logo
episode-header-image
Aug 2023
54m 46s

History of Ideas: George Orwell

David Runciman
About this episode
This week David discusses George Orwell’s ‘The Lion and the Unicorn’ (1941), his great wartime essay about what it does – and doesn’t – mean to be English. How did the English manage to resist fascism? How are the English going to defeat fascism? These were two different questions with two very different answers: hypocrisy and socialism. David takes the stor ... Show More
Up next
Today
Now & Then with Robert Saunders: Churchill’s ‘Iron Curtain’ Speech @80
Today’s episode sees the return of our occasional series with historian Robert Saunders looking at significant political anniversaries: this time it’s the 80th anniversary of Winston Churchill’s ‘Sinews of Peace’ speech given at Fulton, Missouri in March 1946. The speech is best ... Show More
1h 5m
Mar 8
Where Are We Going? Societal Collapse – The Future
In the fourth and final conversation in this series David talks to Luke Kemp, author of Goliath’s Curse, about where we might be heading. Where does the greatest risk of global collapse lie? Who is ultimately responsible for our fate? What makes states and corporations the agents ... Show More
1h 4m
Mar 4
Where Are We Going? Societal Collapse – The Present Day
In today’s episode David talks to Luke Kemp, author of Goliath’s Curse, about the prospects for societal collapse in the 21st century. Are we living in a global Goliath? Is there any escape in an age when personal data has become the primary lootable resource? Does interconnected ... Show More
1h 4m
Recommended Episodes
Aug 2017
George Orwell and Animal Farm
The novel Animal Farm was an allegory about the dangers of Soviet communism and of the communist leader Joseph Stalin. It was first published shortly after the end of World War Two, as the Cold War was just beginning. Louise Hidalgo has been speaking to Orwell's adopted son, Rich ... Show More
9m 3s
Aug 2019
Nineteen Eighty-Four: Orwell's dystopian classic
The vision of the future evoked in George Orwell’s last novel Nineteen Eighty-Four was so terrifying to its first readers that some claimed to be unable to sleep at night. When the book was adapted by the BBC for the new medium of television after Orwell’s death, millions became ... Show More
39m 46s
Jul 2020
1984 Explained | George Orwell
<p>George Orwell depicts what a world could possibly look like under an authoritarian regime in his dystopian novel 1984, coining neologisms such as Big Brother, Thoughtcrime and Doublethink. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>Published in 1949, it remains highly influential in popular cu ... Show More
11m 12s
Sep 2016
Animal Farm
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Animal Farm, which Eric Blair published under his pen name George Orwell in 1945. A biting critique of totalitarianism, particularly Stalinism, the essay sprung from Orwell's experiences fighting Fascists in Spain: he thought that all on the left w ... Show More
51m 17s
Nov 2023
What was Orwell for?
George Orwell wasn’t afraid to speak against totalitarianism – but what was he for? Colin Burrow joins Tom to unpick the cultural conservatism and crackling violence underpinning Orwell’s writing, to reassess his vision of socialism and to figure out why teenagers love him so muc ... Show More
51m 39s
Mar 2024
Eileen Blair
George Orwell has never been accused of being a feminist. And yet his wife Eileen left her mark on his most important works.Starring Sally Drexler as Eileen Blair and Nigel Daly as George OrwellAlso featuring: Ben Partridge, Luke Millington-Drake, Thom Wickes, Amelia Chappelow, a ... Show More
37m 41s
Sep 2012
George Orwell
<p>Whilst at school, a young Alan Johnson was given some money by a teacher and told to go and buy four copies of any book for the school library.</p><p>He headed down the Kings Road in Chelsea, stopping only for a sly cigarette along the way. </p><p>Having already read 'Animal F ... Show More
28 m
Mar 2023
Michael and Us: My Orwell Left or Right
<p>George Orwell's popularity is at a new high in the post-Trump era, and he's been claimed by both the left and right. We discuss NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR (1984), Michael Radford's feature-film adaptation of Orwell's most famous novel, and try to rescue a self-described socialist fr ... Show More
48m 31s
Oct 2022
Nineteen Eighty-Four
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss George Orwell's (1903-1950) final novel, published in 1949, set in a dystopian London which is now found in Airstrip One, part of the totalitarian superstate of Oceania which is always at war and where the protagonist, Winston Smith, works at the M ... Show More
52m 33s
Oct 2022
Nineteen Eighty-Four
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss George Orwell's (1903-1950) final novel, published in 1949, set in a dystopian London which is now found in Airstrip One, part of the totalitarian superstate of Oceania which is always at war and where the protagonist, Winston Smith, works at the M ... Show More
52m 33s
Listen to millions of songs and podcasts on Anghami