The Battle of Britain: everything you wanted ...

Mount Rushmore is one of the most iconic images in US history – but its story is far more complex and controversial than that of a simple sculpture. In this episode, historian Matthew Davis joins Elinor Evans to discuss his latest book, A Biography of a Mountain, which delves int ...  Show more

She led “a life that really, in many ways, shouldn't have been possible”. So says historian Paul Gillingham of Juana Inés de la Cruz. This 17th-century polymath and nun challenged a host of social conventions – earning, through her extraordinary books and poems, a place in the pa ...  Show more

In a moment of great danger to national survival, the Royal Air Force defended the United Kingdom against large scale attacks by the Luftwaffe. So how did the Battle of Britain play out? What was Germany’s objective? And how important was it to the direction of the Second World W ...  Show more

In the summer of 1940, the Battle of Britain saw 3,000 airmen risk their lives to defend British shores from the Nazis. But as the pilots battled overhead, what was life like for those supporting them on the ground, and the people of Britain they sought to protect? What was Hitle ...  Show more

The Battle of the Somme was supposed to be the joint British-French offensive that would win the First World War. A string of battles spread over five months, it involved everything from cavalry charges, poison gas, and the debut of the tank. But the Somme was anything but victor ...  Show more

Fought in the second half of 1942, the Battles of El Alamein were a series of climactic confrontations in Egypt between British Imperial and Commonwealth forces, and a combined German and Italian army. Intended as a last-ditch attempts by the British to halt German gains in No ...