Jonathan Freedland returns with the series which looks for the past behind the present, and explores a moment in history which illuminates a contemporary debate.
Recent months have seen a slew of British military commanders voicing their concerns on everything from their forces' overstretch to equipment shortages. Generals trying to hold the line in coalition warfare while being hampered by what they see as inadequate funding as they fight both on the battlefield and in Whitehall.
But have we been here before? Can we find the concerns of General Sir Richard Dannatt and other British military leaders today being matched by the difficulties encountered by Lord Wellington two centuries ago?
Jonathan Freedland takes The Long View of the overstretched British commander – trying to act as both general and politician -- from Wellington to the present day.
He hears the views of historians, a former commander in the field, a politician -- and talks to Wellington's great great great grandson in the offices from where Wellington commanded the might of the British army.
Tuesday 30 January
Jonathan Freedland takes a look at gun culture – both now and in the 16th century when the wheel-lock pistol was a new and fearsome invention. The weapon of choice for well to do young aristocrats, pistols had also found their way onto the streets and into the hands of criminals - gun crime was up, people feared it and the authorities were trying to quell the problem.
Historian Lisa Jardine reveals that the difficulties of policing, the celebration of the gun in popular culture and the allure of carrying a weapon were all issues then just as they are now.
Jonathan Freedland also finds out about an audacious attempt to assassinate Elizabeth I using the new pistols and sees how Elizabethan attempts to legislate for guns mirror our own times. It seems that the tension between an elite culture of hunting and shooting and a popular culture of self-defence and street violence is something the British have faced for centuries.
Tuesday 23 Jan 07
Jonathan Freedland puts the rise of women in power in France and the United States into historical perspective by exploring the parallels with Margaret Thatcher’s rise to power in the 1970’s.
Segolene Royal has been nominated to run for the Socialists for the French presidency and Hilary Clinton is strongly tipped to become the Presidential candidate for the Democratic Party in the United States. Both cases set new precedents for women in French and American politics but what lessons can be learned and what parallels can be drawn from Margaret Thatcher’s journey as she made her way to Number 10?
Jonathan visits Mrs Thatcher’s house in Chelsea where her image maker was busily cultivating a house-wife persona when fighting for party leadership in 1974, and where her well stocked larder played a crucial role in the Conservative leadership contest. In the Houses of Parliament he hears how the first female leader of the opposition - also known as ‘the Iron Lady’ at this point - dealt with the overwhelmingly male debating chamber. Also, how did Saatchi and Saatchi carefully groom her image as Prime Minister in waiting and how is femininity affecting the campaigns of Ms Royal and Mrs Clinton in their own rise to power?
Tuesday 16 Jan 07
Jonathan Freedland will be at Lords cricket ground putting the Ashes whitewash into historical perspective by exploring the parallels with the only other time England have lost to Australia 5-0 - in 1921.
Captaincy and selection, injuries and ‘wives and girlfriends’, lack of nerve and media pressure - all factors blamed for England’s poor performance in this winter’s Ashes defeat but also given as reasons 86 years ago when a team led by Colonel Johnny Douglas lost the Ashes in an unprecedented drubbing by Australia. From Lords Jonathan finds out what happened when the England team returned to huge crowds - as losers - in 1921 and what winning strategy an English captain from the Victorian era of cricket came up with to beat the Australians.
From the era of master batsman Jack Hobbs and the gentlemen players to Shane Warne and corporate sponsorship; from the aftermath of the First World War to the 21st century, Jonathan Freedland takes The Long View on the Ashes whitewash.
Tuesday 9 Jan 07
Jonathan Freedland puts the panic over video games into historical perspective by going back to the scandal surrounding the arrival of the early English novel.
Fears over the dangers of video games have been raised in Parliament and there is an ongoing debate as to whether they lead to irresponsible copycat behaviour and deprive the young of an active lifestyle. In the 1740’s similar concerns were raised when Samuel Richardson’s novel ‘Pamela’ took the public imagination by storm. For the first time readers were entering a hyper-realistic world - one where a servant girl being pursued by her master - and the line between reality and fiction became blurred; the novel’s arrival also coincided with the introduction of the sofa to the nation’s reading rooms giving birth to the first ‘couch potatoes’.
Jonathan retraces the footsteps of the ‘Pamela’ controversy via Richardson’s printers near Fleet Street; an image from the novel buried deep in the Tate stores and beside an elegant 17th century sofa in a London town house. Whilst exploring the shockwaves caused by ‘Pamela’ he also explores the controversy’s parallels with today’s debate about video games.
Tuesday 2 Jan 07
As the New Year stretches ahead of us and we wonder what 2007 might hold, presenter Jonathan Freedland and guests look back to the Edwardian era and discover that many of the hopes and dreams of the year 1907 were very similar to our own.
A century ago at The Hague Conference in the Netherlands, British delegates were debating the use of weapons of mass destruction and the ethics of modern warfare. On Brownsea Island in Dorset, Robert Baden Powell was trying to solve the problems of Britain's troubled teenagers and all through the year, at White City in West London, preparations were well underway for the forthcoming Olympic Games. In ,
Roy Hattersley, Trevor Kavanagh, Hew Strachan, Pam Hibbert and the actor Edward Fox join Jonathan Freedland in the Edwardian room of the National Portrait Gallery for the Long View of 1907 in 2007.
Jonathan Freedland is an award-winning journalist and broadcaster. A weekly columnist for the Guardian and the London Evening Standard, he is the author of Bring Home the Revolution, an acclaimed analysis of modern America, and a family memoir, Jacob's Gift. Under the pseudonym Sam Bourne he has published two thrillers: The Righteous Men and The Last Testament. Read a full profile of Jonathan Freedland.
