Christopher de Bellaigue's book The Lion House is a brilliant history of the first part of Suleiman the Magnificent's reign. I love history and I can't remember loving a history book more that this one. As I say in the podcast, I think it is an unabashed masterpiece and such a pleasure to read. Christopher tells the story in particular of two men at the court of Suleiman and their struggle to rise and prosper in extraordinarily difficult times. And it is the story also of Suleiman's love for...

Professor David Abulafia's wonderful book The Great Sea covers so many topics. Today we talked about slavery. Until recently I hadn't been aware of the sheer scale of the enterprise. Slavers from the Barbary ports raided as far north as the coasts of England and Ireland. In the east the Mongols brought slaves to the Black Sea ports where they were taken by Italian merchants past Constantinople and on to Egypt. Or to Europe. The fates of the enslaved was incredibly varied - positions of...

Scott Sumner is an economist with a well known and much quoted blog. But it is the bit of the blog that he devotes to movies that interests me. He watches a ton of films and then does a thumbnail review and rating. For example: For example here is his review of The Bad Sleep Well:  The first time I’d seen this Kurosawa film, and I’d say it’s his most underrated effort. Loosely based on Hamlet, but you’ll be disappointed if you expect another Throne of Blood. Rather than Shakespeare, expect...

I have always found the war Octavian fought against Antony and Cleopatra hard to understand. How did Antony find himself losing without even fighting a proper battle given all his experience as a general and commanding an army equal to or stronger than his opponent's? Barry Strauss explains the campaign brilliantly. You can find his book The War that made the Roman Empire here. Highly recommended.

Anna Keay's book The Restless Republic is just brilliant. It covers the period following the execution of Charles I when Britain became a republic. It is fascinating to see how the period (and the characters) mix revolutionary ideas with deep traditionalism. Anna approaches the subject by telling the stories of a number of people - men, women, powerful and powerless - who illuminate the times. And she is brilliant at using these stories to tell the history of the Republic itself as it...

Following on from last week in this episode things reach boiling point. Marriage alliances are discarded, invasions undertaken D day style, brutal battles are fought as Perdicass marches to destroy Ptolemy. All this and possibly one of the most audacious and consequential heists in all of recorded history. And crocodiles, lots of crocodiles.

Tristan Hughes has writen a brilliant book about the years immediately following the Death of Alexander the Great. As Tristan says, history didn't just stop at Alexander's death and start again when Rome takes on Carthage. And in fact this period is one of the most fascinating and eventful in ancient history. It is also one of the most confusing and I hope this podcast is both entertaining and clarifying! And check out HistoryHit. When not writing histories Tristan is a presenter with them -...

Really thrilled to have Bret Devereaux and Ed Watts on the podcast together. We looked at Gladiator as a film (two thumbs up!) and also unpicking some of the history. Ranging far and wide we covered the battle scenes, gladiators, the role of an emperor and lots, lots more. Ed argues that Commodus was doing okay until stabbed in the back by his sister and Bret gives a masterclass in how not to name a Roman. I lower the tone by bringing the nazis into it. Bret's superb blog is here.  Ed's...

I chatted to Battleship Bean and John Schilling about nuclear war. We discussed the wonderful Dr Strangleove and tried to unpick some of the realities of a nuclear war. How powerful are modern weapons?  Would they knock out electrical systems world wide?  Would such a war result in nuclear winter? A book I mentioned in the podcast and which I recommend (though Bean is not a fan) is Command and Control by John Schlosser. Bean himself has written several articles on the subject on his...

In part 1 of the story Napoleon III persuaded Maximilian and Carlotta to accept the Mexican crown and become emperor and empress of that country. They are greeted with jubilation in Mexico City but there is trouble to come. Edward Shawcross tells the story brilliantly.

Karl Marx called it 'one of the most monstrous enterprises in the annals of international history'. This seems unfair to the young Hapsburg royals who travel to Mexico in 1864 to become its emperor and empress. Highly liberal by the standards of the day and with the best of intentions they will face a terrible struggle to rule and (ultimately) to try to survive. Edward Shawcross has written one of the best books I have read in years. It is simply a fantastic page turner. And Edward is also...

In the Dutch Republic of the 1630's trading in tulips went mad with bulbs and even parts of a bulb changing hands for astronomical prices. Historian Mike Dash traces the extraordinary story from its beginnings centuries before up to and beyond the inevitable crash. I can't recommend Mike and his books enough. Hard core history and a fantastically accessible reading style. His book Tulipomania is an absolute pleasure.

