Heritage

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the role history and heritage have played in the formation of the British national identity. Historians have often maintained a guarded relationship with the so-called “heritage industry”, believing that it presents a distorted version of national life: a Merrie England that is politically acceptable and economically rewarding. History, in contrast, is held to reveal the truth about the past - objectively and scientifically. Our understanding of history changed since the 19th century and, as historians interpret our time and our society, so will our ideas of heritage and history.

→ Play on BBC Sounds website

Guests

• David Cannadine 3 episodes
  Director of the University of London's Institute of Historical Research
• Miri Rubin 12 episodes
  Professor of European History at Queen Mary, University of London
• Peter Mandler 3 episodes
  Fellow in History, Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge

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Programme ID: p00548j4

Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00548j4

Auto-category: 941 (British history)