Roundup

Nietzsche's Love Affair with Turin [3min]

Frederich Nietzsche, the 19th century German philosopher, was in love with Turin. He raved about the city's gelato, its music and its quiet. Robert Rethy, head of the Philosophy Department at Cincinnati's Xavier University, tells Scott Simon about Nietzsche's Turin.

Voices from the Past [60min]

Colm Toibin, acclaimed Irish novelist, investigates a remarkable race against time to save Ireland's age-old storytelling tradition. As a generation of oral storytellers were dying out in early 20th-century Ireland, a small band of dedicated collectors decided their stories and lore should not die with them. Taking to Ireland's highways and byways, they persuaded thousands of tellers, singers and musicians to be recorded. The result today is the Irish National Folklore Collection at University C

Clarence Page on Why We Need Black History Month [3min]

Commentator Clarence Page explains his belief that Black History Month is essential and needs to continue. Some African-Americans reject the notion that their history can be relegated to just one month, while others believe it encourages racial separation.

Scars of War, Wounds of Peace: The Israeli-Arab Tragedy [70min]

Shlomo Ben-Ami, former Foreign Minister of Israel; former Minister of Public Security; Israel's former Ambassador to Spain; and chief Israeli negotiator at the Camp David summit, is a distinguished historian and a vital participant in peace negotiations. He combines a scholar’s balanced perspective with his own experience in describing the historical and cultural reasons why peace in the Middle East is so heartbreakingly elusive. In his new book, Scars of War, Wounds of Peace, Ben-Ami tel

Geoffrey Chaucer -- The First Great English Poet [45min]

Geoffrey Chaucer immortalised the medieval pilgrimage and the diversity of fourteenth century English society in his Canterbury Tales. As each pilgrim takes his, or her, turn to tell their tale on the road to Canterbury, Chaucer brings to life the voices of a knight, a miller, a Wife of Bath and many more besides. Chaucer was born the son of a London vintner, yet rose to high office in the court of Richard II. He travelled throughout France and Italy where he came into contact with the wo

The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer [51min]

After assassinating President Lincoln, John Wilkes Booth eluded capture for 12 days. In Manhunt, author James Swanson recounts the hunt for Lincoln's killer and examines why an actor at the height of his fame would throw it all away in order to avenge the defeat of the South. Swanson is an attorney and Lincoln scholar. His articles have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times and American Heritage. He is co-author of Lincoln's Assassins: Their Trial and Exe

Unmasking Stalin: A Speech That Changed the World [60min]

President Bush, during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin last September, said, "Democracy just doesn't happen, it grows. It takes a while. That's the experience of our country. That's the experience of the Russian federation." Yet in Russia, more than 14 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, it is unclear whether the democratic promise of that country's post-Soviet revolution has fully grown. Putin's critics say he has accumulated too much power, that Russia's his

'The Crucible' in History 2nd of 2 [15min]

Arthur Miller, in a 2002 BBC recording, reads his essay in which he places his play about the witch trials of Salem in the context of the era of the Red-hunting years of Joe McCarthy and the US Congress. As friends including Elia Kazan provide names of comrades to the House Committee on Un-American Activities, Miller examines integrity and loyalty, and sets about the composition of The Crucible -- a play which would resonate across cultures worldwide. Part of a series of programmes to mar

History of Woodcuts in Printing [55min]

Dan DeSimone, Curator for the Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection of the Library of Congress, discusses the origins and evolution of the woodcut as a medium for illustration in books.

The Last Shackle of Empire [15min]

In 1807 Britain published the Slave Trade Act. This did not ban slavery in the Empire. It simply stopped the British transatlantic trade. Figures are not entirely reliable, so a conservative estimate would be that British merchants sent more than 330,000 slaves to the New World. "This Sceptred Isle: Empire" is a narrative history of the British Empire from Ireland in the 12th century to the independence of India in the 20th, told in 90 programmes written by historian Christopher Lee an

John Mortimer Presents the Trials of Marshall Hall [30min]

"Rumpole of the Bailey" author John Mortimer -- also a barrister -- comments on Victorian jurisprudence while narrating a true story from the files of Sir Edward Marshall Hall QC. One the most successful barristers of the Victorian era, known as The Great Defender for his reputation acting on behalf of notorious alleged murderers, Marshall Hall was renowned for his courtroom theatrics. Episode 5 of 5, "The Case of the Green Bicycle": Did Ronald Light shoot a woman cyclist dea

