Roundup

Van Goghs to go [audio 29min]

Roger Law explores the Chinese fake art industry. In the village of Dafen,"town of painting replicas", artists are turning out copies of Van Gogh and Da Vinci in their thousands to be shipped worldwide. Law co-created the satirical puppet show Spitting Image in the 1980s.

The lost powerhouse of Renaissance ideas [audio 45min]

In 1606 the Archdukes of Vienna declared:"His majesty is interested only in wizards, alchemists, Kabbalists and the like, sparing no expense to find all kinds of treasures, learn secrets and use scandalous ways of harming his enemies. ...He also has a whole library of magic books. He strives all the time to eliminate God completely so that he may in future serve a different master." The subject of this coruscating attack was the Holy Roman Emperor, Rudolf II, and his court at Prague. Rudolf had

Investigating fantastic claims of Templar secrets and treasure [audio 27min]

700 years ago, on Friday 13th October 1307, the main leaders of the Knights Templar were arrested in Paris, and all their assets were seized. They were tortured, accused of betraying Christ himself, and the most wealthy and powerful religious order of the previous two centuries was stamped out of existence. Did they harbour a dreadful secret? Theologian Martin Palmer travels to Templar sites across England to separate fact from fantasy. He begins in the place where part of Dan Brown's novel T

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The Study of Modern Warfare by Military Historian Victor Davis Hanson [video 34min]

Military historian Victor Davis Hanson speaks with research fellow Peter Robinson as part of the Hoover Institution's interview series, Uncommon Knowledge. Through the course of this interview, he addresses the issues surrounding the situation in Iraq and goes further into the state of military history as a discipline in universities, and finally, his opinions on the 2008 presidential candidates as prospective commanders-in-chief.The interview begins, wit

Honour sought for Voytek, the 'Soldier Bear' [video 2min]

A campaign has been launched to build a permanent memorial to a bear that spent much of its life in Scotland - after fighting in World War II. The bear, named Voytek, was adopted by Polish troops in 1943 and helped their armed forces to carry ammunition at the Battle of Monte Cassino. Voytek later lived near Hutton, Berwick-upon-Tweed, on the Scottish Borders, and ended his days at Edinburgh Zoo. "He liked a cigarette, he liked a bottle of beer - he drank a bottle of beer like any man"

Cultures of Apocalypse [audio 13min @03:30]

A CNN Poll found that 20% of Americans – nearly 60 million people - believe the Apocalypse will take place in their lifetime. In his new book Have a Nice Doomsday: Why Millions of Americans Are Looking Forward to the End of the World, Nicholas Guyatt claims that the growing constituency of Apocalyptic Christians have influenced American Foreign Policy, particularly in the Middle East; and also suggests that we should worry because the 'end of days' is not something they wish to avoid, bu

Document shows senior Swiss police allowed Nazis to flee to Argentina without correct paperwork [audio 29min]

It is well known that many senior Nazis escaped to Argentina after World War II. The mystery has been how they managed to get there given that no German was allowed to leave the country without an Allied approved pass. Now a document from the time reveals that, in 1948, a representative of the Dutch airline KLM asked Swiss police to ease travel restrictions for Germans travelling to Argentina without the proper paperwork. In the years that followed, many wealthy Germans each spent the equivalent

Did 'Filipino Monkey' trigger latest US-Iran quarrel? [audio 7min]

Both Iran and the U.S. released doctored videos recently of a January 6th 2008 confrontation in the Strait of Hormuz. The Washington Post's Bill Arkin says the awkwardly produced videos, plus a prankster called the 'Filipino monkey,' have overshadowed the real story in the media.

