Roundup

Invention of Childhood, 2nd of 6 [audio 60min]

In six hour-long episodes, Michael Morpurgo, former Children's Laureate of Great Britain, examines the stories of the lives of British children over the last thousand years, epoque by epoque. Episode 2: 16th and 17th centuries. Michael Morpurgo looks at how children fared in the wake of the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century. What impact did it have on a child's self-esteem to grow up believing that he was "a wicked man, as he that is ignorant and not exercised in godliness"? M

Covert, Michigan: A History in Black and White [audio 17min]

On the Midwestern frontier in the 1860s, the settlers of Covert, Mich., lived as peers, friends and sometimes even kin. What makes the story unusual is that they were both black and white. The graveyard is eloquent testimony to their remarkable lives. There are hardscrabble pioneers and a lumberman whose tombstone has been cast from a tree trunk. The cemetery is one of very few in the country where black and white Civil War veterans lie together. It's the sense of shared fate that attracted hist

BBC Arabic dramatises Dickens's انشودة عيد الميلاد [audio 11min & 8min]

BBC Xtra English presents انشودة عيد الميلاد, a special تم اعداده للاذاعة of Charles Dickens's famous Christmas story. The story is set in London in 1843, on Christmas Eve. Ebenezer Scrooge is a بخيل - شحيح, a mean old man who cares nothing for the people around him

Bettany Hughes searches for real women behind pre-historic goddesses [audio 45min]

In an investigation that takes her through the museums of Europe to the shores of the eastern Mediterranean, Bettany Hughes discovers the lives of "The Sisters of Aphrodite" -- women otherwise lost to history who can be traced from Bronze Age female figurines that have previously been assumed to depict deities.

Invention of Childhood, 1st of 6 [audio 60min]

In 6 hour-long episodes, Michael Morpurgo, former Children's Laureate of Great Britain, examines the stories of the lives of British children over the last thousand years, epoque by epoque. Episode 1: From the 11th to the early 16th century. Presenter Michael Morpurgo explores how the arrival of Christianity and the Norman Conquest, the Black Death and the introduction of printing affected children from the 11th to the early 16th centuries. Read by Timothy West, Sara Kestelman, Anna Maxwell Mart

Houdini spied for US, UK [10min]

Over the course of his life, Harry Houdini, the great magician and escape artist, challenged the boundaries of the material and spiritual world. A new biography suggests that he also served as a spy for the U.S. and British governments before World War I. William Kalush and Larry Sloman, authors of The Secret Life Of Houdini, tell Jacki Lyden about the book. Webpage includes book excerpt.

Clement Moore was anti-Jefferson pamphleteer [5min]

Before he gave us the modern notion of Santa Claus in his poem "A Visit from St. Nicklaus," Clement Moore was a bit of an attack-ad specialist. He wrote an 1804 pamphlet calling President Thomas Jefferson a racist. "Weekend Edition" literary sleuth Paul Collins tells Scott Simon more about Moore.

The Magi -- Gold, Frankincense, Myrrh [30min]

No-one knows exactly where they came from, how long they took to get there, whether they were kings or not, nor even how many there were, but we do know that they arrived in Bethlehem. The Magi, as outlined in the Gospel of St Matthew, are surely some of the most famous travellers in Western history. Little is known about the reality behind the myths of the wise men from the east. To explore the story of the Magi and their precious gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, and to discover the conne

FBI releases its final files on John Lennon [audio 1st 5min]

After a 25-year-long legal battle, the FBI has released the final documents relating to its surveillance of John Lennon in the 1970s. Historian Jon Wiener, who first requested the files in 1981 for a book on Lennon, discusses the contents of the now-declassified files. Wiener is a professor of history at the University of California, Irvine and author of Gimme Some Truth: The John Lennon FBI Files (University of California Press).

UK diplomat Christopher Meyer talks about history's lessons for military interventions in Afghanistan, Iraq [audio 27min]

Sir Christopher Meyer spent six years in Washington as the British Ambassador until his retirement in 2003. In a wide-ranging interview he discusses America's political trends as well as its deeply held values. He talks about what history teaches us for the military interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq. And he reveals his personal encounters with the key figures of the Bush administration.

