The History Hour

The History Hour

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Mexico’s Day of the Dead parade and the Pope in Peru

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes. We learn about how the James Bond film Spectre inspired Mexico City’s first Day of the Dead parade in 2016. Our guest, Professor Erica Borgstrom, takes us around the world to learn how death is celebrated ...  Show more

The Siege of Paris and earthquakes in Mexico

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes.We hear a survivor's incredible archive account of living through the Siege of Paris in 1870. Sydney Snell was in her 80s when she recorded her memories with the BBC in 1946.Our guest Professor Beatrice Heu ...  Show more

The Berlin Wall mural and a new kind of zoo

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes.American artist Keith Haring's bold 1986 mural on the Berlin Wall and British naturalist Gerald Durrell's 1950s mission to save species from extinction.We discuss other examples of art which aim to bring pe ...  Show more

The chimpanzee who learned American sign language and monkeys in space

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.We hear about the tests on baby rhesus monkeys which would become some of the most controversial in modern science. Also, the chimpanzee who apparently learned American sign langua ...  Show more