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Spain: Episode 3 Sep 05, 2018

Show notes

On February 15 1898, an American warship blew up suddenly and sank. The USS Maine had been moored in Havana harbour, sent by President McKinley from Key West to protect American interests in Cuba. It's still unclear if Spanish colonial forces were in anyway responsible for the sinking of the USS Maine. What we know for certain is that the brief, bloody war that followed completely changed the world.

In the third and final programme of The Invention of Spain, Misha Glenny charts imperial decline, from the early independence of Colombia, Venezuela and Mexico, up to the 1898 war that saw Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines all break free. With contributrions from Cayetana Alvarez de Toledo, Sir John Elliott, and Samuel Moncada, historian and Venezuelan ambassador to London. "The point is why do they (the colonies) follow Spain so long ? That is the miracle, not independence."

Misha Glenny is a Sony award winning broadcaster. His previous collaborations with producer Miles Warde include The Invention of Germany,.

Spain: Episode 2 Aug 24, 2018

Show notes

September 11th in Barcelona is celebrated annually as the national day of Catalonia. This year more than a million people marched through the city, waving their distinctive flags - many want independence from Madrid. This is clearly a critical moment in Spanish history, but the mood of separation is not new.

In The Invention of Spain, Misha Glenny explores flashpoints and fragmentation in the Spanish monarchy's territorial possessions - from the revolts of Catalonia in both 1640 and 1714, to the emergence of the United Provinces, or the Dutch, as a nation separate and free from their Habsburg overlords.

"This was a David and Goliath struggle. The Spanish army was indisputably the strongest in Europe," says Ben Kaplan of UCL. ""For this smattering of rebels living in this marshy bogland was adventurous at best, and suicidal at worst."

With contributions from Cayetana Alvarez de Toledo, Felipe Fernandez Armesto and Sir John Elliott. Misha Glenny is a winner of a Sony gold. Producer Miles Warde previously collaborated with him on The Invention of Germany.

Spain: Episode 1 Aug 17, 2018

Show notes

Catalonia, Castille, Galicia and the Basques ... it's been said that many of Spain's problems come from the pretence that she is one country. In The Invention of Spain Misha Glenny explores whether this is true. Three documentaries, from 1492 to 1898, from Columbus to El Desastre, tell the story of the rise and fall of an empire. But they also reveal the fractured state of a nation, both in history and now.

"I can't imagine Spain ever cohering - if it did it wouldn't be Spain." Felipe Fernandez Armesto.

The first programme begins in the annus mirabilis of 1492, when the last Moors in Granada surrendered, Columbus discovered the New World, and an edict was published expelling the Jews. This year is frequently cited as the birth of modern Spain, but behind the national mythology another story lurks. "The birth of this embryonic Spain is rooted in the idea of exclusion," says one contributor, "and that is a very nasty thing to have in your history."

Misha Glenny is a former BBC correspondent and winner of a Sony gold. Producer Miles Warde has previously collaborated with Misha Glenny on The Invention of Germany, Garibaldi's Grand Scheme and The Alps. Contributors include Sir John Elliott, Inigo Gurruchaga of El Correo newspaper, Mia Rodriguez Salgado and Madrid MP Cayetana Alvarez de Toledo.

Italy: Episode 3 Aug 09, 2018

Show notes

Misha Glenny concludes the Invention of Italy in the Alps and Trieste, ambitious targets of Italian warmongers in the First World War.

"You need to think of the fighting taking place in Flanders applied in the rocky limestone of the Alps .... the Italians at the bottom, the Austrians at the top." Mark Thompson, The White War

In 1915 Italy entered the Great War on the side of France, Britain and Russia. The aim ? To gain new territory up north to the watershed of the Alps; and also east over the Adriatic into parts of what later became Yugoslavia. The price of these ambitions - nearly three quarters of a million Italians dead in the snow and rock. They died upholding the nationalist belief this new Italian nation - barely fifty years old - needed to spill blood to prove itself, to demonstrate they were not just waiters and ice cream salesmen.

Chief among the characters who dragged Italy into war was a poet, Gabrielle d'Annunzio, bald as a coot and a great seducer of Italian women, and Italian minds. In the third and final Invention of Italy, Misha Glenny travels along the frontline, from Trieste via alpine trenches to Lake Garda, where d'Annunzio's Vittoriale degli Italiani attempted to create an Italian fighting tradition by dragging a battleship up the hill and setting it among ornamental gardens.

With expert contributions from Joze Serbec of the Kobarid museum in Slovenia; Lucy Hughes-Hallet, author of The Pike, the autobiography of d'Annunzio shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize; plus Simon Winder, David Gilmour, David Laven, and Mark Thompson, author The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front.

Italy: Episode 2 Aug 03, 2018

Show notes

Misha Glenny presents a compelling new history of Italy from 1494 to the end of the First World War.

In October 1860, on a misty road north of Naples, Giuseppe Garibaldi met the future king of Italy and handed over control of the south. This brief moment in the story of the new Italian state has been often mythologised, but it is not as straightforward as it seems. Violence, civil war, the birth of the mafia - these elements in the story are often overlooked.

Beginning with Napoleon's call to the peoples of Italy in 1796, Misha Glenny picks his way through Italian unification with clarity and care. Rome only became part of this new European country under a century and a half ago - and even then the Pope ordered his followers neither to stand in nor vote in elections for the new state. Small wonder some claim that Italy is not really unified yet.

