War in fact and fiction
Arts & Ideas
BBC
4.2 • 599 Ratings
🗓️ 3 November 2020
⏱️ 45 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
From East Africa to Arabia, the First World War to Mozambique, Rana Mitter discusses the impact of war on society and culture. Margaret MacMillan's most recent book is called War: How Conflict Shaped Us and takes a deep dive into the history of conflict. Rob Johnson considers what we gain by exploring the overlooked side of Lawrence of Arabia - his thoughts on warfare and military strategy. And, the end of the Gaza empire, and the clash in East Africa between Belgian, German, British and French forces are explored in novels by Mia Couto and Abdulrazak Gurnah. They compare notes about the way fiction can trace changes in relationships due to war.
Producer: Ruth Watts
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Can I just say? |
| 0:01.5 | You're about to listen to a BBC podcast. |
| 0:04.0 | It's such a wonderful listen. |
| 0:05.6 | So nice. |
| 0:06.5 | There are loads more like it on BBC sounds. |
| 0:08.8 | Different paces, different heights. |
| 0:10.6 | The roof is buckling. |
| 0:11.9 | Where you can also listen to live sports commentary. |
| 0:14.2 | It's right foot goes for goal. |
| 0:16.7 | And then enjoy even more podcasts full of analysis and reaction to the big stories. |
| 0:21.7 | The stat that is astonishing is they ended with the lowest amount of possession. |
| 0:25.2 | And she's had to live with that. |
| 0:26.8 | So if you love sport, a passion, it's almost like a religion. |
| 0:29.7 | Listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:31.7 | Sort of expecting that every week now. |
| 0:34.9 | Hello, I'm Ron Amitter, and today I'll be talking about war, in fact, and fiction. My guests |
| 0:41.2 | are a truly crack squad, top historian Margaret McMillan, strategist and veteran Rob Johnson, |
| 0:47.1 | and two of Africa's finest novelists, Miyakuta and Abdullah Zagurnah. That's just after this. |
| 0:53.8 | Pst, do you like ideas? Big ones, satisfying ones, crunchy ones, ones that make you go, oh, I like that, tell me more. My name's Matthew Sweet and between you and me, the BBC Arts and Ideas podcast is what you need. We kind of do everything, really. We'll navigate Plath, Pankhurst, Derrida, |
| 1:13.4 | we'll tell you what to do on a date with Carrie Grant. |
| 1:16.1 | We do the big questions about art, sex, death, democracy, |
| 1:20.2 | conservatism, colonialism and cows. |
... |
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