Stranger danger? Xenophobia’s unexpected hist...

Why should you be careful about who's first through your door on New Year's Day? What led people to believe that newts and earwigs were responsible for their ailments? And why do sticks play such a key part in children's imaginations? Ceri Houlbrook and Owen Davies, co-authors of ...  Afficher plus

‘Evil genius’ is a phrase that could have been invented to describe Augustus, the first emperor of Rome. Augustus butchered his way to power in the chaos that followed Julius Caesar's assassination, and then showed the political cunning to remain there for four decades. In conver ...  Afficher plus

Strangers: Laurie Taylor explores Xenophobia, the fear or hatred of those we do not know. Evolutionary psychologists often describe it as a natural and timeless phenomenon rooted in ancient history. But how accurate is that bleak assessment? George Makari, historian and Director ...  Afficher plus

History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme, said Mark Twain. From the fall of the Roman Empire to the rise of the modern world: history ebbs and flows over the centuries, driven by great tides of economic, social, political, religious, and cultural change that shap ...

When you look back at your happiest moments, you’ll find that even the best times in life are not without fear. In this episode of Thick & Thin, I’m retracing my steps to find the times I let fear write my story. We talk about fighting the fear of “what if”, what to do when you f ...  Afficher plus

It's often said that the past is a foreign country, where our basic assumptions about how the world is supposed to work don't apply. But what does that mean for the practice of history? Professor Greg Anderson has fascinating ideas about how to actually understand the people o ...