The Putney Debates
In Our Time: History
04/18/13
•41m
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Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Putney Debates. For several weeks in late 1647, after the defeat of King Charles I in the first hostilities of the Civil War, representatives of the New Model Army and the radical Levellers met in a church in Putney to debate the future of England. There was much to discuss: who should be allowed to vote, civil liberties and religious freedom. The debates were inconclusive, but the ideas aired in Putney had a considerable influence on centuries of political thought.
With:
Justin Champion Professor of the History of Early Modern Ideas at Royal Holloway, University of London
Ann Hughes Professor of Early Modern History at Keele University
Kate Peters Fellow in History at Murray Edwards College, Cambridge.
Producer: Thomas Morris.
Previous Episode
Alfred Russel Wallace
March 21, 2013
•42m
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the work of Alfred Russel Wallace, a pioneer of evolutionary theory. Born in 1823, Wallace travelled extensively, charting the distribution of animal species throughout the world. This fieldwork in the Amazon and later the Malay Archipelago led him to formulate a theory of evolution through natural selection. In 1858 he sent the paper he wrote on the subject to Charles Darwin, who was spurred into the writing and publication of his own masterpiece On the Origin of Species. Wallace was also the founder of the science of biogeography and made important discoveries about the nature of animal coloration. But despite his visionary work, Wallace has been overshadowed by the greater fame of his contemporary Darwin.
With:
Steve Jones Emeritus Professor of Genetics at University College London
George Beccaloni Curator of Cockroaches and Related Insects and Director of the Wallace Correspondence Project at the Natural History Museum
Ted Benton Professor of Sociology at the University of Essex
Producer: Thomas Morris.
Next Episode
Queen Zenobia
May 30, 2013
•42m
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Queen Zenobia, a famous military leader of the ancient world. Born in around 240 AD, Zenobia was Empress of the Palmyrene Empire in the Middle East. A highly educated, intelligent and militarily accomplished leader, she claimed descent from Dido and Cleopatra and spoke many languages, including Egyptian. Zenobia led a rebellion against the Roman Empire and conquered Egypt before being finally defeated by the Emperor Aurelian. Her story captured the imagination of many Renaissance writers, and has become the subject of numerous operas, poems and plays.
With:
Edith Hall Professor of Classics at King's College, London
Kate Cooper Professor of Ancient History at the University of Manchester
Richard Stoneman Honorary Visiting Professor in the Department of Classics and Ancient History at the University of Exeter.
Producer: Thomas Morris.
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