19th Century
Browse the 19th Century era within the In Our Time archive.
Vincent van Gogh
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the great Dutch painter of Sunflowers and Starry Nights.
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Chartism
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 19th-century campaign for greater democracy.
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The Great Stink
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 1858 crisis from the flow of sewage into the Thames.
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Persuasion
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Austen's last complete novel, published after her death.
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The Morant Bay Rebellion
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the events in Jamaica in 1865 and their consequences.
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Berthe Morisot
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the innovative artist at the heart of French impressionism
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Hegel's Philosophy of History
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Hegel's ideas on the consciousness of freedom.
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Peter Kropotkin
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the prominent Russian anarchist and his idea of Mutual Aid
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The Temperance Movement
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the enthusiasm in Britain for abstaining from alcohol.
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The Gold Standard
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss what happened when world currencies were tied to gold
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Thomas Hardy's Poetry
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Hardy's goal of being a great poet and how he succeeded.
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A Christmas Carol
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Charles Dickens' celebrated story of Scrooge's redemption.
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The Battle of Trafalgar
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Nelson's famous victory and death on 21 October 1805.
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The Decadent Movement
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Beardsley, Wilde and art for art's sake in the 1890s.
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The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Anne Bronte's novel of a woman's fight for independence.
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Booth's Life and Labour Survey
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Charles Booth's landmark survey of London's poor and rich.
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David Ricardo
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Ricardo's argument on free trade after the Napoleonic wars
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George and Robert Stephenson (repeat)
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss George and Robert Stephenson and the birth of railways.
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George Sand
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the celebrated French novelist, her life and work.
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The Siege of Paris 1870-71
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Paris under Prussian siege and then under the Commune
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Crime and Punishment
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Dostoevsky's novel. The hero thinks he's above the law....
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The Time Machine
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the science and ideas in HG Wells' story of time travel.
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The Rapture
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the idea that believers will vanish from the world.
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Napoleon's Retreat from Moscow
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss why Napoleon's apparent victory turned to defeat in 1812.
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