• Warwick has a small number of places available in clearing in the Department of History in 2016. Our clearing hotline number is 024 7653 3544 and it will open at 8am on Thursday 18th August.

This year several of the university’s academics from the History department have taken part in BBC Radio 4’s In Our Time with Melvynn Bragg.

In Our Time is a live BBC radio discussion series exploring the history of ideas, presented by Melvyn Bragg since 15 October 1998. It is one of BBC Radio 4's most successful discussion programmes, acknowledged to have "transformed the landscape for serious ideas at peak listening time". The series attracts a weekly audience exceeding two million listeners and airs on Thursday evenings at 21:30.

 

On 26 May 2016 Tim Lockley Professor of American History at the University of Warwick took part in a discussion on Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address:

Here Tim introduces the topic prior to going on air:

Click the image to listen on BBC iPlayer:

"Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, ten sentences long, delivered at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery at Gettysburg after the Union forces had won an important battle with the Confederates. Opening with " Four score and seven years ago," it became one of the most influential statements of national purpose, asserting that America was "conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal" and "that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom-and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." Among those inspired were Martin Luther King Jr whose "I have a dream" speech, delivered at the Lincoln Memorial 100 years later, echoed Lincoln's opening words."

With

 

On 12 May 2016 Mark Knights Professor of History at the University of Warwick, took part in a discussion on Titus Oates and his 'Popish Plot' who, with Israel Tonge, spread rumours of a Catholic plot to assassinate Charles II.

Here Mark introduces the topic prior to going on air:

Click the image to listen on BBC iPlayer:

"Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Titus Oates (1649-1705) who, with Israel Tonge, spread rumours of a Catholic plot to assassinate Charles II. From 1678, they went to great lengths to support their scheme, forging evidence and identifying the supposed conspirators. Fearing a second Gunpowder Plot, Oates' supposed revelations caused uproar in London and across the British Isles, with many Catholics, particularly Jesuit priests, wrongly implicated by Oates and then executed. Anyone who doubted him had to keep quiet, to avoid being suspected a sympathiser and thrown in prison. Oates was eventually exposed, put on trial under James II and sentenced by Judge Jeffreys to public whipping through the streets of London, but the question remained: why was this rogue, who had faced perjury charges before, ever believed?"

With

Mark Knights Professor of History at the University of Warwick

 

On 17 March 2016 Hilary Marland Professor of History at the University of Warwick took part in a discussion on Bedlam the name commonly used for the London hospital of St Mary of Bethlehem outside Bishopsgate.

Click the image to listen on BBC iPlayer:

 

"Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the early years of Bedlam, the name commonly used for the London hospital of St Mary of Bethlehem outside Bishopsgate, described in 1450 by the Lord Mayor of London as a place where may "be found many men that be fallen out of their wit. And full honestly they be kept in that place; and some be restored onto their wit and health again. And some be abiding therein for ever." As Bethlem, or Bedlam, it became a tourist attraction in the 17th Century at its new site in Moorfields and, for its relatively small size, made a significant impression on public attitudes to mental illness. The illustration, above, is from the eighth and final part of Hogarth's 'A Rake's Progress' (1732-3), where Bedlam is the last stage in the decline and fall of a young spendthrift,Tom Rakewell."

With

Hilary Marland Professor of History at the University of Warwick

 

On 3 March 2016 Chris Nierstrasz Lecturer in Global History took part in a discussion on the Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie or VOC, known in English as the Dutch East India Company.

Click the image to listen on BBC iPlayer:

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie or VOC, known in English as the Dutch East India Company. The VOC dominated the spice trade between Asia and Europe for two hundred years, with the British East India Company a distant second. At its peak, the VOC had a virtual monopoly on nutmeg, mace, cloves and cinnamon, displacing the Portuguese and excluding the British, and were the only European traders allowed access to Japan.

With

Chris Nierstrasz Lecturer in Global History at Erasmus University, Rotterdam, formerly at the University of Warwick

Contact:

Alex Buxton

Communications Manager
Tel: 02476 150423
Mob: 07876 218166
a.buxton.1@warwick.ac.uk