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A History of the World in five minutes and eight seconds

2010-10-23T12:56:39+00:00

This external content is available at its source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-g1qeX0cTM

Here it is, the final summation. The whole series: every single object, from Olduvai stone chopping tool to Solar-powered lamp and charger, via Paracas textile and Hawaiian feather helmet. It's a delirious tour of the history of made things. Made itself, to cap the broadcast series, by a highly advanced group of human beings at Radio 4.

Remember you can download every episode to keep and you're welcome to add your own objects to the collection, which now contains thousands of objects and will be on display on the Radio 4 web site indefinitely. Visit the A History of the World blog for dozens of fascinating posts from behind the scenes by curators and producers.

Steve Bowbrick is editor of the Radio 4 blog

Feedback, on Friday, ran an interesting 'audit' of AHOW, concluding, for instance, that the series generated "an unfair share of culture."

The hundredth object approaches

2010-10-13T16:55:36+00:00

Without doubt, my highlight of the week will be going to the British Museum on Thursday as we reveal the last object in our series A History of the World in 100 Objects. The Radio 4 series has been a centrepiece of our radio programming over the last year and it is destined to be remembered as one of BBC Radio's landmark pieces of broadcasting.

Initially, the idea of a world history brought alive through objects described on radio appeared too demanding for some. However, the use of objects as the starting point for important stories that draw in broader themes while remaining, by their very nature, personal, has been uniquely powerful. As someone who completed history A-Level with an encyclopaedic knowledge of the causes of World War Two but with little or no sense of global or early history, the series has been a revelation.

Read the rest of this blog post and leave a comment on the Radio Blog.

A History of the World returns

2010-05-17T10:28:39+00:00

Editor's note: We're hosting Neil MacGregor's post here on the blog to mark the beginning of the second set of objects from A History of the World in 100 Objects on Radio 4 today. You'll find regular posts by curators and editors over on the History of the World blog and on the project's Facebook page - SB

On the eve of the second set of A History of the World broadcasts on Radio 4 I'm grateful for a chance to reflect on what's been, but also to look forward to what's coming.

Back in January we started this dauntingly ambitious year-long project with the very earliest objects made and used by our most distant ancestors, and travelled in time right up to the dawn of the so-called 'golden age' of Confucius, ancient Athens and the Persian Empire.

But, as you will soon hear, that was just the start. Far from sitting back and enjoying our objects' new celebrity status both here at the Museum and online we've been planning, researching, writing and recording the next set of broadcasts - in fact I'm writing now in a rare break from a hectic recording schedule as we put the finishing touches to the upcoming programmes.

From the 17 May we begin the next 40 episodes in our 100-part series. We launch with a week about the great Empire Builders from around 2,000 years ago - parachuting into a world dominated by the Roman Empire, Han China and the India of Ashoka and we end with a week which explores how the faithful use objects to connect with their gods. From a fourth century BC coin bearing the image of Alexander the Great to the sculpted head and shoulders of an Easter Island statue from around 1000 AD we are about to embark on another epic journey.

I've learnt a tremendous amount, not just about our collection and its power to tell stories, but about the patterns and themes that thread their way through world history. What's emerging more and more as we research and write is how inter-connected our history really is.

There is a tendency to imagine we are the first to live in a global world, when in fact international connections have been an enduring theme in world history for many thousands of years.

For me, there's a real delight in discovering, as we dig deeper and deeper that people are always preoccupied by the same issues - we're all concerned about the same things, no matter where we are or when we live.

Our current series runs through until 9 July, with the final set of programmes due to be aired in September. But of course the broadcasts are just one part of a tremendous project stretching to all corners of this country and, through the BBC World Service, beyond., We've been inviting you all to add your objects to the website and take part in making a collective history of the world.

So, I hope you'll be listening to the new series and I hope you'll be inspired to join the project and add your history alongside ours.

Neil MacGregor is Director of the British Museum and presenter of A History of the World in 100 Objects

A History of the World in 100 Objects returns to Radio 4 today - at 0945, 1945 and 0030 weekdays. You can download and keep every episode from the Radio 4 web site - and it's free! Sign up for the podcast here.
The History of the World web site is a trove of good stuff: all the objects, all the programmes so far, the podcast and hundreds of contributions from regional museums and the general public - an easy way to lose an hour of your afternoon.
At 1930 this evening on BBC1 you'll be able to watch a documentary about an object from your region. Each region gets its own documentary but you'll be able to watch them all on the iPlayer for seven days. Paul Sargeant wrote three posts about the documentaries on the AHOW blog (Pistons and Seaweed, Suffragette City, Jets and Looms).
JD Hill, the British Museum's lead curator for A History of the World, wrote about the themes for the new series on the AHOW blog.

A History of the World arrives at 500 BC... and takes a break

2010-02-23T16:14:13+00:00

http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/objects/igtFClcHSFuoJ5a_6LPvrA

So the first tranche of A History of The World has come to an end - and very, very good it has been. We leave part one with a Chinese Bell.

There won't be unanimous approval because too many people are listening to it for that - but the evidence is that those who do listen broadly love it.

I have written before about the displacement of Book of The Week - and that comes back next week with Patti Smith. Quite a contrast to Neil MacGregor. We have plenty of room for both.

The Radio 4 series is only part of the story of A History of The World (AHOW). The project - a full partnership between the British Museum and the BBC - encompasses a very significant website, hundreds of museums around the UK, scores of the BBC's local radio (and television) stations, thousands of schools, BBC children's TV (see the brilliant series 'Relic'), and the World Service.

Have a look at the web site. It has pictures of the Radio 4 objects from the series - but many more objects that belong to museums across the country that have global connections - and more from the audience too. Do join the fray.

We will be back with new objects for AHOW on Radio 4 in May. I want the memory of this series, and the entire project, to last decades. It deserves to.

We are going to run each of the six weeks of AHOW that have been transmitted thus far in six separate one-hour omnibus editions on Friday nights at 2100 - beginning on Friday March 5th. And over Easter BBC 1's 'Inside Out' will have stories about objects from your area.

Mark Damazer is Controller of BBC Radio 4

A History of the World has a very interesting blog of its own and a page on Facebook. Become a fan to add the daily object to your newsfeed.
If you're on Twitter, use the hashtag #AHOW when you're talking about A History of the World.
The AHOW podcast will be available online for a full year and you can download individual programmes in MP3 format from object pages like this one, for today's Chinese bell.
The picture shows a fragment from Zeppelin airship L33 which came down near Colchester in 1916. It was added to the collection by Michael Hunnable.
A History of the World was one of the topics discussed on Radio 4's Feedback today. Roger Bolton interviewed editor Robert Ketteridge about the decision to move Book of the Week, running the programme three times per day, the programme intros and the theme music (there's also a fascinating post on the AHOW blog about the theme music).