This programme features an interview with Berkeley cultural historian Thomas Laqueur. We spoke recently about his latest book, The Work of the Dead: A Cultural History of Mortal Remains, a… Read More
Thomas Laqueur on the work of the dead
Category: history
Horse dramas and flea circuses
‘What do we mean when we say an animal performs?’ My guests on this programme are Karen Raber, professor of English at the University of Mississippi, and Monica Mattfeld, assistant… Read More
Dur’s beer fer dogs: the joys of Liverpudlian English
Tony Crowley’s new Liverpool English Dictionary is a treasure trove for anyone interested in the rich variety of spoken and written language found in this country. I suspect that even… Read More
Marina Frolova-Walker: Russianness in music
“In Russian music you have a very different portrayal of Russia [from the one you find in literature], which has very strong rhythms, very festive images. It’s very bright, very… Read More
Ingrid Tague: how we came to love pets
The eighteenth century was when pet-keeping went mainstream. The first recognizable pet shops were set up, the first missing dog ads appeared in the newspapers. Over the course of the… Read More
Ronald Hutton: the lurking fear of witches
“The fear of bad magic lurks below the skin of Western society. At times it comes up above the surface.” In his new book, The Witch: A History of Fear… Read More
Rosalyn LaPier: the Blackfeet’s “invisible reality”
My guest on this week’s programme is Rosalyn LaPier who’s associate professor in the Environmental Studies Program at the University of Montana and a research associate at the National Museum… Read More
Helen Fry on The London Cage: “It’s a house of secrets…”
The ‘house’ in question was in Kensington Palace Gardens and, as far as its clandestine wartime function was concerned, did not officially exist. In 1940 four mansions were requisitioned to… Read More
Pat Shipman: “We turned wolves into dogs”
In Pat Shipman’s book, The Invaders (Harvard University Press), she argues that our last close relative, the Neanderthals, were driven to extinction not solely by climate change – though that… Read More
Of micro-histories and Vikings
I heard an interesting interview with Robert Ferguson on the New York Times Books podcast at the weekend in which he talked about his new book on Scandinavia (“an engaging,… Read More