For too long, argues Professor Ned Blackhawk, Indigenous people have been marginalised or viewed merely as passive participants in the history of the United States. Speaking to Matt Elton, Ned discusses the central role that Indigenous people have played across centuries of the nation’s history – from the course of European colonisation to 20th-century bids ... Show More
Today
Juana Inés de la Cruz: life of the week
She led “a life that really, in many ways, shouldn't have been possible”. So says historian Paul Gillingham of Juana Inés de la Cruz. This 17th-century polymath and nun challenged a host of social conventions – earning, through her extraordinary books and poems, a place in the pa ... Show More
30m 40s
Mar 1
Does Magna Carta matter today?
Politicians invoke it, activists wield it, and legal thinkers debate what it can offer the modern world. But what does Magna Carta really mean today? In this fourth and final episode of HistoryExtra's Sunday Series on the charter, Emily Briffett and historian Nicholas Vincent con ... Show More
38m 15s
Jan 2023
The First Indigenous Americans in Europe
<p>1492 marked the beginning of the Colombian Exchange - the transfer of people, goods, ideas and commodities across the Atlantic between Europe and the Americas. We hear a lot about the conquistadors, the settlers, Jesuit priests and colonisers from Spain, Portugal and Britain w ... Show More
24m 13s
Jan 2023
How Indigenous Americans Discovered Europe
<p>We have long been taught that modern global history began when the 'Old World' encountered the 'New', when Christopher Columbus 'discovered' America in 1492. But, in a groundbreaking new book, Dr. Caroline Dodds Pennock conclusively shows that for tens of thousands of Aztecs, ... Show More
44m 10s
Apr 2023
Hudson River: America's First Art Movement
<p>English-born artist Thomas Cole emigrated to the United States in 1818. Six years later he began what is now known as the Hudson River School, which became the first art movement of the United States.. Betsy Jacks, director of the Thomas Cole National Historic Site, tells Don ... Show More
27m 50s
Oct 2023
Medieval North America: Gods of Thunder
<p>From 800 to 1300 CE, a great religious movement swept Mesoamerica, the Southwest, and the Mississippi valley. This Medieval Warm Period was one of the most consequential eras in North American history. In this era, the continent was shaped by climate change or – as its peoples ... Show More
26m 41s