Pocahontas

In Our Time: History

11/21/13

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41m

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Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life of Pocahontas, the Native American woman who to English eyes became a symbol of the New World. During the colonisation of Virginia in the first years of the seventeenth century, Pocahontas famously saved the life of an English prisoner, John Smith. Later captured, she converted to Christianity, married a settler and travelled to England where she was regarded as a curiosity. She died in 1617 at the age of 22 and was buried in Gravesend; her story has fascinated generations on both sides of the Atlantic, and has been reinterpreted and retold by many writers and artists.

With:

Susan Castillo Harriet Beecher Stowe Emeritus Professor of American Studies at King's College London

Tim Lockley Reader in American Studies at the University of Warwick

Jacqueline Fear-Segal Reader in American History and Culture at the University of East Anglia

Producer: Thomas Morris.

Previous Episode

The Berlin Conference

October 31, 2013

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42m

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Berlin Conference of 1884. In the 1880s, as colonial powers attempted to increase their spheres of influence in Africa, tensions began to grow between European nations including Britain, Belgium and France. In 1884 the German Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, brought together many of Europe's leading statesmen to discuss trade and colonial activities in Africa. Although the original purpose of the summit was to settle the question of territorial rights in West Africa, negotiations eventually dealt with the entire continent. The conference was part of the process known as the Scramble for Africa, and the decisions reached at it had effects which have lasted to the present day. The conference is commonly seen as one of the most significant events of the so-called Scramble for Africa; in the following decades, European nations laid claim to most of the continent. With: Richard Drayton Rhodes Professor of Imperial History at King's College London Richard Rathbone Emeritus Professor of African History at SOAS, University of London Joanna Lewis Assistant Professor of Imperial History at the LSE, University of London. Producer: Thomas Morris.

Next Episode

Pliny the Younger

December 12, 2013

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41m

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life and work of Pliny the Younger, famous for his letters. A prominent lawyer in Rome in the first century AD, Pliny later became governor of the province of Bithynia, on the Black Sea coast of modern Turkey. Throughout his career he was a prolific letter-writer, sharing his thoughts with great contemporaries including the historian Tacitus, and asking the advice of the Emperor Trajan. Pliny's letters offer fascinating insights into life in ancient Rome and its empire, from the mundane details of irrigation schemes to his vivid eyewitness account of the eruption of Vesuvius.

With:

Catharine Edwards Professor of Classics and Ancient History at Birkbeck, University of London

Roy Gibson Professor of Latin at the University of Manchester

Alice König Lecturer in Latin and Classical Studies at the University of St Andrews

Producer: Thomas Morris.