History of Ideas: George Orwell

The first of a two-part conversation in which David talks to Helen Thompson about how to understand the extraordinary and unlikely power of the United States, from its origins to its current incarnation. How strange would it once have seemed to live in a world dominated by a stat ...  Show more

For the final episode in this series David talks to historian and political scientist Glen Rangwala about the trial and execution of Saddam Hussein in 2006. What plans did the Americans have for Saddam before the Iraq war began? How was it decided what to charge him with once he ...  Show more

The novel Animal Farm was an allegory about the dangers of Soviet communism and of the communist leader Joseph Stalin. It was first published shortly after the end of World War Two, as the Cold War was just beginning. Louise Hidalgo has been speaking to Orwell's adopted son, Rich ...  Show more

The vision of the future evoked in George Orwell’s last novel Nineteen Eighty-Four was so terrifying to its first readers that some claimed to be unable to sleep at night. When the book was adapted by the BBC for the new medium of television after Orwell’s death, millions became ...  Show more

George Orwell depicts what a world could possibly look like under an authoritarian regime in his dystopian novel 1984, coining neologisms such as Big Brother, Thoughtcrime and Doublethink.    

Published in 1949, it remains highly influential in popular cu ...

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Animal Farm, which Eric Blair published under his pen name George Orwell in 1945. A biting critique of totalitarianism, particularly Stalinism, the essay sprung from Orwell's experiences fighting Fascists in Spain: he thought that all on the left w ...  Show more