Edward the Confessor: life of the week
Edward the Confessor, England’s penultimate Anglo-Saxon king, has long been remembered as a saintly, pious monarch – but was he really the weak ruler whose indecision paved the way for the Norman Conq...
25 Aug 202549min
Britain and the Caribbean: from slavery to Black Lives Matter
Histories of British involvement in the Caribbean tend to focus mainly on the period of plantation slavery but, in her new book Empire Without End, Imaobong Umoren argues that we need to take a broade...
24 Aug 202530min
Nationalism: everything you wanted to know
Human beings tend to identify with being in a group, and, historically, few groupings have been more potent than the idea of the nation. But when did people first embrace the idea of the nation state?...
23 Aug 202545min
Preview: The forgers who faked a fortune
In 1775, a respectable lady, a mild-mannered apothecary and his fast-living identical twin stood accused of pulling off a scam that had earnt them a fortune. But as their trial unfolded, the defendant...
22 Aug 20258min
From dodos to 'lost' tribes: a history of extinction
After causing the extinction of the dodo, humans soon realised that we had the power to destroy entire species – and we continue to reckon with that power. Speaking to James Osborne, Sadiah Qureshi di...
21 Aug 202535min
Europe's last pagans
Christianity came to dominate Europe in the Middle Ages. However, some parts of Europe remained pagan until very recently. So how did non-Christian peoples survive, and prosper, in parts of Europe for...
19 Aug 202541min
VJ Day and the story of women's football: history behind the headlines
In the latest episode of our monthly series charting the historical background of current news events, historians Hannah Skoda and Rana Mitter discuss how VJ Day is remembered 80 years on – and explor...
18 Aug 202545min
The tangled legacies of two Americas
For centuries, North and Latin America have been locked in a relationship of rivalry and reciprocity. From revolutionary dreams to imperial ambitions, their fates have never been separate. Speaking to...
17 Aug 202538min