John Mortimer Presents the Trials of Marshall Hall [30min]

"Rumpole of the Bailey" author John Mortimer -- also a barrister -- comments on Victorian jurisprudence while narrating a true story from the files of Sir Edward Marshall Hall QC. One the most successful barristers of the Victorian era, known as The Great Defender for his reputation acting on behalf of notorious alleged murderers, Marshall Hall was renowned for his courtroom theatrics. Episode 4 of 5, "A Death at Christmas": Troubled ex-soldier Frederick Rothwell Holt is char

Robert Hooke's Handwritten Minutes of Britain's Royal Society [7min @9:37]

Some people may know him as "England's Leonardo". But to most of us laypeople, the name "Dr. Robert Hooke" doesn't really ring a bell at all. Despite his numerous achievements in the fields of physics, chemistry and biology, this 17th-century British scientist gets little respect nowadays -- he's perpetually overshadowed by his onetime colleague, Isaac Newton. Well, at long last, the name of Dr. Robert Hooke is getting some attention. A manuscript in the hand of Dr. Hooke, in

Philatelists Rejoice over Recovered Envelope [4min]

Robert Siegel talks with Charles Snee, senior editor at Linn's Stamp News, about the recently rediscovered"Ice House" envelope (addressed to"Ice House Calcutta E. Indies"), believed to be lost for 38 years and recently rediscovered in Chicago. It has the only known cover of an 1869 Abraham Lincoln 90¢ stamp.

Scots Local History [25min]

Puzzled by the past and don't know who to ask? 1) Host Mark Stephen fulfilled a long-held ambition this week and had a personal guided tour of one of Britain’s great fortresses -- Fort George. It's on a magnificent peninsular east of Inverness -- the site itself creates a strong defence against attack both from the sea and from land. The Fort was never attacked but was designed to repel all comers! When work on the fortress started, the idea was to quell the Highlands after the Jacobite uprising

History on the North York Moors [29min]

The mystery of Bill, Norman and Harry, and the deserted church in the valley -- the last in Brett Westwood's current series of landscape puzzles comes from Levisham, Yorkshire 6/6 Levisham, Yorkshire The programme is researched with the help of local historians and residents and, out on location, the puzzle they have helped put together is unravelled by the teams of landscape detectives who read the clues in the landscape and uncover the stories, idiosyncrasies, and land lines of the area.

Shutting the Slave Market [15min]

Once they had decided to do so, the British took half a century to stop slavery in the Empire. Planters had to be compensated. Special medals were minted and ladies sewed samplers to mark the passing of the Imperial slave trade. "This Sceptred Isle: Empire" is a narrative history of the British Empire from Ireland in the 12th century to the independence of India in the 20th, told in 90 programmes written by historian Christopher Lee and narrated by actor Juliet Stevenson. (You may list

'The Crucible' in History 1st of 2 [15min]

Arthur Miller, in a 2002 BBC recording, reads his essay in which he places his play about the witch trials of Salem in the context of the era of the Red-hunting years of Joe McCarthy and the US Congress. Miller said of The Crucible in history: 'It is really my most ambitious attempt at a history of the period from one person's experience'. The essay takes in the House Committee on Un-American Activities' obsession with Miller's wife Marilyn Monroe, to the more sinister efforts to ban him

Ron Chernow Comments on History Writing [1min,4min,2min]

On the occasion of his receiving the inaugural George Washington Book Prize for his biography Alexander Hamilton, Ron Chernow is interviewed by Ted Widmer, Director of Washington College's C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience. Three interview clips cover"Importance of Words,""Next Book: George Washington" and"Writing Techniques." The new George Washington Book Prize is conceived by the C.V. Starr Center in partnership with the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American His

New Battle over Northwest Passage [4min]

The Northwest passage through the Canadian Arctic has long been a perilous route for shipping. But global warming is melting the Arctic ice, and the shortcut between Europe and Asia may become passable in summers. But who owns the lane? Canada says it's theirs; the US says it's an international waterway. Steve McNally reports on the big thaw and its consequences for US-Canadian relations.