With expert contributions from Christopher Duggan, Marco Meriggi, Leoluca Orlando, Lucy Riall, Lucy Hughes-Hallet, Filippo de Vivo, David Gilmour, Beppe Severgnini, Simon Winder, Joze Serbec and David Laven.

The presenter is Misha Glenny, who previously collaborated with producer Miles Warde on the Invention of Germany and the Invention of Spain.

Italy: Episode 1 Jul 24, 2018

Show notes

Misha Glenny presents a compelling new history of Italy from 1494 to the end of the First World War.

Piedmont, the Venetian Republic, Mantua, Modena, the Grand Duchy of Florence, the kingdom of Naples, the Papal States - the arrival of Italy as a unified state is a surprisingly recent affair. "We are a new nation," says Professor Marco Meriggi, and this is true - but the 150th anniversary was celebrated two years ago in quite muted style. So forget what you may know about the Roman empire, and enter a country which doesn't really feel unified yet.

"Italy is a divided country, no doubt about that. The Italian equivalent of nationalism is campanalismo, from the word for bell tower - this is the attachment of Italians to their city square." Dr Filippo de Vivo.

Beginning with the French invasion of 1494, when Charles VIII's mercenaries reached Naples and then spread syphilis to all points north of the Alps, the Invention of Italy tells a story of fragmentation, foreign occupation and nationalist false starts. The second programme looks at how unification finally occurred, and why many believe that the mafia emerged at the same time. the third programme focuses on why Italians were so eager to shed blood in the First World War.

The presenter is Misha Glenny, who previously collaborated with producer Miles Warde on the Invention of Germany and the Invention of Spain.

The Netherlands: Why Belgium? Jun 25, 2018

Show notes

Misha Glenny ends his Netherlandish travels in Brussels, and asks why does Belgium exist. With details on the brief Kingdom of the Netherlands - a union with the Dutch in the north - and the reason why the British went to war with Germany in 1914. There is a faultline in Europe, running from the North Sea to the Alps, and this is one reason Belgium exists.

With contributions from Gita Deneckere of Ghent University; Simon Winder, who's at work on a new book called Lotharingia; and Paul Arblaster, author of A History of the Low Countries.

The producer is Miles Warde.

The Netherlands: The Golden Age Jun 18, 2018

Show notes

Misha Glenny on the Dutch golden age - when a few boggy Netherlandish provinces turned into one of the military and trading heavyweights of the world.

In 1607 the Dutch took on and defeated the mighty Spanish in their own backyard at Gibraltar, Sixty years later they sailed up the Medway and humiliated another trading nation by towing away the flagship of the English fleet. It was called the Royal Charles, and parts can still be seen in the Rijksmuseum. This was the golden age - when North America, South Africa, north east Brazil and the Dutch East Indies all received visits from this violent upstart nation. How did this happen? How did Amsterdam transform itself from a small fishing town into the hub of a global super power in a few short decades?

With contributions from Rebecca Rideal, author of 1666: Plague, War and Hellfire; Ben Kaplan of University College London; Gils Rommelse, author of the Second Anglo-Dutch War; Judith Pollmann of Leiden University; Maarten Prak of Utrecht University; and the Dutch journalist Geert Mak.

From the team behind The Invention of Germany, the USA and of Brazil. The presenter is Misha Glenny.

The producer in Bristol is Miles Warde

The Netherlands: Orange Fever Jun 08, 2018

Show notes

Misha Glenny explores a pivot of Western history - the Netherlands.

"Chances are you think we're talking about Holland. But Holland's a province. Go back two centuries and this was a kingdom that included Belgium and Luxembourg. Before that it was the Austrian Netherlands; before that the Spanish Netherlands. And this region was rich!"

They call it the golden delta, where the Rhine and the Scheldt run into the chilly North Sea. Amsterdam, Antwerp, Brussels and Bruges are among European history's key centres of trade. Merchants, inventors, philosophers, outsiders - all flocked to the Netherlands. Benelux was the gap between Germany and France, and the home of the EU. But is this a country, and if so when did it begin?

From the team behind The Invention of Germany, the USA and Brazil. With contributions from Geert Mak, author of "In Europe: Travels Through the Twentieth Century"; Anne Goldgar, author of "Tulipmania", Judith Pollman of Leiden University; Maarten Prak of Utrecht University; and Ben Coates, author of "Why the Dutch are Different".

The presenter is Misha Glenny, the producer Miles Warde.

The USA: The Melting Pot Jun 04, 2018

Show notes

To build a country you need people. "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to be free." This quote, from the base of the Statue of Liberty, is part of the great American myth. Protestants, Catholics, Jews, Muslims, English, Irish, Poles, Germans, Koreans, Jamaicans - astounding numbers of people have started life again in the US. But not everyone has been welcomed with open arms. Who do you let in, who do you keep out? This has been an American obsession from the very start.

With contributions from Comanche writer Paul Chaat Smith, novelist Zoe Heller, Sarah Henry of the City Museum of New York, Jaime Arras of the border patrol in El Paso, and Harry Allen, better known as the Media Assassin with Public Enemy. The presenter is Misha Glenny, the producer in Bristol Miles Warde.

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