Making History - The Storytellers Who Shaped The Past By Richard Cohen

Richard Cohen examines the storytellers of the past, how they worked and how their writings still influence our ideas about history.

Who were the historians who changed the way history is written? How did their biases affect their accounts? Is there such a thing as objective history?

The series explores lives and works from the Greek historian Herodotus, through the great Roman historians Tacitus and Livy, with their great epic stories of war and plagues, all of them inventing stories to be more reader friendly, and then moving through Arab and Islamic writings, to the medieval historians like Bede and Geoffrey of Monmouth - the latter famous for his economy with the truth, in other words, making it all up.

The great Italian Niccolo Machiavelli became a historian by accident, Voltaire and Edward Gibbon changed the way history was written, breaking away from a God centred universe. Then there's the Red historians from Marx (always in debt and crippled by boils on his skin) to Eric Hobsbawm, the emergence of female historians, and false accounts of history.

Episode 1
The lives and works of the earliest historians, the Greek Herodotus in 450 BC , indulging his curiosity about the habits of his neighbours (for example, descriptions of the sexual habits of the Egyptians) and his successor Thucydides, who shaped his material to enthral his readers. The great Romans Tacitus and Livy, with their epics of plagues and wars, embellishing the truth whenever it took their fancy. Livy was the tabloid journalist of his day.

Author: Richard Cohen
Abridger: Libby Spurrier
Reader: Alex Jennings
Producer: Celia de Wolff

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4

Richard Cohen considers the story tellers of the past.

An epic exploration of who writes about the past and how they influence our ideas today.

Richard Cohen examines the storytellers of the past, how they worked and how their writings still influence our ideas about history.

Who were the historians who changed the way history is written? How did their biases affect their accounts? Is there such a thing as objective history?

The series explores lives and works from the Greek historian Herodotus, through the great Roman historians Tacitus and Livy, with their great epic stories of war and plagues, all of them inventing stories to be more reader friendly, and then moving through Arab and Islamic writings, to the medieval historians like Bede and Geoffrey of Monmouth - the latter famous for his economy with the truth, in other words, making it all up.

The great Italian Niccolo Machiavelli became a historian by accident, Voltaire and Edward Gibbon changed the way history was written, breaking away from a God centred universe. Then there's the Red historians from Marx (always in debt and crippled by boils on his skin) to Eric Hobsbawm, the emergence of female historians, and false accounts of history.

Episode 1
The lives and works of the earliest historians, the Greek Herodotus in 450 BC , indulging his curiosity about the habits of his neighbours (for example, descriptions of the sexual habits of the Egyptians) and his successor Thucydides, who shaped his material to enthral his readers. The great Romans Tacitus and Livy, with their epics of plagues and wars, embellishing the truth whenever it took their fancy. Livy was the tabloid journalist of his day.

Author: Richard Cohen
Abridger: Libby Spurrier
Reader: Alex Jennings
Producer: Celia de Wolff

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4

Richard Cohen considers the story tellers of the past.

An epic exploration of who writes about the past and how they influence our ideas today.

Richard Cohen examines the storytellers of the past, how they worked and how their writings still influence our ideas about history.

Who were the historians who changed the way history is written? How did their biases affect their accounts? Is there such a thing as objective history?

The series explores lives and works from the Greek historian Herodotus, through the great Roman historians Tacitus and Livy, with their great epic stories of war and plagues, all of them inventing stories to be more reader friendly, and then moving through Arab and Islamic writings, to the medieval historians like Bede and Geoffrey of Monmouth - the latter famous for his economy with the truth, in other words, making it all up.

The great Italian Niccolo Machiavelli became a historian by accident, Voltaire and Edward Gibbon changed the way history was written, breaking away from a God centred universe. Then there's the Red historians from Marx (always in debt and crippled by boils on his skin) to Eric Hobsbawm, the emergence of female historians, and false accounts of history.

Episode 2
The Muslim View of History. By the 2nd century AD city dwellers began to be interested in how their cities came into being, and so the writing of history began. The rich collected private libraries - one piled his house to the ceiling with books. The Qur'an came into being - by 730 AD Baghdad produced more narrative history than Europe. The great writers Tabari was one of many who produced accounts of conquests and civil wars as Islam grew.

