Noggin the Nog

An enchanting series revealed the strangeness of the past to generations of children.  

Inspiring figures: the Lewis Chessmen, c.1150-1200.

History Today at the IHR, our recent series of panel discussions held at the Institute of Historical Research, prompted a deluge of questions. One of them, raised by the historian and broadcaster David Olusoga, was about panellists’ first memories of what we now call ‘public history’, a capacious term that embraces TV, radio, print, the heritage industry and much more.

Olusoga recalled being entranced by a BBC documentary on revolutionary French painters, such as Jacques-Louis David, a neoclassicist of grand visions, who, having been imprisoned after the execution of his ally and patron Robespierre, transferred his allegiance seamlessly to Napoleon.

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