
The First Crusade | 1. The call to arms
History Extra podcast
10/11/23
•51m
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In episode one of our series on the First Crusade, we consider how a landmark papal bull lit a fire under the idea of crusading, triggering a military machine that saw tens of thousands make an unprecedented journey into the unknown and face off against an unfamiliar enemy
When we talk about the crusades today the mental images that spring to mind are as clear as they are striking – valiant crusader knights emblazoned with crosses and penniless pilgrims in search of salvation, perhaps even a brutal clash of civilisations. But, there's more to them than that. In the first episode of our latest HistoryExtra podcast series, we’re travelling back in time to where it all started, uncovering the origins of the First Crusade. Speaking to a range of expert historians, we trace how a complex web of ideas and problems came together to form a major movement, fired with religious zeal.
The HistoryExtra podcast is produced by the team behind BBC History Magazine and BBC History Revealed.
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Re-examining women in the Roman empire
October 10, 2023
•44m
St Augustine of Hippo is one of the most influential Christian thinkers of the past 2,000 years – and his work also offers fresh insights into the lives of women in the late Roman empire. That’s the contention of the historian Kate Cooper, who has drawn on his Confessions to tell the stories of Augustine’s mother, his lover, his fiancée and the Roman empress Justina, in her Cundill History Prize-shortlisted book Queens of a Fallen World. She speaks to Rob Attar about this unique window into the 4th century.
(Ad) Kate Cooper is the author of Queens of a Fallen World: The Lost Women of Augustine's Confessions (John Murray Press, 2023). Buy it now from Waterstones: https://go.skimresources.com?id=71026X1535947&xcust=historyextra-social-histboty&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.waterstones.com%2Fbook%2Fqueens-of-a-fallen-world%2Fkate-cooper%2F9781399807968
The HistoryExtra podcast is produced by the team behind BBC History Magazine and BBC History Revealed.
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Next Episode

Slave traders: the men who built a brutal empire
October 12, 2023
•38m
The trans-Atlantic slave trade expanded greatly in the 18th century, growing from a relatively small enterprise to a global business that saw millions of African people clapped in irons, forced to undergo the tortuous Middle Passage and then sold at market in the Americas. Speaking to Rhiannon Davies, Nicholas Radburn investigates the merchants across the globe who tried to expand their bottom lines by branching out into slave trading.
(Ad) Nicholas Radburn is the author of Traders in Men: Merchants and the Transformation of the Transatlantic Slave Trade (Yale University Press, 2023). Buy it now from Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Traders-Men-Merchants-Transformation-Transatlantic/dp/0300257619/?tag=bbchistory045-21&ascsubtag=historyextra-social-histboty
The HistoryExtra podcast is produced by the team behind BBC History Magazine and BBC History Revealed.
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