Schama analyzes unsettling 'Power of Art' [audio 36min]

We usually look at art in the hushed, reverential surroundings of museums and galleries -- and that, argues writer and art historian Simon Schama, can fool us into believing that great works of art are polite. In fact, he concludes, great works of art are thugs that force us to see the world in new ways, whose purpose isn't to soothe but to unsettle. In a new book that accompanies a series of BBC-TV documentaries called The Power of Art, Schama examines the life and work of some of the gr

Italy, Getty Museum at odds over disputed art [audio 4min]

In recent years the Italian government has been trying to secure the return of looted antiquities that were acquired, often illegally, by museums around the world. One of Italy's major targets in the United States was the J. Paul Getty museum in Los Angeles. The two sides have been talking for many months, but now the Italians say those talks have broken down, and the time for negotiation is over. Most of the works in question can be traced to Italian art dealer Giacomo Medici, who was convicted

Marina Warner & Justin Champion discuss Nativity myths [audio 30min]

What role have Nativity stories played in society since Matthew and Luke first mapped out their differing versions of what happened in Bethlehem? What evidence is there for the accounts they give? What other contemporary stories were there for divine intervention in the womb and, most importantly, how did a peripheral add-on to the main gospels rise to become the central story and the most important rite of the Christian World? Sociologist Laurie Taylor discusses the impact of nativity stories o

Garden historian Twigs Way explores history of women in the garden [audio 10min]

We're used to seeing women at the forefront of garden design and the horticultural world, with Beth Chatto, Carol Klein and others now household names. But women's contribution to the garden has not always been appreciated. Garden historian Twigs Way explores the history of women's varied relationship with the garden, from the humble medieval housewife and the royal weeder, to the Queens of England and the venerated virgin. Virgins, Weeders and Queens: A History of Women in the Garden by

Charter of the Forest, not Magna Carta, is origin of civil liberties [30min]

Former British Conservative politician Michael Portillo presents the final installment in a series revisiting the great moments of history to discover that they often conceal other events of equal but forgotten importance. Nearly 800 years after it was signed, Magna Carta is still venerated as the bedrock of English justice and liberty. Yet in truth its impact was a good dea

'Susan of the Sword' had remarkable diplomatic career [audio 6min]

Traditionally the story of the British Empire is a "Boys Own" tale told by and about men. The role of women in Britain's imperial past is less well documented. A collection of interviews compiled by the new British Empire and Commonwealth Museum in Bristol is set to change that. The museum has recorded the memories of nearly a thousand people who lived and worked across the Empire, including hundreds of British women. Many had no idea what to expect, like Elizabeth Christie, who arrive

Victorian explorer Isabella Bird Bishop was household name [audio 15min]

One of the most extraordinary literary archives in the world is about to be revealed to the public. The John Murray publishing house saved more than 150,000 documents, manuscripts and letters from writers including Walter Scott, Disraeli, Darwin and Livingstone. Part 3 of 5: The famous publishing family were strong supporters of women's writing. Their authors included the explorer Isabella Bird Bishop, and her letters to Murray include vivid descriptions of her travels, a stunning series of phot

Military historian Goldsworthy portrays Julius Caesar, late Roman Republic [video 54min]

In Adrian Goldsworthy's biography of Julius Caesar, Caesar: Life of a Colossus, he chronicles the ancient Roman ruler's life from birth to assassination. At an event hosted by the University of Virginia Bookstore in Charlottesville, the author details Caesar's successes and failures as a politician and discusses his involvement with the wives of his two main political rivals. Goldsworthy is the author of The Roman Army at War and The Punic Wars.

Reagan's campaign against communism started as SAG president [video 60min]

Paul Kengor chronicles Ronald Reagan's career-long campaign against communism in The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism, tracing the former president's anti-Communist activism back to his days as president of the Screen Actors Guild. Kengor is a political science professor and director of the Center for Vision and Values at Grove City College in Pennsylvania. The author details Reagan's role in the fall of communism in a talk at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, DC. He

Kit Carson led remarkable life in volatile times [video 57min]

In Blood and Thunder: An Epic of the American West, Hampton Sides discusses America's 19th-century expansion into the American Southwest and the military expeditions led by former fur trapper Kit Carson. He explains that Carson was not a self-promoter and did not enjoy his celebrity or the dime novels about his exploits. Hampton Sides addressed a group of students enrolled in a course on the American West at Columbia University in New York City. Sides is editor-at-large for Outside