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The ancient world

Series: The Persian Wars

Eighty years, seen from both sides: how Cyrus built the largest empire the world had yet seen, and how a few dozen quarrelling Greek cities met it at Marathon, Thermopylae, Salamis and Plataea, and survived.

  1. Cyrus the Greatc. 550 BC
  2. Marathon: the first Persian invasion490 BC
  3. Thermopylae and Artemisium480 BC
  4. Salamis and Plataea480 BC

Series: Rome: from Republic to Empire

How one city in Latium conquered Italy, beat Carthage, lost its republic to its own generals, and became an empire that split in two.

  1. Rome conquers Italy: from the founding to Pyrrhus280 BC
  2. The First Punic War and Hamilcar Barca264 BC
  3. Hannibal crosses the Alps: from Trebia to Cannae218 BC
  4. Scipio Africanus and Zama202 BC
  5. The Third Punic War: Carthage destroyed146 BC
  6. Gaius Marius, saviour of Rome102 BC
  7. Sulla the dictator82 BC
  8. Caesar I: the rise59 BC
  9. Caesar II: the Gallic Wars to Alesia52 BC
  10. Caesar III: civil war, dictatorship, the Ides of March44 BC
  11. Octavian against Antony and Cleopatra: Actium31 BC
  12. One empire becomes twoAD 476

Series: Judah Maccabee

When a Seleucid king bans the Jewish religion, a priestly family from the village of Modiin rises against him: Judah Maccabee’s victories, the Temple rededicated, the elephants of Beth Zechariah and the last battle at Elasa.

  1. The revolt against the Seleucids and the Temple167 BC
  2. Judah’s wars and his death at Elasa160 BC

Series: China: five moments

From the first writing to the Taiping Rebellion: who wrote, who taught, who sat the exams and who rose up, in five short lessons.

  1. Dragon bones: the first Chinese writingc. 1250 BC
  2. Confucius: the teacher who wandered between courtsc. 497 BC
  3. The imperial exams: how one test ran an empirec. AD 605
  4. An Lushan, 755: the revolt that broke the TangAD 755
  5. The Taiping Rebellion: the exam failure who called himself Jesus's younger brother1851

Series: Japan: five moments

From a queen known only from a Chinese book to the surrender of 1945: a queen, a novelist, black ships, a last revolt and one broadcast, in five short lessons.

  1. Himiko: the queen known only from a Chinese bookc. AD 239
  2. Murasaki Shikibu: the woman who wrote Japan's great novel1008
  3. The Black Ships, 1853: a letter from an American president1853
  4. The Satsuma Rebellion, 1877: the last samurai?1877
  5. 15 August 1945: the broadcast that announced the surrender1945

Series: India: five moments

From a city without kings to the revolt of 1857: a city, a teacher, a zero, an emperor and a rebellion, in five short lessons.

  1. Mohenjo-daro: a city without kings?c. 2600 BC
  2. The Buddha: what do we really know?c. 480 BC
  3. Zero: how a dot became a numberAD 628
  4. Akbar: the emperor who opened a house of worship to debate1575
  5. The Revolt of 1857: the greased cartridge and what really lit the fire1857

Series: Judea against Rome

Jerusalem, Masada and Betar: two revolts against Rome, and what the evidence really tells us about them.

  1. The Great Revolt, 66–73: from Jerusalem to MasadaAD 66
  2. The Bar Kokhba revolt, 132–136: the star and the failureAD 132

Series: Commanders from around the world

Nine commanders from four continents and three thousand years: what they did, what we really know about them, and where the legend begins.

  1. Thutmose III: one of the earliest battles recorded in detailc. 1457 BC
  2. Sun Tzu: the man, the book and the legendc. 500 BC
  3. Subutai: the general behind the Mongol conquests1241
  4. Frederick the Great: a small king against three great powers1757
  5. Toussaint Louverture: the enslaved man who became a general of a revolution1791
  6. Shaka: how an army was built and what we really knowc. 1818
  7. Simón Bolívar: the man who freed half a continent1819
  8. Zhukov: the marshal of the Eastern Front1941
  9. Giap: the history teacher who beat France1954

Single lessons

The Middle Ages

Series: England, France and Scotland

Kings, knights and archers: Edward I’s conquest of Wales, Scotland’s fight for independence, the Hundred Years’ War from Crécy to Joan of Arc and Castillon, and Henry VIII.

  1. Edward I “Longshanks”1272
  2. Robert the Bruce and Bannockburn1314
  3. The Hundred Years’ War I: Edward III to Crécy and Calais1346
  4. Edward the Black Prince: Crécy, Poitiers, Nájera1356
  5. The Hundred Years’ War II: Henry V and Agincourt1415
  6. The Hundred Years’ War III: Joan of Arc to Castillon1429
  7. Henry VIII1509

Series: The Crusades

Two hundred years between Europe and the Middle East, from the speech at Clermont to the fall of Acre: crusaders, Jews, Muslims and Byzantines, each in their own voice.

