avrich, The Haymarket Tragedy (Princeton University Press, 1984) Henry David, The History of the Haymarket Affair (Collier Books, 1963) James Green, Death in the Haymarket: A Story of Chicago, the First Labor Movement and the Bombing that Divided Gilded Age America (Pantheon, 2006) Carl Levy and Matthew S. Adams (eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of Anarchism (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), especially 'Haymarket and the Rise of Syndicalism' by Kenyon Zimmer Franklin Rosemont and David Roediger, Haymarket Scrapbook: 125th Anniversary Edition (AK Press, 2012) In Our Time is a BBC Studios Audio Production

    51 min

  5. 1 DAY AGO

    Wormholes

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the tantalising idea that there are shortcuts between distant galaxies, somewhere out there in the universe. The idea emerged in the context of Einstein's theories and the challenge has been not so much to prove their unlikely existence as to show why they ought to be impossible. The universe would have to folded back on itself in places, and there would have to be something to make the wormholes and then to keep them open. But is there anywhere in the vast universe like that? Could there be holes that we or more advanced civilisations might travel through, from one galaxy to another and, if not, why not? With Toby Wiseman Professor of Theoretical Physics at Imperial College London Katy Clough Senior Lecturer in Mathematics at Queen Mary, University of London And Andrew Pontzen Professor of Cosmology at Durham University Producer: Simon Tillotson Reading list: Jim Al-Khalili, Black Holes, Wormholes and Time Machines (Taylor & Francis, 1999) Andrew Pontzen, The Universe in a Box: Simulations and the Quest to Code the Cosmos (Riverhead Books, 2023) Claudia de Rham, The Beauty of Falling: A Life in Pursuit of Gravity (Princeton University Press, 2024) Carl Sagan, Contact (Simon and Schuster, 1985) Kip Thorne, Black Holes & Time Warps: Einstein's Outrageous Legacy (W. W. Norton & Company, 1994) Kip Thorne, Science of Interstellar (W. W. Norton & Company, 2014) Matt Visser, Lorentzian Wormholes: From Einstein to Hawking (American Institute of Physics Melville, NY, 1996) In Our Time is a BBC Studios Audio Production

    1h 1m

  6. 17 OCT

    Benjamin Disraeli

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the major figures in Victorian British politics. Disraeli (1804 -1881) served both as Prime Minister twice and, for long periods, as leader of the opposition. Born a Jew, he was only permitted to enter Parliament as his father had him baptised into the Church of England when he was twelve. Disraeli was a gifted orator and, outside Parliament, he shared his views widely through several popular novels including Sybil or The Two Nations, which was to inspire the idea of One Nation Conservatism. He became close to Queen Victoria and she mourned his death with a primrose wreath, an event marked for years after by annual processions celebrating his life in politics. With Lawrence Goldman Emeritus Fellow in History at St Peter's College, University of Oxford Emily Jones Lecturer in Modern British History at the University of Manchester And Daisy Hay Professor of English Literature and Life Writing at the University of Exeter Producer: Simon Tillotson Reading list: Robert Blake, Disraeli (first published 1966; Faber & Faber, 2010) M. Dent, ‘Disraeli and the Bible’ (Journal of Victorian Culture 29, 2024) Benjamin Disraeli (ed. N. Shrimpton), Sybil; or, The Two Nations (Oxford University Press, 2017) Daisy Hay, Mr and Mrs Disraeli: A Strange Romance (Chatto & Windus, 2015) Douglas Hurd and Edward Young, Disraeli: or, The Two Lives (W&N, 2014) Emily Jones, ‘Impressions of Disraeli: Mythmaking and the History of One Nation Conservatism, 1881-1940’ (French Journal of British Studies 28, 2023) William Kuhn, The Politics of Pleasure: A Portrait of Benjamin Disraeli (Simon & Schuster, 2007) Robert O'Kell, Disraeli: The Romance of Politics (University of Toronto Press, 2013) J.P. Parry, ‘Disraeli and England’ (Historical Journal 43, 2000) J.P. Parry, ‘Disraeli, the East and Religion: Tancred in Context’ (English Historical Review 132, 2017) Cecil Roth, Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield (New York Philosophical library, 1952) Paul Smith, Disraelian Conservatism and Social Reform (Routledge & Kegan Paul PLC, 1967) John Vincent, Disraeli (Oxford University Press, 1990) P.J. Waller (ed.), Politics and Social Change in Modern Britain (Prentice Hall / Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1987), especially the chapter ‘Style and Substance in Disraelian Social Reform’ by P. Ghosh In Our Time is a BBC Studios Audio Production

    51 min

  7. 10 OCT

    Mitochondria (Summer Repeat)

