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BBC Radio 3 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Third Programme.

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The Essay Podcast

The Essay

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Essays from leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond.

Leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond, themed across a week - insight, opinion and intellectual surprise.

The Essay: What Is a Nation?

The Essay: What Is a Nation?: Episode 3: Bosnia

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What Is a Nation?

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Episode 3: Bosnia

Bosnia

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Michael Goldfarb discusses the story of Bosnia's hot war and cold peace.

What Is a Nation? Michael Goldfarb explores the definition of the 'nation' today. 3/5. Michael discusses the story of Bosnia's hot war and cold peace.

What is a nation? Is it the same as a country? Are a people, or a tribe, the same thing as a nation? 

Is a nation something you die for? Or get murdered for? The story of Bosnia's hot war and cold peace and how it revived an idea of nationhood born in the 19th century and thoroughly discredited by the Nazi catastrophe in the middle of the 20th century. 


In a series of five essays, American writer Michael Goldfarb looks for a definition of the "nation" for the globalised 21st century. Goldfarb who spent most of the last two decades covering conflicts and conflict-resolution draws on his experiences in Bosnia, Iraq, and Northern Ireland to look at the question. These essays contain not just ideas but vivid anecdotes of real people caught up in the frequently violent confrontations sparked by unresolved questions of nationhood.


First broadcast in June 2012.

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Michael Goldfarb considers the definition of the 'nation' for the globalised 21st century.

Writer Michael Goldfarb considers the definition of the 'nation' for the globalised 21st century. Is it the same as a country? Are a people or a tribe the same thing as a nation?

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