Author: Richard Cohen
Abridger: Libby Spurrier
Reader: Alex Jennings
Producer: Celia de Wolff

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4

Richard Cohen considers the story tellers of the past.

An epic exploration of who writes about the past and how they influence our ideas today.

Richard Cohen examines the storytellers of the past, how they worked and how their writings still influence our ideas about history.

Who were the historians who changed the way history is written? How did their biases affect their accounts? Is there such a thing as objective history?

The series explores lives and works from the Greek historian Herodotus, through the great Roman historians Tacitus and Livy, with their great epic stories of war and plagues, all of them inventing stories to be more reader friendly, and then moving through Arab and Islamic writings, to the medieval historians like Bede and Geoffrey of Monmouth - the latter famous for his economy with the truth, in other words, making it all up.

The great Italian Niccolo Machiavelli became a historian by accident, Voltaire and Edward Gibbon changed the way history was written, breaking away from a God centred universe. Then there's the Red historians from Marx (always in debt and crippled by boils on his skin) to Eric Hobsbawm, the emergence of female historians, and false accounts of history.

Episode 2
The Muslim View of History. By the 2nd century AD city dwellers began to be interested in how their cities came into being, and so the writing of history began. The rich collected private libraries - one piled his house to the ceiling with books. The Qur'an came into being - by 730 AD Baghdad produced more narrative history than Europe. The great writers Tabari was one of many who produced accounts of conquests and civil wars as Islam grew.

Author: Richard Cohen
Abridger: Libby Spurrier
Reader: Alex Jennings
Producer: Celia de Wolff

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4

Richard Cohen considers the story tellers of the past.

An epic exploration of who writes about the past and how they influence our ideas today.

Richard Cohen examines the storytellers of the past, how they worked and how their writings still influence our ideas about history.

Who were the historians who changed the way history is written? How did their biases affect their accounts? Is there such a thing as objective history?

The series explores lives and works from the Greek historian Herodotus, through the great Roman historians Tacitus and Livy, with their great epic stories of war and plagues, all of them inventing stories to be more reader friendly, and then moving through Arab and Islamic writings, to the medieval historians like Bede and Geoffrey of Monmouth - the latter famous for his economy with the truth, in other words, making it all up.

The great Italian Niccolo Machiavelli became a historian by accident, Voltaire and Edward Gibbon changed the way history was written, breaking away from a God centred universe. Then there's the Red historians from Marx (always in debt and crippled by boils on his skin) to Eric Hobsbawm, the emergence of female historians, and false accounts of history.

Episode 3
In the early Middle Ages, sometimes called the Dark Ages, Gregory of Tours produced the History of the Franks, which includes tales of rebellious nuns and impostors, while the Venerable Bede gave us the story of England, Wales and Scotland from 55 BC. The Anglo Saxon Chronicle and the Bayeux Tapestry provided the history of the Norman conquest. Geoffrey of Monmouth and Jean Froissart gave us their colourful and not necessarily truthful accounts of English and French kings.

Author: Richard Cohen
Abridger: Libby Spurrier
Reader: Alex Jennings
Producer: Celia de Wolff

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4

Richard Cohen considers the story tellers of the past.

An epic exploration of who writes about the past and how they influence our ideas today.

Richard Cohen examines the storytellers of the past, how they worked and how their writings still influence our ideas about history.

Who were the historians who changed the way history is written? How did their biases affect their accounts? Is there such a thing as objective history?

The series explores lives and works from the Greek historian Herodotus, through the great Roman historians Tacitus and Livy, with their great epic stories of war and plagues, all of them inventing stories to be more reader friendly, and then moving through Arab and Islamic writings, to the medieval historians like Bede and Geoffrey of Monmouth - the latter famous for his economy with the truth, in other words, making it all up.

The great Italian Niccolo Machiavelli became a historian by accident, Voltaire and Edward Gibbon changed the way history was written, breaking away from a God centred universe. Then there's the Red historians from Marx (always in debt and crippled by boils on his skin) to Eric Hobsbawm, the emergence of female historians, and false accounts of history.

