Mar 17

Bonus Episode - Disappearing Doppelgängers, Viking Thralls, and the Comedy of the Sagas

In this bonus episode Sebastian takes questions about the recent series on the Viking voyages to North America. In it he reckons with the history of slavery in the Norse world, guesses at why the southern Vinland of settlement of Hóp remains undiscovered, and muses about doppelgä ... Show More

40m 57s

Mar 11

Episode #246 - How Far Did the Vikings Voyage? (Part III)

For centuries the western Norse colony of Vinland was known only to scholars of the Icelandic Sagas. But in the 19th century the work of a few Scandinavian historians helped revive interest in these previously obscure tales. When the Danish historian Carl Christian Rafn published ... Show More

1h 27m

Feb 24

Episode #245 - How Far Did the Vikings Voyage? (Part II)

The only literary sources we have about the Viking settlements west of Greenland come from the Icelandic Sagas. The only problem is that the Sagas can be totally off-the-wall. Corpses reanimate and speak prophecies, giant-eyed doppelgängers vanish into thin air, and one-legged cr ... Show More

1h 20m

May 2022

Episode #155- What Became of the Benin Bronzes? (Part II)

In 1897 Queen Victoria marked her diamond jubilee and Britain was in a celebratory mood. The British Empire had never been stronger. Few could imagine that this world-spanning empire might very well be peaking. But in 1897 Britain was in no mood for painful self-reflection. Inste ... Show More

1 h

May 2022

Episode #154- What Became of the Benin Bronzes? (Part I)

Looting has been a part of warfare since the earliest times. Despite the fact that looting was common for much of history, it was always recognized as an especially harmful and humiliating by-product of armed conflict. By the late 19th century, the looting of sacred objects and c ... Show More

1h 11m

May 2018

Tarak Barkawi, “Soldiers of Empire: Indian and British Armies in World War II” (Cambridge UP, 2017)

Tarak Barkawi, a Reader in International Relations at the London School of Economics, has written an important book that will cause many of us to rethink the way we understand the relationships between armies and societies. In Soldiers of Empire: Indian and British Armies in Worl ... Show More

38m 55s

Mar 2012

Empire and Commonwealth

The Royal Collection is one of the most wide-ranging collections of art and artefacts in the world and provides an intriguing insight into the minds of the Monarchs who assembled it. In this series, BBC Arts Editor Will Gompertz encounters dozens of these unique objects - some pr ... Show More

28m 1s

Aug 2011

Charles Townshend, “Desert Hell: The British Invasion of Mesopotamia” (Harvard University Press, 2011)

An earlier author described the British invasion of Mesopotamia in 1914 as “The Neglected War.” It no longer deserves that title thanks to the brilliant treatment of the subject by Professor Charles Townshend (University of Keele). His Desert Hell: The British Invasion of Mesopot ... Show More

1h 5m

May 2024

146. Queen Victoria: The Empire on Which the Sun Never Sets (Ep 3)

Across 1851, over 6,000,000 people went to London to see the Great Exhibition. Designed to showcase the very best of what Britain and the empire could offer the world, the event was an incontrovertible success which cemented Britain’s status as the nation at the centre of the wor ... Show More

48m 37s

Feb 2024

Comment l'Inde est-elle devenue britannique pendant 200 ans ?

<p>Mes chers camarades, bien le bonjour !</p><p>L’empire colonial anglais a été gigantesque, et encore aujourd'hui, le roi d’Angleterre a 15 couronnes de royaumes autonomes, mais tous membres d’une alliance commerciale : le Commonwealth. Alors comment les Anglais ont-ils dominé l ... Show More

14m 22s

Jan 2024

413. The Peasants' Revolt: England Erupts (Part 1)

By the late 14th century, England was in decline. Already weakened by the Hundred Years’ War, both Edward III and his son, the Black Prince, had died, leaving the country in a perilous state. Richard II, the new king, was only a child. With the poor facing increasingly harsh poll ... Show More

52m 26s

Episode #155- What Became of the Benin B...