The History of Rome Podcast
A comprehensive podcast covering the entire history of the Roman Empire, from founding to fall.
Revolutions Podcast
Deep dives into the great political revolutions that shaped the modern world.
Hardcore History: Blueprint for Armageddon
A six-part series on World War I. Perhaps the best podcast series ever made.
The Civil War
Ken Burns' landmark documentary series on the American Civil War.
The World at War
The definitive documentary series on World War II, narrated by Laurence Olivier.
Hardcore History: Wrath of the Khans
The Mongol Empire's rise and the most violent conquests in human history.
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
Gibbon's monumental history, still influential after 250 years.
A People's History of the United States
Zinn's influential history told from the perspective of ordinary people.
The Fog of War
Robert McNamara reflects on the lessons of war and his role in Vietnam.
Civilisation
Kenneth Clark's landmark series on the history of Western art and ideas.
The Ascent of Man
Bronowski traces the development of human society through science.
Connections
James Burke traces the unexpected connections between historical innovations.
The Day the Universe Changed
How scientific discoveries changed our understanding of the world.
The History of the Ancient World
A comprehensive overview of ancient civilizations.
Guns, Germs, and Steel
Why did history unfold differently on different continents?
HyperNormalisation
How governments and financiers created a fake world to maintain power.
The Power of Nightmares
The rise of the politics of fear in America and the Middle East.
Hardcore History: Death Throes of the Republic
The fall of the Roman Republic and rise of the Empire.
The Vietnam War
Ken Burns' comprehensive documentary on the Vietnam War.
Shoah
The definitive documentary on the Holocaust, told through survivor testimonies.
The Sorrow and the Pity
France under German occupation, challenging the myth of universal resistance.
Eyes on the Prize
The definitive documentary on the American civil rights movement.
The Histories
The 'Father of History' tells the story of the Persian Wars.
The Prince
The foundational text of modern political science.
Parallel Lives
Parallel biographies of Greek and Roman leaders.
The Annals
Tacitus on the early Roman Empire.
A History of the English-Speaking Peoples
Churchill's history of the English-speaking peoples.
A History of Britain
Schama's history of Britain.
Civilization: The West and the Rest
Ferguson on the rise of the West.
The Silk Roads
History recentered on the Silk Roads.
The Making of the Atomic Bomb
The making of the atomic bomb.
Stalingrad
Beevor on the Battle of Stalingrad.
Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory
The first film ever publicly screened. Workers stream out of the Lumière factory in Lyon — under a minute that launched cinema.
Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat
A train pulling into La Ciotat station. Legend says audiences panicked, believing the train would burst through the screen.
Lumière Brothers' Films from Around the World
Lumière cameramen traveled the world filming daily life. This stunning compilation shows Egypt, Japan, Vietnam, and other locations in the 1890s — the earliest moving images of much of the non-Western world.
Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze
One of the earliest surviving motion pictures, shot in Edison's Black Maria studio — a man sneezing captured on kinetoscope.
Victorian Era Films: The Earliest British Cinema
The BFI's restored collection of the earliest surviving British films from the Victorian era, including street scenes, seaside life, and industrial Britain.
Gabriel Veyre: Lumière Films from Japan and Mexico
Lumière cameraman Gabriel Veyre filmed daily life in Mexico, Japan, and across Asia. Among the earliest motion pictures from these regions, showing markets, streets, and ceremonies.
Constantinople in the 1890s: Ottoman Empire on Film
Rare footage of Constantinople (Istanbul) at the turn of the century — the Galata Bridge, the Golden Horn, street vendors, and the cosmopolitan Ottoman capital in its final imperial decades.
Felice Beato: Photographs of Edo-Period Japan
Italian-British photographer Felice Beato's extraordinary images of 1860s Japan — samurai, geisha, temples, and daily life during the final years of the Edo period, some of the earliest photographs of Japan ever taken.
Samuel Bourne: Photographs of India and the Himalayas
British photographer Samuel Bourne hauled heavy equipment through the Himalayas to capture breathtaking images of India's mountains, temples, and colonial-era cities in astonishing detail.
Francis Frith: Egypt and the Holy Land
Francis Frith's pioneering photographic expeditions to Egypt and the Holy Land produced haunting images of the pyramids, Luxor temples, and Nile landscapes — some of the first photographs of these ancient monuments.
John Thomson: Photographs of China and Southeast Asia
Scottish photographer John Thomson spent years documenting China, Cambodia, and Southeast Asia. His images of Angkor Wat, Beijing street life, and the people of 1870s Asia remain among the most important early photographic records of the region.
Désiré Charnay: Ancient Ruins of Mexico and Central America
French explorer Désiré Charnay's photographs of Mesoamerican ruins — Chichén Itzá, Palenque, and other Maya and Aztec sites — taken decades before modern archaeology, when these structures were still engulfed by jungle.
Marc Ferrez: Photographs of 19th Century Brazil
Brazil's greatest 19th century photographer captured sweeping panoramas of Rio de Janeiro, the Amazon, enslaved communities, and Indigenous peoples — an invaluable visual record of a nation in transformation.
Kusakabe Kimbei: Hand-Colored Photographs of Meiji Japan
One of the first Japanese photographers, Kusakabe Kimbei's hand-colored photographs of Meiji-era Japan show a nation between feudalism and modernity — tea ceremonies, cherry blossoms, samurai armor, and the streets of Yokohama.