Episode 3
In the early Middle Ages, sometimes called the Dark Ages, Gregory of Tours produced the History of the Franks, which includes tales of rebellious nuns and impostors, while the Venerable Bede gave us the story of England, Wales and Scotland from 55 BC. The Anglo Saxon Chronicle and the Bayeux Tapestry provided the history of the Norman conquest. Geoffrey of Monmouth and Jean Froissart gave us their colourful and not necessarily truthful accounts of English and French kings.

Author: Richard Cohen
Abridger: Libby Spurrier
Reader: Alex Jennings
Producer: Celia de Wolff

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4

Richard Cohen considers the story tellers of the past.

An epic exploration of who writes about the past and how they influence our ideas today.

Richard Cohen examines the storytellers of the past, how they worked and how their writings still influence our ideas about history.

Who were the historians who changed the way history is written? How did their biases affect their accounts? Is there such a thing as objective history?

The series explores lives and works from the Greek historian Herodotus, through the great Roman historians Tacitus and Livy, with their great epic stories of war and plagues, all of them inventing stories to be more reader friendly, and then moving through Arab and Islamic writings, to the medieval historians like Bede and Geoffrey of Monmouth - the latter famous for his economy with the truth, in other words, making it all up.

The great Italian Niccolo Machiavelli became a historian by accident, Voltaire and Edward Gibbon changed the way history was written, breaking away from a God centred universe. Then there's the Red historians from Marx (always in debt and crippled by boils on his skin) to Eric Hobsbawm, the emergence of female historians, and false accounts of history.

Episode 4
The accidental historian, the Florentine writer, playwright, lover of brothels, Niccolo Machiavelli, worked for Cesare Borgia, and for the Medici family and was in and out of favour his whole life. His book The Prince is an account of how politics actually works, and his History of Florence is seen as a landmark in the way history is written. Eventually worn out by a life of dissipation, on his death bed he said he looked forward to going to hell and chatting to pagans like Plato.

Author: Richard Cohen
Abridger: Libby Spurrier
Reader: Alex Jennings
Producer: Celia de Wolff

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4

Richard Cohen considers the story tellers of the past.

An epic exploration of who writes about the past and how they influence our ideas today.

Richard Cohen examines the storytellers of the past, how they worked and how their writings still influence our ideas about history.

Who were the historians who changed the way history is written? How did their biases affect their accounts? Is there such a thing as objective history?

The series explores lives and works from the Greek historian Herodotus, through the great Roman historians Tacitus and Livy, with their great epic stories of war and plagues, all of them inventing stories to be more reader friendly, and then moving through Arab and Islamic writings, to the medieval historians like Bede and Geoffrey of Monmouth - the latter famous for his economy with the truth, in other words, making it all up.

The great Italian Niccolo Machiavelli became a historian by accident, Voltaire and Edward Gibbon changed the way history was written, breaking away from a God centred universe. Then there's the Red historians from Marx (always in debt and crippled by boils on his skin) to Eric Hobsbawm, the emergence of female historians, and false accounts of history.

Episode 4
The accidental historian, the Florentine writer, playwright, lover of brothels, Niccolo Machiavelli, worked for Cesare Borgia, and for the Medici family and was in and out of favour his whole life. His book The Prince is an account of how politics actually works, and his History of Florence is seen as a landmark in the way history is written. Eventually worn out by a life of dissipation, on his death bed he said he looked forward to going to hell and chatting to pagans like Plato.

Author: Richard Cohen
Abridger: Libby Spurrier
Reader: Alex Jennings
Producer: Celia de Wolff

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4

Richard Cohen considers the story tellers of the past.

An epic exploration of who writes about the past and how they influence our ideas today.

Richard Cohen examines the storytellers of the past, how they worked and how their writings still influence our ideas about history.

Who were the historians who changed the way history is written? How did their biases affect their accounts? Is there such a thing as objective history?

The series explores lives and works from the Greek historian Herodotus, through the great Roman historians Tacitus and Livy, with their great epic stories of war and plagues, all of them inventing stories to be more reader friendly, and then moving through Arab and Islamic writings, to the medieval historians like Bede and Geoffrey of Monmouth - the latter famous for his economy with the truth, in other words, making it all up.

The great Italian Niccolo Machiavelli became a historian by accident, Voltaire and Edward Gibbon changed the way history was written, breaking away from a God centred universe. Then there's the Red historians from Marx (always in debt and crippled by boils on his skin) to Eric Hobsbawm, the emergence of female historians, and false accounts of history.

