The History Hour

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week’s Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Mateja Kurir, associate professor at the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia and the editor of the book, On Power in Architecture. We start with Jackie Kennedy's 1962 renovation of the United States' White House and the immigrant workers who protested against rent hikes and living co...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week’s Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Jan English from the American Museum and Gardens in Bath in the UK. We start with the moment the remains of a Native American chief were returned to the US, more than a century after his death in England in 1892. Next we head to 1959 when Hawaii was brought into the United States of...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week’s Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Devi Sridhar, Professor of Global Public Health at the University of Edinburgh in the UK. We start with the birth of an Australian campaign to get people to take care in the sun and Ireland's response to the UK Brexit vote. Next, the 110th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme and t...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week’s Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Professor Rachel E. Johnson, Professor of Modern African History at Durham University in the UK. We begin with the 50th anniversary of the Soweto Uprising, which became a defining symbol of youth resistance to apartheid. We hear from one of the students who took part in the protest,...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. And today, we’re celebrating international archives week, set up to highlight the importance of protecting the world's historical records. Our guest is BBC curator Joe Schultz who talks about some of the jewels in the BBC radio collections. We find out why cellist Mstislav Rostropovich was stripp...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Professor Giuliana Pieri, an expert in Italian noir from Royal Holloway, University of London. We start with the author Andrea Camilleri on the creation of his fictional detective Inspector Montalbano in 1994, and his influence on Italian noir. Then we explore the tapes recorded in t...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Michelle Meinhart, a reader in musicology and cultural history at Trinity Laban Conservatoire in London. We start by hearing about a Mexican song that captivated lovers in World War Two. Then, a marketing strategist recalls how he worked on a Mexican election campaign in 2000 that sa...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. First, the story of the Belgian teenager who exposed a scandal within the country’s Royal Family in 1999. Our guest, Professor Kate Williams takes us through some other royal scandals from history. We hear how a group of women set up an underground newspaper in communist Poland and how an E-Coli...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. We start with the launch of Expedition Robinson in Sweden in 1997 and discuss how reality TV began around the world with our guest Misha Kavka, Professor of Cross-Media Culture at the University of Amsterdam. Plus, a Norwegian Sami protest song that made history in 1980, Canada’s Truth and Reconc...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. We start with the broadcaster and naturalist, Sir David Attenborough. To mark his 100th birthday, we go back to the mid 1950s and the television programme that launched his career. Our guest is Dr Paula Kahumbu, a Kenyan conservationist and head of the conservation organisation, Wildlife Direct....

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. This week, we hear from a perfumer who in 1990 helped create the world’s first perfume archive in Versailles France. Our guest is Dr William Tullett, a Senior Lecturer in History at the University of York and author of Sniff, History of Smells. Then, we hear how in 1991 African journalists create...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. On the 40th anniversary of the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl, we hear from one man involved in the clean-up operation. Our guest is Jordan Dunbar, presenter of the BBC documentary ‘The Last Dance Floor in Chernobyl’. Next, we hear about the worst floods in 50 years that the Mexican state of Tabas...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. This week, the moment when Irish writer Roddy Doyle discovered he'd won one of the most prestigious honours in fiction: The Booker Prize. And our guest, Merritt Moseley, emeritus professor of English at the University of North Carolina in Asheville, discusses the history of the award. Plus, we lo...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Sahar Saleem, an Egyptian paleoradiologist specialising in using medical imaging technology to study mummies and ancient artefacts. We start with the story a Jewish interpreter who helped guard Adolf Hitler's teeth in the final days of the Second World War. Then, the engineering effo...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Dr Sarah Ward, a maritime archaeologist from the Australian National University. We start with the discovery of the sunken Terra Nova, Scott of the Antartic's ship. We hear from the Danish food entrepeneur Claus Meyer - a driving force behind New Nordic Cuisine. Then, the long journe...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Paulina Guzik, International editor with the Catholic wire service, OSV News. We start in 1986 when Pope John Paul II visited New Zealand. Then, we hear about the reunification of Germany in 1989 from a key political advisor. How one Maasai community overcame a devastating drought in...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. We hear from a Cypriot lawyer, imprisoned by the British for almost two years during the "Cyprus Emergency” of 1955-1959. Our guest, Professor Rebecca Bryant, explains how this period impacted life in Cyprus in the following years. Plus, the story of India’s controversial nuclear deal with the US...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is media, culture and creative industries lecturer Sarah Jilani. We start in 1954 with the Japanese film Seven Samurai which is widely considered to be one of world cinema's most influential films. Then, we hear about the 2006 Hindi film Rang de Basanti which broke box-office records an...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. We hear how a speech by Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme, in 1972, caused a break down in relations with the USA. Our guest is an expert in the historic relations between Sweden and the US, Dr Saniya Lee Ghanoui from the University of El Paso in Texas. Plus, the story of India’s secret first nuc...

We begin with the trial of the former President of Liberia, Charles Taylor. It was claimed that he traded in arms and ammunition in return for so-called blood diamonds. Our guest, gemmologist James Evans discusses the creation of synthetic diamonds. Next we head to Syria where a group of young men in the besieged town of Darayya came together to build a secret library during the civil war. Plus th...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Professor Guri Hjeltnes, an author and World War Two historian. We start with Nazi Germany’s occupation of Norway during World War Two by hearing about a secret resistance operation known as “The Shetland Bus”. Then, we learn about a playboy spy who, during the 1940s, became one of w...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest is Scottish writer, editor and music programmer Arusa Qureshi. We start in 1989 when the British rock band Pink Floyd played a highly controversial concert in Venice. Then, we cover Dr Rita Levi-Montalcini whose bedroom experiments won her the Nobel Prize. We hear from a man who worked...

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History and Sporting Witness episodes from the BBC World Service. What does a tickle look like? That was the question eight-year-old Adam Hargreaves asked in 1971. He explains how it led his father Roger Hargreaves, to create the children's book series Mr Men. Our guest Professor Nina Christensen, head of the Centre for Children's Literature...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. We travel back to Chile in 2006 where more than 600,000 schoolchildren are marching through the streets to protest about their schools. The nationwide demonstrations will become known as the "Penguin Revolution". Our guest Dr Laura Tisdall, a historian from Newcastle University, explains why this...

Max Pearson presents a collection of the week's Witness History interviews from the BBC World Service. Our guest Sugandhi Jayaraman, lecturer in air transport management at the University of Westminster, discusses the changes in airports over time. We hear about the Irish priest whose dream of air travel in a remote part of West Ireland became a reality. And we travel back to 1943 to one of the mo...