The hunt for Japanese American disloyalty in World War II [video 81min]

Eric Muller examines the U.S. government's decision to force 70,000 American citizens of Japanese ancestry into internment camps during World War II. He chronicles the government's process of determining the loyalty of these citizens and the legal challenge it faced at the end of the war. Muller is a law professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the author of Free to Die for Their Country: The Story of Japanese American Draft Resisters in World War II. He presents

'The Throne of St. James' [29min]

In a Washington DC garage, James Hampton, a non-descript janitor by trade, started work on The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations Millennium General Assembly. Built entirely out of discarded objects, this 180-piece sculpture was discovered after James's death in 1964. Considered by some to be one of the finest examples of American visionary religious art, the throne resides at the Smithsonian. This is the story of The Throne of St. James. This program comes to us from Radio

Strobe Talbott on 'The Great Experiment' [audio 51min]

Former Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott discusses America's role on the world stage, how presidents conduct foreign policy and their impact on the global community. He also looks at challenges facing President Bush as he enters his final year in office and what might be in store for his successor.

Who lost the Battle of Trafalgar? [audio 30min]

Former British Conservative politician Michael Portillo presents the final installment in a series revisiting the great moments of history to discover that they often conceal other events of equal but forgotten importance. Nelson's victory of 1805 has lodged itself firmly in Britain's popular imagination, but the British have forgotten that the brunt of the defeat was borne not by France but by one of her allies, Spain.

What's new in Lincoln books? [video 12min]

Lincoln scholars Frank Williams and Harold Holzer discuss recent and upcoming books about President Abraham Lincoln.

Jill Lepore on King Philip’s War [video 42min]

From a talk recorded in 1998 at New York's Morgan Library & Museum, Jill Lepore speaks about her 1999 book, The Name of War: King Philip's War and the Origins of American Identity (Knopf), and traces the meanings attached to this brutally destructive war. She examines early colonial accounts that depict King Philip's men as savages and interpret the war as a punishment from God, discusses how the narrative of the war was retold a century later to rouse anti-British sentiment during the Re

The Fisher King: The wound that does not heal [audio 45min]

In the world of medieval romance there are many weird and wonderful creatures -- golden dragons and green knights, sinister enchantresses and tragic kings, strange magicians and spears that bleed and talk. And yet, in all this panoply of wonder, few figures are more mysterious than the Fisher King. Entrusted as the keeper of the Holy Grail itself, he resides in a castle made of magic where he lies blighted by a wound that doesn't heal. He is

Charge of the Light Brigade [audio 45min]

On November 14th 1854 The Times newspaper reported on a minor cavalry skirmish in the Crimean War:"They swept proudly past, glittering in the morning sun in all the pride and splendour of war... At the distance of twelve hundred yards the whole line of the enemy belched forth, from thirty iron mouths, a flood of smoke and flame through which hissed the deadly balls. Their flight was marked by instant gaps in our ranks, by dead men and horses, by steeds flying wounded or riderless across t

Hillary

by Laura Hodes

In an effort to show a softer side, Hillary declared on Tuesday night that she has found her voice in New Hampshire.  And she did, with women older than 45.  Ironically, that voice has been not words, per se, but emotion:  almost-tears and a smile—big or demure, depending on the circumstances.  Some could argue, what took so long, college, law school, years of working as a lawyer and First Lady and only now she found her voice? But what took so long to find the right voice to connect with women voters is that her means of expression in this campaign has been confined by her gender. The media hasn’t allowed her to call attention to the historic nature of her run to be the first female President in the same way that it has allowed Obama to capitalize on the historic nature of his candidacy as the first African-American president.  

The ghosts of Berlin [audio 30min]

Berlin is haunted by histories: the 20th century brought defeat in the First World War and the abdication and exile of the king; it brought a Nazi government, war with much of Europe, a holocaust and the devastation of the German capital. It also brought a division which left one half of the city in Communist control and the other half marooned in a foreign country. Memories of these histories are carved into the infrastructure of modern Berlin. As the process of unification develops, what is re

Victor Davis Hanson on War and History (series of podcasts)

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2007 Chapter 5 of 5: VDH discusses his own future as a military historian, and whether the academic discipline can be revitalized in today’s universities. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2007 Chapter 4 of 5: VDH discusses a nuclear Iran. Can we live with it? Should we launch a preemptive strike? What other options do we have? WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2007 Chapter 3 of 5: VDH discusses his trip to Iraq, his time with General David Petrae