History’s relevance in the 20th century
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the study of history this century. One of the debates raging in the practice of history is between the history of facts versus the imagination - a debate raised again by so-called ‘faction’ - fiction based on documentary facts which is so much in our minds today from films and television. But in fact it is a debate which has been going on throughout the century within history. The 19th century historian Thomas Macaulay wrote that History is under the jurisdiction of two hostile powers; and like other districts similarly situated it is ill-defined, ill-cultivated and ill-regulated. Instead of being equally shared between its two rulers, the Reason and the Imagination, it falls alternately under the sole and absolute dominion of each. It is sometimes fiction and sometimes theory.Why is the study of history important? Is history relevant to us today? Are the truths likely to be yielded from history closer to those disclosed in great novels than the abstract general laws sought by social scientists? And what is the role of imagination in the writing of history? With Simon Schama, Old Dominion Professor of Humanities, Columbia University in New York and currently filming a 16-part series for BBC Television on the history of Britain; Lady Antonia Fraser historian, writer and author of biographies of Mary Queen of Scots, Cromwell and Charles II.
Guests
-
Simon Schama No other episodes
Old Dominion Professor of Humanities, Columbia University -
Lady Antonia Fraser No other episodes
Related episodes
-
Heritage
18 Jul, 2002 940 History of Europe -
History and Understanding the Past
30 Mar, 2000 900 History -
History of History
22 Jan, 2009 900 History -
Hegel’s Philosophy of History
26 May, 2022 900 History -
The British Empire’s Legacy
31 Dec, 1998 940 History of Europe -
Biography
22 Jun, 2000 920 Biography and genealogy -
Imagination
28 Nov, 2002 150 Psychology -
Education
4 Nov, 1999 370 Education -
Science in the 20th century
5 Nov, 1998 500 Science -
Truth, Lies and Fiction
15 Jul, 1999 800 Literature, rhetoric and criticism -
Empiricism
10 Jun, 2004 190 Modern Western Philosophy -
The Renaissance
8 Jun, 2000 940 History of Europe -
Memory and Culture
27 May, 1999 150 Psychology -
Victorian Realism
14 Nov, 2002 820 English and Old English literatures -
Icelandic Sagas
9 May, 2013 830 German and related literatures -
The Novel
11 Nov, 1999 800 Literature, rhetoric and criticism -
Modern Culture
21 Jan, 1999 800 Literature, rhetoric and criticism -
War in the 20th Century
15 Oct, 1998 320 Political science -
The Epic
6 Feb, 2003 800 Literature, rhetoric and criticism -
History as Science
11 Mar, 1999 900 History
Programme ID: p005458g
Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/p005458g
Auto-category: 900 (History and geography)