Roger Crowley is one on the best (if not the best) narrative historians of the Middle Ages. Here is on... more

Stacy Schiff is one of America's most acclaimed historians and biographers. Her book The Witches is a detailed, almost forensic, history... more

Christopher de Bellaigue's book The Lion House is a brilliant history of the first part of Suleiman the Magnificent's reign. I... more

Professor David Abulafia's wonderful book The Great Sea covers so many topics. Today we talked about slavery. Until recently I... more

Scott Sumner is an economist with a well known and much quoted blog. But it is the bit of the... more

I have always found the war Octavian fought against Antony and Cleopatra hard to understand. How did Antony find himself... more

Anna Keay's book The Restless Republic is just brilliant. It covers the period following the execution of Charles I when... more

Following on from last week in this episode things reach boiling point. Marriage alliances are discarded, invasions undertaken D day... more

Tristan Hughes has writen a brilliant book about the years immediately following the Death of Alexander the Great. As Tristan... more

Really thrilled to have Bret Devereaux and Ed Watts on the podcast together. We looked at Gladiator as a film... more

I chatted to Battleship Bean and John Schilling about nuclear war. We discussed the wonderful Dr Strangleove and tried to... more

In part 1 of the story Napoleon III persuaded Maximilian and Carlotta to accept the Mexican crown and become emperor... more

Karl Marx called it 'one of the most monstrous enterprises in the annals of international history'. This seems unfair to... more

In the Dutch Republic of the 1630's trading in tulips went mad with bulbs and even parts of a bulb... more

James Howard - Johnston returns to talk about the astonishing upending of the world order that happened just a few... more

Paul Lockhart is brilliant on the history of guns (and firepower more widely). He is interested not just in the... more

Ed Watts is one of the most engaging writers and speakers on Roman history I have talked to. In this... more

In October 1950 the Americans are racing to the Yalu river, trying to bring the war in Korea to a... more

 Everyone has heard of the Silk Road but this is The Silver Way. It is the story of the Manilla... more

The story of the siege of Constantinople in 1453 is a rich one. Roger Crowley tells the story absolutely brilliantly... more

In the year 617 the Roman Empire stands on the brink of extinction. In the West the empire is long... more

Stephen Greenblatt wrote a fascinating book The Swerve about the rediscovery in 1417 of a work of philosophy from antiquity.... more

In 1889 a woman calling herself Pearl Hart holds up a stagecoach in Arizona. In this episode John Boessenecker talks... more

Edward Watts startled me with his claim that the Western Roman Empire didn't fall in AD 476. And he has... more

Zareer is a a renowned historian and broadcaster. Clive of India is out of fashion these days but Zareer remains... more

Laurence Bergreen threads the needle for me. He tells Magellan's story in a way that is exciting and moves with... more

It is hard to describe Peter Henderson's adventures without lapsing into cliche. Hair raising, eye popping and so on. A... more

Thony Christie has a blog called the Renaissance Mathematicus. It covers the history of science and is one of the... more

David Rooney is the author of About Time: A History of Civilisation in Twelve Clocks. He talks about clocks (in... more

Freddie, Abe and I talk about movies. Three blokes talking about feminism in movies. Well of course. But much more... more