The Radio 3 Documentary - podcast cover

The Radio 3 Documentary

BBC Radio 3•www.bbc.co.uk

Society & Culture

In-depth documentaries which explore a different aspect of history, science, philosophy, film, visual arts and literature. The Sunday Feature is broadcast every Sunday at 6.45pm on BBC Radio 3.

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Episodes

Tolstoy and Napoleon. 1 - On Napoleon

In 1812 Napoleon led his army to Moscow. In War and Peace Tolstoy gave his account of the great invasion, the battle of Borodino, and the subsequent burning of Moscow. Rosamund Bartlett, translator of Russian novels and biographer of Tolstoy investigates the truth and the fiction of one of the most famous novels of all time. Tolstoy believed that Napoleon and the Russian commander Kutuzov were no more significant in deciding the outcome of events than any one of the thousands of ordinary soldier...

Dec 05, 2012•44 min

The Essay: Anglo-Saxon Portraits 1: Vortigern

Barry Cunliffe on the king whom history has often held responsible for inviting in the first Anglo-Saxons. First in a series of portraits of thirty ground-breaking Anglo-Saxon men and women.

Oct 15, 2012•14 min

Sunday Feature: After the Gold Rush - The Poetry of California

Californian poetry found fame with The Beats in the 1950s. Dana Gioia reveals developments since - Language, ecological, Hispanic poetry - and before, back to the Gold Rush.

Oct 04, 2012•44 min

Piano Tales - A Social History of the Piano

Sunday Feature: Michael Goldfarb explores the development and enduring appeal of the piano across social and geographic divides.

Sep 25, 2012•44 min

Jacquetta Hawkes and The Personal Past

Sunday Feature: Jacquetta Hawkes and The Personal Past. Christine Finn excavates clues in the personal and public life of once acclaimed archaeologist and writer, Jacquetta Hawkes, to explain why she has faded from public memory.

Sep 13, 2012•44 min

Dr Adam Smith on Britain in the American Civil War

The American Civil War: Blockade Runners and Black Minstrels. What did Britain do in the American Civil War? Louise Welsh investigates blockade running, blackface minstrelsy, spy-wars and abolitionists, with the Clyde shipyards as her focus.

Jul 27, 2012•44 min

Dr Adam Smith on the dividing lines of the American Civil War

The American Civil War: Dividing Lines. Historian Adam Smith visits contemporary America to trace how the dividing lines of the Civil War are still visible beneath US politics 150 years on.

Jul 26, 2012•44 min

Dr Adam Smith on the War of the North in America

The American Civil War: The War of the North. Dr Adam Smith travels from Lincoln's home town to Washington DC and the battlefields of Virginia as he asks why the North fought and what it won.

Jul 25, 2012•44 min

Dr Adam Smith on the War of the South in America

The American Civil War: The War of the South. Dr Adam Smith travels to Richmond, the heart of the Southern Confederacy, to uncover the dramatic contradictions at the South's heart and the war it waged.

Jul 25, 2012•44 min

Historian Tristram Hunt on anti-imperialism.

Great British Ideas:J.A. Hobson, Lenin and Anti-Imperialism. Historian Tristram Hunt traces how an anti-imperialist book by a liberal English journalist had a surprising impact on Lenin - in exile, and even after he seized power in Moscow.

Jul 20, 2012•44 min

Historian Tristram Hunt on England and Ireland in the 1840’s.

Great British Ideas: Young England and Young Ireland. Tristram Hunt traces the curious influence of the romantic 'Young England' movement, led by Benjamin Disraeli in the 1840s, on 'Young Ireland', which sought Irish freedom.

Jul 20, 2012•44 min

Tristram Hunt on economist Robert Malthus

Great British Ideas: Robert Malthus. Historian Tristram Hunt traces how the ideas of the 18th century British economist Robert Malthus wreaked havoc in 19th century India, yet were later adopted by Indians themselves.

Jul 20, 2012•44 min

George Reynolds - writer and contemporary of Dickens

Sunday Feature: The Other Dickens. Laurence Scott explores the work and the life of Victorian bad boy writer and contemporary of Dickens, George WM Reynolds, whose novels painted Victorian London's seamiest sides

Jul 01, 2012•44 min

Geneticist Steve Jones investigates the science of crowds

Sunday Feature: Crowd Psychology. From the summer riots last year to the Olympics 2012, geneticist Steve Jones investigates crowd behaviour and finds that modern science disputes myths of mad mobs out of control.

Jun 24, 2012•44 min

Andrew Graham Yooll examines Argentine identity

Sunday Feature: Malvinas Madness. Andrew Graham Yooll, former editor of the Buenos Aires Herald, examines Argentine identity and dreams bound in their longing for the Malvinas or Falkland Islands.

Jun 13, 2012•45 min

Phoenix Rising - The Story of Coventry Cathedral

Giles Fraser examines the history, ministry and artistic legacy of Coventry Cathedral as it celebrates its Golden Jubilee.

May 28, 2012•45 min

Wesker at 80

Sunday Feature: As Arnold Wesker celebrates his 80th birthday Matthew Sweet looks back with the celebrated playwright at his life and career.

May 21, 2012•44 min

Europe - the Art of Austerity

Sunday Feature: Michael Goldfarb talks to Anne Enright and Justin Cartwright about writers' responses to economic crisis in the Europe of the 1930s and today.

May 03, 2012•44 min

The Archbishop of Canterbury on poet Vernon Watkins

Sunday Feature: Swansea's Other Poet. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams presents a portrait of Vernon Watkins, one of the twentieth century's most distinctive and brilliant - and neglected poets.

Mar 16, 2012•44 min

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