Programme Details

Presenter: Susan Hitch
Broadcast Asst: Zina Saro Wiwa
Producer: Martin Smith

David Cannadine is one of the most important and influential historians of his generation. The author of more than a dozen books on Britain and beyond in the 19 th and 20 th centuries, on the decline of the aristocracy, on class, and most controversially on Empire, he has been the director of the Institute for Historical research and General editor of the Penguin History of Britain and is now Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Professor of British History at the University of London .

IN this wide ranging interview he talks about his upbringing in Birmingham in 1950 and the influence this has had on his academic outlook. He talks about the aristocracy as it was and as it is now, about the strengths and weaknesses of Churchill and defends his take on the place of class in the British Empire in "Ornamentalism". He also talks about his newest book, History and the Media, and about the good and bad influences of television history. And, looking to the future, he looks at the ongoing importance of knowing the past in the current political climate.