Episode 5
Monsieur Voltaire and Mr Gibbon. These two, their lives overlapping, changed the way history was written, denigrating organised religion. The Frenchman was self promoting, always in trouble, a leading controversialist. His History of Charles XII was a bestseller and, in his old age, he lived on his country estate, running a weaving business and a watch making business. The Englishman Edward Gibbon, only 4 feet high, ugly and afflicted with gout, is famous for The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - still a classic today.

Author: Richard Cohen
Abridger: Libby Spurrier
Reader: Alex Jennings
Producer: Celia de Wolff

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4

Richard Cohen considers the story tellers of the past.

An epic exploration of who writes about the past and how they influence our ideas today.

Richard Cohen examines the storytellers of the past, how they worked and how their writings still influence our ideas about history.

Who were the historians who changed the way history is written? How did their biases affect their accounts? Is there such a thing as objective history?

The series explores lives and works from the Greek historian Herodotus, through the great Roman historians Tacitus and Livy, with their great epic stories of war and plagues, all of them inventing stories to be more reader friendly, and then moving through Arab and Islamic writings, to the medieval historians like Bede and Geoffrey of Monmouth - the latter famous for his economy with the truth, in other words, making it all up.

The great Italian Niccolo Machiavelli became a historian by accident, Voltaire and Edward Gibbon changed the way history was written, breaking away from a God centred universe. Then there's the Red historians from Marx (always in debt and crippled by boils on his skin) to Eric Hobsbawm, the emergence of female historians, and false accounts of history.

Episode 5
Monsieur Voltaire and Mr Gibbon. These two, their lives overlapping, changed the way history was written, denigrating organised religion. The Frenchman was self promoting, always in trouble, a leading controversialist. His History of Charles XII was a bestseller and, in his old age, he lived on his country estate, running a weaving business and a watch making business. The Englishman Edward Gibbon, only 4 feet high, ugly and afflicted with gout, is famous for The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - still a classic today.

Author: Richard Cohen
Abridger: Libby Spurrier
Reader: Alex Jennings
Producer: Celia de Wolff

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4

Richard Cohen considers the story tellers of the past.

An epic exploration of who writes about the past and how they influence our ideas today.

Who were the historians who changed the way history is written? How did their biases affect their accounts? Is there such a thing as objective history?

The series explores lives and works from the Greek historian Herodotus, through the great Roman historians Tacitus and Livy, with their great epic stories of war and plagues, all of them inventing stories to be more reader friendly, and then moving through Arab and Islamic writings, to the medieval historians like Bede and Geoffrey of Monmouth - the latter famous for his economy with the truth, in other words, making it all up.

The great Italian Niccolo Machiavelli became a historian by accident, Voltaire and Edward Gibbon changed the way history was written, breaking away from a God centred universe. Then there's the Red historians from Marx (always in debt and crippled by boils on his skin) to Eric Hobsbawm, the emergence of female historians, and false accounts of history.

Episode 6

Who tells our story? Black historians from the earliest chroniclers of the Black experience in the 19th century like George Washington Williams, to Carter G Woodson who founded Black History month, Booker T Washington, a former slave, who founded a college for Blacks in Alabama, and 20th century historians like CLR James, and John Henry Clarke, who criticised the way Black history had been taught, and Black women historians making their voices heard.

Author: Richard Cohen

Abridger: Libby Spurrier

Reader: Alex Jennings

Richard Cohen considers the storytellers of the past.

An epic exploration of who writes about the past and how they influence our ideas today.

Richard Cohen examines the storytellers of the past, how they worked and how their writings still influence our ideas about history.

Who were the historians who changed the way history is written? How did their biases affect their accounts? Is there such a thing as objective history?

The series explores lives and works from the Greek historian Herodotus, through the great Roman historians Tacitus and Livy, with their great epic stories of war and plagues, all of them inventing stories to be more reader friendly, and then moving through Arab and Islamic writings, to the medieval historians like Bede and Geoffrey of Monmouth - the latter famous for his economy with the truth, in other words, making it all up.