James Howard - Johnston returns to talk about the astonishing upending of the world order that happened just a few years after the death of Muhammad. The Persian empire destroyed and the Roman Empire reduced to a Byzantine rump. It is a long episode and slightly scholarly but I honestly don't think you can understand the world we live in today without some understanding of these extraordinary times. So have at it!

Paul Lockhart is brilliant on the history of guns (and firepower more widely). He is interested not just in the weapons themselves but how they changed the nature of the nation state itself.  Once gunpowder is introduced everything changes. Warfare increasingly becomes something only a powerful state can really afford and a Darwinian competition starts to unfold from the 1500's onwards. Listening to him a lot of developments in history began to make so much more sense to me. His book...

Ed Watts is one of the most engaging writers and speakers on Roman history I have talked to. In this podcast we talk about the fall of the Republic  - why and how it happened and who was most to blame. The podcast picks up the themes of his excellent book Mortal Republic which is highly, highly recommended.

In October 1950 the Americans are racing to the Yalu river, trying to bring the war in Korea to a decisive close. Unknown to them a huge Chinese army has been sent to oppose them and the forces meet at the Chosin Reservoir.  Both sides have to fight not only each other but the appalling cold as the Chinese try to surround and annihilate the Americans. Hampton Sides' book On Desperate Ground is an absolutely gripping account of the battle and I'm unsurprised to see it has 5 stars on Amazon....

 Everyone has heard of the Silk Road but this is The Silver Way. It is the story of the Manilla galleons, massive ships that sailed annually for 250 years from 1565 to 1815. Silver from Spanish South America in exchange for Chinese goods with the exchange taking place in Manilla in the Philippines. It was the first true globalisation linking the economies of China and Europe.  Our discussion ranges far and wide - history, economics, memory, currencies, sea battles and plenty more.

The story of the siege of Constantinople in 1453 is a rich one. Roger Crowley tells the story absolutely brilliantly here. So many fascinating (and at times heartbreaking) stories within the bigger story. A city with an unbroken history of over a thousand years faces its deadliest enemy. And don't miss Roger's book on the subject. Narrative history at its finest.

In the year 617 the Roman Empire stands on the brink of extinction. In the West the empire is long gone. And now the Persians have conquered much of what is left and have arrived outside Constantinople where the emperor Heraclius is reduced to begging to be allowed to keep his throne. The Persians turn down the deal, the war continues and Heraclius leads a desperate counter attack. James Howard-Johnston told the story brilliantly in his book The Last Great War of Antiquity. For non...

Stephen Greenblatt wrote a fascinating book The Swerve about the rediscovery in 1417 of a work of philosophy from antiquity. The Nature of Things was written by Lucretius a few years before the birth of Christ. It provides an account of the world profoundly at odds with religion - atomism and epicureanism. Stephen's thesis is that over time the implications of this work changed the course of history.  We start the story at the Council of Constance. Christendom has three popes and is figuring...

In 1889 a woman calling herself Pearl Hart holds up a stagecoach in Arizona. In this episode John Boessenecker talks about Pearl Hart and his book Wildcat. Pearl's life from poverty to prostitution to stage coach robbing and prison sounds miserable. But the woman herself was beautiful, smart, full of life and hard not to admire. In fact the whole family and in particular her sister Katie led fascinating lives. Highly recommended.

Edward Watts startled me with his claim that the Western Roman Empire didn't fall in AD 476. And he has other revisionist takes on Roman history. (Domitian a much better emperor than Trajan??) I love Roman history and enjoyed this episode hugely. His book The Eternal Decline and Fall of Rome: The History of a Dangerous Idea is absolutely terrific. A superb balance between the detail and a sweeping narrative.

Zareer is a a renowned historian and broadcaster. Clive of India is out of fashion these days but Zareer remains an admirer. In this episode Zareer rises to my challenge of a 5 minute history of India from the days of Alexander, talks about Clive's life, achievements and gruesome death and hits back at recent attempts to portray Clive as some kind of sociopath.

Laurence Bergreen threads the needle for me. He tells Magellan's story in a way that is exciting and moves with pace but leaving in all the 'maybes' and 'buts' that a story like this needs. His book Over the Edge of the World: Magellan's Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe is an absolute pleasure.

It is hard to describe Peter Henderson's adventures without lapsing into cliche. Hair raising, eye popping and so on. A news cameraman and reporter (and latterly an entrepreneur) in some of the world's most notorious hotspots of the last few decades he has found himself in appalling danger again and again. The stories are great fun to listen to but for many of them I am glad it was him and not me. If you enjoy the podcast I really recommend you buy Peter's book Bigger Than Me.  Apart from...