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IN OUR TIME
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PROGRAMME INFO |
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The big ideas which form the intellectual agenda of our age are illuminated by some of the best minds in the world. Melvyn Bragg and three guests investigate the history of ideas and debate their application in modern life. |
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LISTEN TO THE LATEST PROGRAMME |
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PRESENTER |
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BIOGRAPHY |
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| "I'm fascinated by the fact that we live in a time when so many people are doing fantastic work, and thinking in areas which it's not remotely possible for me to keep up with & and these people are prepared to talk about it. They're prepared to come on In Our Time and other programmes on Radio 4 and try and talk to the rest of us ..." |
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LATEST PROGRAMME |
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JOHN MILTON
If it wasn't for the poet Andrew Marvell we wouldn't have the
later works of John Milton; Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained and Samson
Agonistes.
Milton spent the English Civil Wars as a prominent politician and right
hand man to Oliver Cromwell. When the Monarchy was restored in 1660 it
was only Marvell's intervention that saved Milton from execution. By
then, Marvell argued, Milton was old and blind and posed no threat to
Charles II.
But as a young man Milton had been an activist and pamphleteer
extraordinaire. Allegedly inspired by a meeting with Galileo he wrote in
passionate defence of Liberty. He detested the Church's insistence on
empty ritual. And most dramatically for his time he demanded that the
state serve its people rather than the people serve the state.
How then should we remember Milton - as poet or politician? As an
idealist or an apologist for a revolutionary yet intolerant regime? And
was he a man at one with the people or an elitist who preached to the
masses but lived his own life only in the most rarefied of circles?
Guests
John Carey, Emeritus Professor of English Literature at Oxford University and co-editor of Longmans' edition of Milton's Complete Poems.
Lisa Jardine, Professor of Renaissance Studies at Queen Mary College, University of London and Honorary Fellow of King's College
Cambridge.
Blair Worden, Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Sussex and author of Roundhead Reputations - The English Civil Wars and the Passions of Posterity.
Listen to John Carey
Listen to Lisa Jardine
Listen to Blair Worden
Listen to conclusion
NEXT WEEK - THE BUDDHA
Next week we hope to reach enlightenment when we will be discussing The Buddha, and asking why the ideas that defined the ancient civilisations of South East Asia are now finding a new and eager home in the West?
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