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In Our Time

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	Melvyn Bragg and guests investigate the history of ideas. Thursday 9.00-9.45am, repeated 9.30pm.

	History Archive
	You can listen again to all the programmes online. The most recent programmes appear at the top of the page.


	The Glencoe Massacre - "Murder Under Trust" The Samurai - from civil warriors to civil servants The Silk Road - from Dunhuang to Samarkand Sparta - the anti-Athens The Siege of Münster - Apocalypse 1535 The Death of Elizabeth I - plots, plague and politics The Dreyfus Affair - the scandal that tore France apart Akhenaten - history's first individual The Trial of Charles I - the original courtroom drama

	The Siege of Vienna - a clash of civilisations? Magna Carta - foundation of law or rich man's charter? Suffragism - the long march towards votes for women The Boxer Rebellion - "Kill all Foreigners!" The Destruction of Carthage - "Delenda Carthago!" A History of History - how the writing of history has evolved The Great Fire of London - London's burning, fetch the engines... The Great Reform Act: reform - but was it great? Simón Bolívar - the liberator of Spanish America

	The Translation Movement - Aristotle in Arabic Tacitus - The Decadence of Rome The Arab Conquests - the 7th century new world order The Riddle of the Sands - how Britain learned to fear the Germans Trofim Lysenko - Joseph Stalin's chief geneticist The Black Death - a plague on all our houses The Enclosures - dividing the country Yeats and Irish Politics - "a terrible beauty is born" The Norman Yoke - 1067 and all that

	The Dissolution of the Monasteries - religion in ruins The Statue of Liberty - From France with love... The Court of Rudolf II - the lost powerhouse of Renaissance ideas The Charge of the Light Brigade - "All in the valley of Death rode the six hundred" The Sassanian Empire - in the shadow of Ancient Persia Divine Right of Kings - "there's such divinity doth hedge a king" The Pilgrim Fathers - the original American dream Siegfried Sassoon - the poet who survived The Siege of Orleans - did Joan of Arc really rescue France?

	Opium Wars - a conflict that was to affect British-Chinese relations for generations Bismarck - the Iron Chancellor William Wilberforce - the man and his legacy Genghis Khan - founder of one of the world's largest ever land-based empires The Siege of Constantinople - the end of a thousand years of the Byzantine Empire The Peasants' Revolt - a lasting legacy for popular uprising? The Spanish Inquisition - one of the most barbaric episodes in European history The Great Exhibition - a wonder of the Victorian world The Carolingian Renaissance - the revival of early medieval Western Europe Catherine the Great - the Enlightened Despot of Eighteenth Century Russia The Abbasid Caliphs - when Baghdad ruled the Muslim world.

	Seventeenth Century Print Culture - piety, populism and political protest The Oath - guaranteeing law, government and the army in the Classical world The Peterloo Massacre - democratic protest and brutal repression Field of the Cloth of Gold - a Renaissance entente cordiale The Terror - when Madame Guillotine ruled France Abelard and Heloise - love, sex and theology in 12th century Paris Alfred and the Battle of Edington - without Alfred, no England? The Assassination of Tsar Alexander II - did his killing cause the Russian Revolution? The Roman Republic - what were Rome's republican ideals? Machiavelli and the Italian City States - high politics and low cunning in the Italian Renaissance The Venerable Bede - the father of English history

	Agincourt - the real facts behind the battle. The Odyssey - Homer's epic tale of Odysseus' return home George Washington and the American Revolution - the most significant event in history Babylon - the great forgotten civilisation Tea - an empire in a teacup China: The Warring States Period - the fiery beginnings of Chinese civilisation The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire The Mughal Empire - the glory of India The Battle of Thermopylae - battle that defined East & West The Alphabet - its creation and development Robin Hood - the greatest of English myths.

	The East India Co - a corporate route to Empire. The Aristocracy - how the ruling class survives The Art of War - maintaining the objective? The Jacobite Rebellion - could it have succeeded? Roman Britain - the effects of 400 years of occupation The Spanish Civil War - causes and legacy

	The Aztecs - looking behind the myths Victorian Realism - how real? Slavery and empire - were Britons also captives? Architecture and power - imagery of imperialism The History of Heritage - its influence on national identity The American West - was it an "experiment of liberty"? Bohemia - what did it mean to be Bohemian? The Celts - what were the Celts in Britain really like? Marriage - its various forms and the role of the State John Milton - poet or politician?