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.
→ Listen on BBC Sounds website
Guests
-
Simon Schama No other episodes
Old Dominion Professor of Humanities, Columbia University -
Lady Antonia Fraser No other episodes
Related episodes
-
History and Understanding the Past
30 Mar, 2000 900 History -
History of History
22 Jan, 2009 900 History -
Heritage
18 Jul, 2002 940 History of Europe -
The British Empire’s Legacy
31 Dec, 1998 940 History of Europe -
War in the 20th Century
15 Oct, 1998 320 Political science -
History as Science
11 Mar, 1999 900 History -
Memory and Culture
27 May, 1999 150 Psychology -
Imperial Science
1 Feb, 2001 940 History of Europe -
The Art of War
12 Jun, 2003 350 Public administration and military science -
Empiricism
10 Jun, 2004 190 Modern Western Philosophy
Programme ID: p005458g
Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/p005458g
Auto-category: 900 (History and geography)