Free Thinking

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Free Thinking: Alexander the Great

Alexander the Great

BBC Radio 4 - Free Thinking, Alexander the Great

Military leader, city founder, underwater explorer?! Rana Mitter on images of Alexander.

His short-lived empire stretched from Greece to parts of India and Egypt, but the Alexander myth ran across centuries and continents: we look at a British Library exhibition.

King of Asia and Pharoah are two of the titles taken by Alexander, ruler of Macedonia from 336 B.C. to 323 B.C. He died aged 32 having conquered a vast area and founded the city of Alexandria in present day Egypt but his reputation stretched even further as a kind of philosopher king, and in myths and stories, as someone who travelled to paradise, created the first flying machine and explored underwater. Rana Mitter has been to visit a new exhibition at the British Library which illustrates these different images of Alexander and he's joined by New Generation Thinkers Dr Julia Hartley, Professor Islam Issa and by Peter Toth, curator of ancient and medieval manuscripts at the British Library. Plus we hear about the books on the shortlist of this year's Cundill History Prize from the chair of the judges, Professor J.R. McNeill. 

Julia Hartley teaches on French, Italian, and Iranian art and literature at King's College London. You can find an Essay she wrote for Radio 3 on Alexander and the Persians available on BBC Sounds https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0016rpp

Islam Issa is Professor of Literature and History at Birmingham City University. His book, Alexandria: The City that Changed the World, will be out in 2023.

Alexander the Great: The Making of a Myth runs at the British Library until February 19th 2023.

The Cundill History prize has shortlisted the following books (the winner is announced on December 1st) https://www.cundillprize.com/ 
Cuba: An American History by Ada Ferrer
All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley's Sack, a Black Family Keepsake by Tiya Miles
Collapse: The Fall of the Soviet Union by Vladislav M. Zubok

Producer: Ruth Watts. 

You can hear an episode of Radio 3's Words and Music on the theme of Egypt co-curated by New Generation Thinker Islam Issa available on BBC Sounds for a month after being broadcast on Sunday, November 6th at 5.30pm.  And an episode of Free Thinking available now on BBC Sounds and as an Arts & Ideas podcast explores Dead Languages and the deciphering of hieroglyphics.

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