  1. Clermont and the First Crusade, 1095–10991095
  2. The Jews and the First Crusade, 1096–11001096
  3. Saladin and the Horns of Hattin, 11871187
  4. The Third Crusade: Richard and Saladin, 1189–11921191
  5. The Fourth Crusade and the sack of Constantinople, 12041204
  6. Baibars and the fall of Acre, 12911291

Series: The Holy Roman Empire

A thousand years of emperors, popes and princes: from Otto's crown at Rome to the princes who signed the Peace of Westphalia, an empire that was neither holy, nor Roman, nor quite an empire.

  1. Otto the Great and the crown at Rome, 962AD 962
  2. Canossa: the emperor and the pope, 10771077
  3. Barbarossa and the Lombard cities, 11761176
  4. Frederick II: the emperor who took Jerusalem without a battle, 12291229
  5. Charles V and Luther at Worms, 15211521
  6. The Thirty Years' War and the Peace of Westphalia, 16481648

Series: The Middle East: empires rise and fall

Six turning points from Yarmouk to Chaldiran: who won, who wrote about it, and what we really know.

  1. Yarmouk and al-Qadisiyya: two empires in fifteen yearsAD 636
  2. Talas, 751: the battle and the paperAD 751
  3. Manzikert, 1071: the emperor in captivity1071
  4. The fall of Baghdad, 1258: the end of the caliphate1258
  5. Ain Jalut, 1260: where the Mongols stopped1260
  6. Chaldiran, 1514: the sultan, the shah and the guns1514

Series: Korea: five moments

From metal type to a line on a map: a book, an alphabet, a stranded sailor, a protest and a dividing line, in five short lessons.

  1. Jikji, 1377: the book printed with metal type before Gutenberg1377
  2. King Sejong's alphabet: how Hangul was born1443
  3. Hendrick Hamel: a Dutchman stranded in Korea for 13 years1653
  4. 1 March 1919: the Korean protest against Japanese rule1919
  5. The 38th parallel: a line drawn in half an hour?1945

Single lessons

The early modern age

Series: The generals of Louis XIV

Turenne and Condé, the Sun King’s two great generals, and the War of the Spanish Succession, when France stood almost alone against Europe, lost battle after battle, and still kept Spain’s crown for the king’s grandson.

  1. Turenne1658
  2. The Grand Condé1643
  3. The War of the Spanish Succession I: to Blenheim1704
  4. The War of the Spanish Succession II: Ramillies to Utrecht1709

Series: Asia: encounters and turning points

Nine stories from the Silk Road to the Long March: Mongols, samurai, a trading company and a handful of salt.

  1. Zhang Qian, 138 BC: the envoy who went westc. 138 BC
  2. The Mongols against Japan, 1274 and 1281: the wind that saved them?1281
  3. Yi Sun-sin, 1592–1598: thirteen ships1597
  4. Sekigahara, 1600: the day the shogunate was decided1600
  5. Plassey, 1757: a company takes a kingdom1757
  6. The Opium War, 1839–1842: the letter to the Queen1839
  7. Tsushima, 1905: 18,000 nautical miles to a two-day battle1905
  8. The Salt March, 1930: a handful of salt against an empire1930
  9. The Long March, 1934–1935: retreat or legend?1934

Single lessons

The modern world

Series: Napoleon’s marshals and Nelson

Three of Napoleon’s greatest marshals, who won his battles on land, and the British admiral who made sure he never ruled the sea.

  1. André Masséna, who saved France in 17991799
  2. Louis-Nicolas Davout, the Iron Marshal1806
  3. Jean-de-Dieu Soult1805
  4. Horatio Nelson1805

Series: Nations are born

The idea that every people should have its own state: where it came from, and how it united Italy and Germany by 1871.

  1. Nationalism: the idea that remade the world1789
  2. The unification of Italy1860
  3. The unification of Germany1871

Series: Zionism and the State

From the congress in Basel in 1897 to the declaration in Tel Aviv in 1948: how a political movement, a British declaration, a Mandate and a war led to a state, and which decisions were taken along the way.

  1. Herzl and Zionism: from Basel to Balfour1897
  2. 1947–1948: from partition to a state1948

Series: The modern Middle East: three key moments

Three promises and one map, the Suez crisis, and the road to Camp David.

  1. Three promises, one map: the Middle East, 1915–19201916
  2. Suez, 1956: a secret pact near Paris1956
  3. Camp David: from the Knesset to a peace treaty, 1977–19791978

Series: The First World War: two turning points

From a murder in Sarajevo to a revolution in Petrograd: how the Great War began and how it brought down the Russian empire.

  1. Sarajevo, 1914: how one month brought Europe down1914
  2. Russia, 1917: two revolutions in eight months1917

Series: Fascism and communism: the age of ideologies

Two ideas that shaped the twentieth century: from the pamphlet Marx wrote in 1848, through the rise of Mussolini and Stalin, the civil war in Spain, Mao’s Great Leap and the revolution in Cuba, to the night the Berlin Wall opened.

  1. Marx and the Communist Manifesto: an idea sets out1848
  2. Mussolini: how fascism was born1922
  3. Stalin: how the "grey" party secretary became sole ruler1924
  4. The Spanish Civil War: fascism, communism and a republic1936
  5. Mao and the Great Leap Forward: the plan and the famine1958
  6. Castro, Che and the Cuban Revolution1959
  7. The fall of the Berlin Wall, 19891989

Single lessons