The Invention of the Raincoat

<p>The first installment of the deeper examination of Charles Sumner's life begins with his early years, including his close relationships with Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Samuel Gridley Howe.</p> <p><strong>Research:</strong></p> <ul> <li>"Sumner, Charles (1811-1874)." Encycl ... Show More

<p>This 2019 episode covers Thomas Cook, a pioneer of the idea of a travel agency to manage tourist holidays. But Cook was initially motivated by his support of the temperance movement and his deeply held religious beliefs.&nbsp;</p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener ... Show More

<p>Tracy and Holly talk about the proclivity for destruction that was part of the balloon craze. They also discuss cat trees and how hard it is to find one that's cute.&nbsp;</p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.< ... Show More

On 16 September 1890, inventor Louis Le Prince boarded a train to Paris and vanished without a trace. In his book The Man Who Invented Motion Pictures, Paul Fischer explores his life and disappearance. Speaking to Ellie Cawthorne, he delves into the many theories about what may h ... Show More

From etchings scratched into the earliest monuments, to the spray can designs that appear on structures today, the urge to leave our mark is universal. But in 18th-century Britain, the nature of graffiti changed; both exploding in popularity and becoming much more radical in natu ... Show More

<p>It's 1660 and General Edward Whalley and his son-in-law board a ship bound for the New World. They're on the run, wanted for the murder of King Charles I. His execution, the culmination of the English Civil War, sees control taken from the royalists by Oliver Cromwell and his ... Show More

This week, Colin Jones explores the streets of Paris as the French Revolution grew pace; and an extract from a very special event at the British Library in celebration of Hilary Mantel.'The Revolutionary Temper: Paris, 1748-1789', by Robert Darnton'A Memoir of My Former Self: A L ... Show More

A defining feature of nineteenth-century Britain was its fascination with statistics. The processes that made Victorian society, including the growth of population, the development of industry and commerce, and the increasing competence of the state, generated profuse numerical d ... Show More

<p>There remains a tendency to reduce the history of African and Caribbean people in Britain to a simple story: it is one that begins in 1948 with the arrival of a single ship, the Empire Windrush. Yet, from the very beginning, from the moment humans first stood on this rainy isl ... Show More

<p>History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme, said Mark Twain.&nbsp;From the fall of the Roman Empire to the rise of the modern world: history ebbs and flows over the centuries, driven by great tides of economic, social, political, religious, and cultural change that shap ... Show More

What are the earliest forms of written magic? How do the stories of magic and religion intersect? And how will these stories’ continued presence in popular culture influence events yet to come? Professor Owen Davies takes Lauren Good on a journey through the twisting history of t ... Show More

Margaret Cavendish has been largely forgotten and, when remembered, divides opinion. One of England’s first female philosophers, professional authors and scientists, the 17th-century writer challenged convention throughout her life with her proto-feminist writing and audacious be ... Show More

<p>Every historian I know has a secret dream of writing historical fiction, but few ever do it. Dan Jones, a longtime friend of Tides of History and an outstanding historian, has actually done it: <em>Essex Dogs</em>, his fantastic debut novel about a group of soldiers during the ... Show More