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the power-packs within cells in all complex life on Earth. Inside each cell of every complex organism there are structures known as mitochondria. The 19th century scientists who first observed them thought they were bacteria which had somehow invaded the cells they were studying. We now understand that mitochondria take components from the food we eat and convert them into energy. Mitochondria are essential for complex life, but as the components that run our metabolisms they can also be responsible for a range of diseases – and they probably play a role in how we age. The DNA in mitochondria is only passed down the maternal line. This means it can be used to trace population movements deep into human history, even back to an ancestor we all share: mitochondrial Eve. With Mike Murphy Professor of Mitochondrial Redox Biology at the University of Cambridge Florencia Camus NERC Independent Research Fellow at University College London Nick Lane Professor of Evolutionary Biochemistry at University College London Producer Luke Mulhall In Our Time is a BBC Studios Audio Production

    51 min

  8. 3 OCT

    Thomas Hardy's Poetry (Summer Repeat)

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Thomas Hardy (1840 -1928) and his commitment to poetry, which he prized far above his novels. In the 1890s, once he had earned enough from his fiction, Hardy stopped writing novels altogether and returned to the poetry he had largely put aside since his twenties. He hoped that he might be ranked one day alongside Shelley and Byron, worthy of inclusion in a collection such as Palgrave's Golden Treasury which had inspired him. Hardy kept writing poems for the rest of his life, in different styles and metres, and he explored genres from nature, to war, to epic. Among his best known are what he called his Poems of 1912 to 13, responding to his grief at the death of his first wife, Emma (1840 -1912), who he credited as the one who had made it possible for him to leave his work as an architect's clerk and to write the novels that made him famous. With Mark Ford Poet, and Professor of English and American Literature, University College London Jane Thomas Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Hull and Senior Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Leeds Tim Armstrong Professor of Modern English and American Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London Producer: Simon Tillotson In Our Time is a BBC Studios Audio Production

    51 min

  9. 26 SEPT

    Charisma (Summer Repeat)

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the idea of charismatic authority developed by Max Weber (1864-1920) to explain why people welcome some as their legitimate rulers and follow them loyally, for better or worse, while following others only dutifully or grudgingly. Weber was fascinated by those such as Napoleon (above) and Washington who achieved power not by right, as with traditional monarchs, or by law as with the bureaucratic world around him in Germany, but by revolution or insurrection. Drawing on the experience of religious figures, he contended that these leaders, often outsiders, needed to be seen as exceptional, heroic and even miraculous to command loyalty, and could stay in power for as long as the people were enthralled and the miracles they had promised kept coming. After the Second World War, Weber's idea attracted new attention as a way of understanding why some reviled leaders once had mass support and, with the arrival of television, why some politicians were more engaging and influential on screen than others. With Linda Woodhead, The FD Maurice Professor and Head of the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at King's College London David Bell, The Lapidus Professor in the Department of History at Princeton University Tom Wright, Reader in Rhetoric at the University of Sussex Producer: Simon Tillotson In Our Time is a BBC Studios Audio Production

    53 min

  10. 22 AUG • SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

    Nineteen Eighty-Four (Summer Repeat)

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss George Orwell's (1903-1950) final novel, published in 1949, set in a dystopian London which is now found in Airstrip One, part of the totalitarian superstate of Oceania which is always at war and where the protagonist, Winston Smith, works at the Ministry of Truth as a rewriter of history: 'Who controls the past,' ran the Party slogan, 'controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.' The influence of Orwell's novel is immeasurable, highlighting threats to personal freedom with concepts he named such as doublespeak, thoughtcrime, Room 101, Big Brother, memory hole and thought police. With David Dwan Professor of English Literature and Intellectual History at the University of Oxford Lisa Mullen Teaching Associate in Modern Contemporary Literature at the University of Cambridge And John Bowen Professor of English Literature at the University of York Producer: Simon Tillotson In Our Time is a BBC Sounds Audio Production

    52 min

  11. 15 AUG • SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

    The Sistine Chapel (Summer Repeat)

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the astonishing work of Michelangelo (1477-1564) in this great chapel in the Vatican, firstly the ceiling with images from Genesis (of which the image above is a detail) and later The Last Judgement on the altar wall. For the Papacy, Michelangelo's achievement was a bold affirmation of the spiritual and political status of the Vatican, of Rome and of the Catholic Church. For the artist himself, already famous as the sculptor of David in Florence, it was a test of his skill and stamina, and of the potential for art to amaze which he realised in his astonishing mastery of the human form. With Catherine Fletcher Professor of History at Manchester Metropolitan University Sarah Vowles The Smirnov Family Curator of Italian and French Prints and Drawings at the British Museum And Matthias Wivel The Aud Jebsen Curator of Sixteenth-Century Italian Paintings at the National Gallery Producer: Simon Tillotson In Our Time is a BBC Studios Audio Production

    55 min
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Hosts & Guests

4.6
out of 5
366 Ratings

About

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas, people and events that have shaped our world.

Information

  • Channel
    BBC Podcasts
  • Creator
    BBC Radio 4
  • Years Active
    2005 - 2024
  • Episodes
    1.1K
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © (C) BBC 2024
  • Show Website
    In Our Time
  • Provider

    BBC Studios Distribution Limited has identified itself as a trader for this podcast and confirmed that this product or service complies with European Union law. Address 1 Television Centre 101 Wood Lane London London W12 7FA United Kingdom Phone Number +44 7590176301 Email greg.styger@bbc.com

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