The great Italian Niccolo Machiavelli became a historian by accident, Voltaire and Edward Gibbon changed the way history was written, breaking away from a God centred universe. Then there's the Red historians from Marx (always in debt and crippled by boils on his skin) to Eric Hobsbawm, the emergence of female historians, and false accounts of history.

Episode 6

Who tells our story? Black historians from the earliest chroniclers of the Black experience in the 19th century like George Washington Williams, to Carter G Woodson who founded Black History month, Booker T Washington, a former slave, who founded a college for Blacks in Alabama, and 20th century historians like CLR James, and John Henry Clarke, who criticised the way Black history had been taught, and Black women historians making their voices heard.

Author: Richard Cohen

Abridger: Libby Spurrier

Reader: Alex Jennings

Richard Cohen considers the storytellers of the past.

An epic exploration of who writes about the past and how they influence our ideas today.

Richard Cohen examines the storytellers of the past, how they worked and how their writings still influence our ideas about history.

Who were the historians who changed the way history is written? How did their biases affect their accounts? Is there such a thing as objective history?

The series explores lives and works from the Greek historian Herodotus, through the great Roman historians Tacitus and Livy, with their great epic stories of war and plagues, all of them inventing stories to be more reader friendly, and then moving through Arab and Islamic writings, to the medieval historians like Bede and Geoffrey of Monmouth - the latter famous for his economy with the truth, in other words, making it all up.

The great Italian Niccolo Machiavelli became a historian by accident, Voltaire and Edward Gibbon changed the way history was written, breaking away from a God centred universe. Then there's the Red historians from Marx (always in debt and crippled by boils on his skin) to Eric Hobsbawm, the emergence of female historians, and false accounts of history.

Episode 7
The Red historians, from Karl Marx who suffered from boils and was always broke but loved visiting Margate to see the Punch and Judy shows, and wrote The Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital, with his friend Engels, to Leon Trotsky whose finest books were written in exile. The Communist Party Historians Group in London in the late 1940s - Raphael Samuel, Christopher Hill and EP Thompson, all writing about the working classes - to the most famous of them all, Eric Hobsbawm.

Author: Richard Cohen
Abridger: Libby Spurrier
Reader: Alex Jennings
Producer: Celia de Wolff

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4

Richard Cohen considers the storytellers of the past.

An epic exploration of who writes about the past and how they influence our ideas today.

Richard Cohen examines the storytellers of the past, how they worked and how their writings still influence our ideas about history.

Who were the historians who changed the way history is written? How did their biases affect their accounts? Is there such a thing as objective history?

The series explores lives and works from the Greek historian Herodotus, through the great Roman historians Tacitus and Livy, with their great epic stories of war and plagues, all of them inventing stories to be more reader friendly, and then moving through Arab and Islamic writings, to the medieval historians like Bede and Geoffrey of Monmouth - the latter famous for his economy with the truth, in other words, making it all up.

The great Italian Niccolo Machiavelli became a historian by accident, Voltaire and Edward Gibbon changed the way history was written, breaking away from a God centred universe. Then there's the Red historians from Marx (always in debt and crippled by boils on his skin) to Eric Hobsbawm, the emergence of female historians, and false accounts of history.

Episode 7
The Red historians, from Karl Marx who suffered from boils and was always broke but loved visiting Margate to see the Punch and Judy shows, and wrote The Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital, with his friend Engels, to Leon Trotsky whose finest books were written in exile. The Communist Party Historians Group in London in the late 1940s - Raphael Samuel, Christopher Hill and EP Thompson, all writing about the working classes - to the most famous of them all, Eric Hobsbawm.

Author: Richard Cohen
Abridger: Libby Spurrier
Reader: Alex Jennings
Producer: Celia de Wolff

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4

Richard Cohen considers the storytellers of the past.

An epic exploration of who writes about the past and how they influence our ideas today.

Richard Cohen examines the storytellers of the past, how they worked and how their writings still influence our ideas about history.

Who were the historians who changed the way history is written? How did their biases affect their accounts? Is there such a thing as objective history?

The series explores lives and works from the Greek historian Herodotus, through the great Roman historians Tacitus and Livy, with their great epic stories of war and plagues, all of them inventing stories to be more reader friendly, and then moving through Arab and Islamic writings, to the medieval historians like Bede and Geoffrey of Monmouth - the latter famous for his economy with the truth, in other words, making it all up.

