Harriet Martineau
In Our Time
BBC
4.6 • 9.9K Ratings
🗓️ 8 December 2016
⏱️ 51 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Harriet Martineau who, from a non-conformist background in Norwich, became one of the best known writers in the C19th. She had a wide range of interests and used a new, sociological method to observe the world around her, from religion in Egypt to slavery in America and the rights of women everywhere. She popularised writing about economics for those outside the elite and, for her own popularity, was invited to the coronation of Queen Victoria, one of her readers.
With
Valerie Sanders Professor of English at the University of Hull
Karen O'Brien Professor of English Literature at the University of Oxford
And
Ella Dzelzainis Lecturer in 19th Century Literature at Newcastle University
Producer: Simon Tillotson.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, I'm Hugh Dennis and just before you join the erudite Melvin Bragg, the man |
| 0:05.2 | we'd most want to do a pub quiz with, for this week's In Our Time Podcast, I |
| 0:09.6 | want to tell you about the Radio 4 Christmas appeal. For 90 years, BBC Radio |
| 0:15.4 | Listness have been there for thousands of homeless and vulnerable people across the |
| 0:19.6 | UK by supporting the work of St Martin in the fields. Here is a Martin staff |
| 0:25.0 | and volunteers work around the clock, helping people get off the streets so they |
| 0:29.9 | can rebuild their lives. And through the Vickers Relief Fund, St Martin's |
| 0:34.2 | makes thousands of crisis grants each year to homeless people, or those at risk |
| 0:38.9 | of homelessness, right across the UK. Help change lives and make a difference by |
| 0:44.6 | making a donation to the BBC Radio 4 Christmas appeal. You can make a donation |
| 0:50.2 | by going to the Radio 4 website. Now, please enjoy In Our Time with Melvin Bragg. |
| 0:56.5 | Thanks for downloading this episode of In Our Time. There's a reading list to go |
| 1:00.4 | with it on our website and you can get news about our programs if you follow us on |
| 1:04.2 | Twitter at BBC In Our Time. I hope you enjoyed the programs. Hello, Harriet |
| 1:09.5 | Martin is one of the most prolific and famous writers of the 19th century. Born |
| 1:14.1 | into a unitarian family in Norwich in 1802, she made her name writing popular |
| 1:18.8 | stories about the economic and social problems of her time. They reached a |
| 1:22.4 | very wide audience with Queen Victoria among them. Martin was a phenomenon, but |
| 1:26.8 | she was, but she was divisive. She argued for the abolition of slavery and went to |
| 1:31.4 | the American slave states for two years to drive her points home. She stood for |
| 1:35.4 | the rights of women to work and be educated and to earn property. She also followed |
| 1:38.9 | Malthus on his view that poor people shouldn't have children they couldn't afford |
... |
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