Eadweard Muybridge: Animal Locomotion
Muybridge's sequential photographs proved that a galloping horse lifts all four hooves off the ground — revolutionizing both science and art, and directly presaging cinema itself.
Prokudin-Gorsky: Color Photographs of the Russian Empire
Russian chemist Prokudin-Gorsky created stunning full-color photographs of the Russian Empire from 1905-1915 — Samarkand, the Caucasus, Bukhara, and rural Russia in vivid color decades before color film was common.
Antonio Beato: Photographs of Upper Egypt
Working from a studio in Luxor, Antonio Beato (brother of Felice) spent decades photographing the temples, tombs, and landscapes of Upper Egypt — the Colossi of Memnon, Valley of the Kings, and Philae Temple in pristine isolation.
Lala Deen Dayal: Court Photographer of India
India's pioneering photographer and 'Raja Deen Dayal' served as court photographer to the Nizam of Hyderabad. His images capture the grandeur of Indian palaces, landscapes, and the intersection of tradition and colonial modernity.
Lumière Films: North Africa and the Middle East
The Lumière cameramen filmed across colonial-era North Africa and the Middle East. These brief clips show Algiers, Cairo, Jerusalem, and Tunis — fleeting glimpses of daily life at the turn of the century.
A Trip to the Moon (Le Voyage dans la Lune)
The first science fiction film ever made. Méliès' iconic image of a rocket lodged in the Moon's eye became one of cinema's most enduring images. A masterpiece of early special effects and imagination.
William Henry Jackson: Global Expedition Photographs
Jackson's photographs of Machu Picchu, the American West, and global expeditions for the World's Transportation Commission documented landscapes and peoples across five continents in the 1890s.
Linnaeus Tripe: Photographs of Burma and South India
British military photographer Linnaeus Tripe produced extraordinary images of Burma (Myanmar) and South India in the 1850s — ornate pagodas, crumbling temples, and landscapes that few Westerners had ever seen.
Mitchell & Kenyon: The Lost Films of Victorian England
Astonishing films of Victorian and Edwardian England discovered in a sealed barrel in 2000. Factory workers, children pouring out of school gates, tram rides through Manchester and Blackburn — ordinary people staring into a camera for the first time.
Victorian London on Film: Street Scenes 1890s
Remarkable restored footage of Victorian London — horse-drawn omnibuses on London Bridge, crowds at Piccadilly Circus, the Thames embankment, and the dense, smoky streets of the world's largest city at the turn of the century.
John Thomson: Street Life in London
Before photographing Asia, John Thomson turned his lens on the streets of London. His 'Street Life in London' series captured flower sellers, chimney sweeps, costers, and the working poor of Victorian England — a pioneering work of social documentary photography.
Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee Procession
Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee procession through London in 1897 — one of the earliest major public events captured on film. The Queen's carriage, colonial troops, and enormous crowds lining the streets of an empire at its zenith.
Lai Afong: Photographs of 19th Century Hong Kong and Canton
One of the most important early Chinese photographers, Lai Afong operated a studio in Hong Kong from the 1860s. His panoramas of Hong Kong harbour, Canton (Guangzhou), and Macau are among the finest 19th century photographs of southern China.
Thomas Child: Photographs of Imperial Peking
British engineer Thomas Child photographed Peking (Beijing) extensively in the 1870s — the Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, Summer Palace, and city gates before modernization swept them away. Among the earliest detailed photographic records of the Chinese capital.
Early Film: Hong Kong at the Turn of the Century
The earliest known moving images of Hong Kong — rickshaws, junks in the harbour, street vendors, and the bustling waterfront of a colonial port city at the dawn of the 20th century.
Maxim Dmitriev: Photographs of Imperial Russia
Russia's first photojournalist, Maxim Dmitriev documented the Volga region — peasant life, famine, river traders, Old Believers, and the vast Russian countryside. His images of the 1891-92 famine are harrowing masterpieces of social photography.
Karl Bulla: St. Petersburg in the Late Russian Empire
Known as the 'father of Russian photojournalism,' Karl Bulla captured life in St. Petersburg from the 1880s through the Revolution — Nevsky Prospect, the Winter Palace, factory workers, aristocrats, and the final decades of Tsarist splendour.
Early Film: Moscow and St. Petersburg 1896-1908
Remarkable early footage of Moscow and St. Petersburg from the 1890s-1900s — the Kremlin, Tverskaya Street, Neva embankments, horse-drawn sleighs, and the grand imperial capitals before revolution transformed them forever.
Christiano Junior: Photographs of 19th Century Argentina
Italian-Argentine photographer Christiano Junior created one of the most important visual records of 19th century Argentina — gauchos on the pampas, Afro-Argentine communities, the growing city of Buenos Aires, and the immigrant communities reshaping a young nation.
Benito Panunzi: Early Photographs of Buenos Aires and Argentina
Italian photographer Benito Panunzi documented Buenos Aires and the Argentine interior in the 1860s-70s — the Plaza de Mayo before its modern form, rural estancias, Indigenous peoples of Patagonia, and a capital city still finding its identity.
Eugenio Py: The First Argentine Films
The earliest known film shot in Argentina — Eugenio Py's 'La Bandera Argentina' (The Argentine Flag) from 1897, along with his footage of Buenos Aires street scenes, marking the birth of Argentine cinema.
Early Film: Buenos Aires at the Turn of the Century
Restored early footage of Buenos Aires from the late 1890s and early 1900s — Avenida de Mayo, the port, horse-drawn trams, and the elegant capital of a booming nation that saw itself as the Paris of South America.