The great Italian Niccolo Machiavelli became a historian by accident, Voltaire and Edward Gibbon changed the way history was written, breaking away from a God centred universe. Then there's the Red historians from Marx (always in debt and crippled by boils on his skin) to Eric Hobsbawm, the emergence of female historians, and false accounts of history.

Episode 8
Her story - female historians from Chinese Ban Zhoa in 45 AD, the Byzantine scholar Anna Kommene from Constantinople, to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu in the 18th century who went with her husband to Turkey and said that previous travel literature had been written by boys and was superficial. Mary Wollstonecraft and Madame de Stael both pioneered a new female approach to history, to Cecil Woodham Smith and Veronica Wedgewood - the latter wearing mens' clothing as she tramped around battlefield sites - and female winners of the Pulitzer Prize.

Author: Richard Cohen
Abridger: Libby Spurrier
Reader: Alex Jennings
Producer: Celia de Wolff

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4

Richard Cohen considers the storytellers of the past.

An epic exploration of who writes about the past and how they influence our ideas today.

Richard Cohen examines the storytellers of the past, how they worked and how their writings still influence our ideas about history.

Who were the historians who changed the way history is written? How did their biases affect their accounts? Is there such a thing as objective history?

The series explores lives and works from the Greek historian Herodotus, through the great Roman historians Tacitus and Livy, with their great epic stories of war and plagues, all of them inventing stories to be more reader friendly, and then moving through Arab and Islamic writings, to the medieval historians like Bede and Geoffrey of Monmouth - the latter famous for his economy with the truth, in other words, making it all up.

The great Italian Niccolo Machiavelli became a historian by accident, Voltaire and Edward Gibbon changed the way history was written, breaking away from a God centred universe. Then there's the Red historians from Marx (always in debt and crippled by boils on his skin) to Eric Hobsbawm, the emergence of female historians, and false accounts of history.

Episode 8
Her story - female historians from Chinese Ban Zhoa in 45 AD, the Byzantine scholar Anna Kommene from Constantinople, to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu in the 18th century who went with her husband to Turkey and said that previous travel literature had been written by boys and was superficial. Mary Wollstonecraft and Madame de Stael both pioneered a new female approach to history, to Cecil Woodham Smith and Veronica Wedgewood - the latter wearing mens' clothing as she tramped around battlefield sites - and female winners of the Pulitzer Prize.

Author: Richard Cohen
Abridger: Libby Spurrier
Reader: Alex Jennings
Producer: Celia de Wolff

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4

Richard Cohen considers the storytellers of the past.

An epic exploration of who writes about the past and how they influence our ideas today.

Richard Cohen examines the storytellers of the past, how they worked and how their writings still influence our ideas about history.

Who were the historians who changed the way history is written? How did their biases affect their accounts? Is there such a thing as objective history?

The series explores lives and works from the Greek historian Herodotus, through the great Roman historians Tacitus and Livy, with their great epic stories of war and plagues, all of them inventing stories to be more reader friendly, and then moving through Arab and Islamic writings, to the medieval historians like Bede and Geoffrey of Monmouth - the latter famous for his economy with the truth, in other words, making it all up.

The great Italian Niccolo Machiavelli became a historian by accident, Voltaire and Edward Gibbon changed the way history was written, breaking away from a God centred universe. Then there's the Red historians from Marx (always in debt and crippled by boils on his skin) to Eric Hobsbawm, the emergence of female historians, and false accounts of history.

Episode 9
The Annales School - the magazine founded in 1929 in France by Marc Bloch and Lucien Febvre where nothing would be out of bounds to the historians writing for it. The most notable of these was Fernand Braudel - his book on the Mediterranean and Philip II was a bestseller - and his heir was Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, bestselling author of the story of religious persecution and goings on in a medieval village called Montaillou in the South of France.

Author: Richard Cohen
Abridger: Libby Spurrier
Reader: Alex Jennings
Producer: Celia de Wolff

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4

Richard Cohen considers the storytellers of the past.

An epic exploration of who writes about the past and how they influence our ideas today.

Richard Cohen examines the storytellers of the past, how they worked and how their writings still influence our ideas about history.

