Footnoting History

Napoleon, Part II: Life in Napoleonic Society

(Christine and Nathan) What on earth is a city of smugglers? Why did Napoleon like to tease his Second Consul so much? And what would you have seen if you attended Napoleon’s coronation? This week we move beyond Napoleon the man to the experiences of his subjects answering these questions and more!

The Origin of the Marathon: Linking Past to Present

(Esther) The story of the most popular long-distance event, from its origins in ancient literature to the first modern Olympic Games in 1896, and how a young farmer, Spyridon 'Spyros' Louis (1873-1940), became an unlikely national hero.

The Mau Mau Insurgency

(Samantha) In June 2013 the British government agreed to pay approximately £20 million in reparations to individuals tortured during the Mau Mau emergency in Kenya in the 1950s. But who were the Mau Mau? What was the emergency? And why do the British feel they should owe a debt?

Mozart's Zombie, the Runaway Priest, and the Emperor's Opera

(Lucy) In Don Giovanni, Wolfgang Amadeus and Lorenzo da Ponte created opera's most famous antihero. Find out how Mozart and Da Ponte were influenced by the philosophical ideas and social concerns of their day in forging a tale of class conflict and libertinism, violence and seduction, private passions and public space... and find out why this opera without a genre had different endings in the two greatest cities of the Holy Roman Empire.