Who were the historians who changed the way history is written? How did their biases affect their accounts? Is there such a thing as objective history?

The series explores lives and works from the Greek historian Herodotus, through the great Roman historians Tacitus and Livy, with their great epic stories of war and plagues, all of them inventing stories to be more reader friendly, and then moving through Arab and Islamic writings, to the medieval historians like Bede and Geoffrey of Monmouth - the latter famous for his economy with the truth, in other words, making it all up.

The great Italian Niccolo Machiavelli became a historian by accident, Voltaire and Edward Gibbon changed the way history was written, breaking away from a God centred universe. Then there's the Red historians from Marx (always in debt and crippled by boils on his skin) to Eric Hobsbawm, the emergence of female historians, and false accounts of history.

Episode 9
The Annales School - the magazine founded in 1929 in France by Marc Bloch and Lucien Febvre where nothing would be out of bounds to the historians writing for it. The most notable of these was Fernand Braudel - his book on the Mediterranean and Philip II was a bestseller - and his heir was Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, bestselling author of the story of religious persecution and goings on in a medieval village called Montaillou in the South of France.

Author: Richard Cohen
Abridger: Libby Spurrier
Reader: Alex Jennings
Producer: Celia de Wolff

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4

Richard Cohen considers the storytellers of the past.

An epic exploration of who writes about the past and how they influence our ideas today.

Richard Cohen examines the storytellers of the past, how they worked and how their writings still influence our ideas about history.

Who were the historians who changed the way history is written? How did their biases affect their accounts? Is there such a thing as objective history?

The series explores lives and works from the Greek historian Herodotus, through the great Roman historians Tacitus and Livy, with their great epic stories of war and plagues, all of them inventing stories to be more reader friendly, and then moving through Arab and Islamic writings, to the medieval historians like Bede and Geoffrey of Monmouth - the latter famous for his economy with the truth, in other words, making it all up.

The great Italian Niccolo Machiavelli became a historian by accident, Voltaire and Edward Gibbon changed the way history was written, breaking away from a God centred universe. Then there's the Red historians from Marx (always in debt and crippled by boils on his skin) to Eric Hobsbawm, the emergence of female historians, and false accounts of history.

Episode 10
Truth telling versus patriotism. The Hungarian government and the Japanese governments covering up atrocities, the US covering up the My Lai massacre, Putin working with the Stasi in East Germany to destroy incriminating documents in the 1980s which are now being restored. Oral history, history programmes on television from AJP Taylor to the American Ken Burns' series on the American Civil War. And what should a historian ideally be?

Author: Richard Cohen
Abridger: Libby Spurrier
Reader: Alex Jennings
Producer: Celia de Wolff

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4

Richard Cohen on the storytellers of the past.

An epic exploration of who writes about the past and how they influence our ideas today.

Richard Cohen examines the storytellers of the past, how they worked and how their writings still influence our ideas about history.

Who were the historians who changed the way history is written? How did their biases affect their accounts? Is there such a thing as objective history?

The series explores lives and works from the Greek historian Herodotus, through the great Roman historians Tacitus and Livy, with their great epic stories of war and plagues, all of them inventing stories to be more reader friendly, and then moving through Arab and Islamic writings, to the medieval historians like Bede and Geoffrey of Monmouth - the latter famous for his economy with the truth, in other words, making it all up.

The great Italian Niccolo Machiavelli became a historian by accident, Voltaire and Edward Gibbon changed the way history was written, breaking away from a God centred universe. Then there's the Red historians from Marx (always in debt and crippled by boils on his skin) to Eric Hobsbawm, the emergence of female historians, and false accounts of history.

Episode 10
Truth telling versus patriotism. The Hungarian government and the Japanese governments covering up atrocities, the US covering up the My Lai massacre, Putin working with the Stasi in East Germany to destroy incriminating documents in the 1980s which are now being restored. Oral history, history programmes on television from AJP Taylor to the American Ken Burns' series on the American Civil War. And what should a historian ideally be?

Author: Richard Cohen
Abridger: Libby Spurrier
Reader: Alex Jennings
Producer: Celia de Wolff

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4

Richard Cohen on the storytellers of the past.

An epic exploration of who writes about the past and how they influence our ideas today.