10/09/2013
Helen Castor and guests discuss the stories that are making history, including the role of China in World War II, and the British Black Panthers.
Helen Castor is joined in the Making History studio by Rana Mitter, Professor of the History and Politics of Modern China at the University of Oxford and, from Salford, by Dr Andrew Fearnley a historian of Modern America at the University of Manchester.
The programme begins with the little acknowledged role that China played in World War 2 and its war with Japan which began in 1937. We hear how a poor and divided country desperately fought off the Japanese and, in so doing, tied up troops which would otherwise have been turned on the Allies in the Pacific theatre of war. Helen asks why this history is so little known.
Fifty years after Martin Luther King made his iconic "I have a dream speech" speech in front of the Lincoln memorial in Washington, we find out about the black power movement that turned its back on King and the organisation that grew out of this. We may think of the Black Panthers as an American organisation, but a new photography and oral history project in Brixton reveals the story of the British Black Panthers.
Finally, Tom Holland heads off to the beautiful north Somerset coast at the village of Kilve to discover the past use of a decaying brick building. To his surprise, he hears that this might well have become home to the British oil shale industry if prospectors had been successful back in the 1920s.
Contact the programme: making.history@bbc.co.uk
Produced by Nick Patrick
A Pier production for 大象传媒 Radio 4.
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Chinese Japanese War 1937
Rana Mitter鈥檚 new book is "China's War with Japan, 1937-1945: The Struggle for Survival" in it he makes the case for how China was a key participant in the Second World War and how its involvement helped tie-up nearly a million Japanese troops that would otherwise have been available to fight the Allies in the Pacific theatre of the war. We discuss how the Cold War and the rise of Chairman Mao helped to erase this history.
British Black Panthers
A new oral history and photography project being run by Photofusion in Brixton and funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund is researching the history of the Black Panther movement in South London. The project comes 50 years after Martin Luther King鈥檚 iconic "I have a dream" speech in front of the Lincoln memorial in Washington. In America the Black Panthers rejected King鈥檚 approach and followed a more militant, even violent road in the pursuit of equal rights. Here in Britain, the movement (although similarly heavily influenced by Marxist thought) was less combative. However, just as in America the Black Panther movement in south London played a major role in educating young black people and championing their rights.
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The inspiration for 听is the photographer Neil Kenlock who became the official photographer of the Black Panthers in Britain. His work and the work of the young people involved in the project will be on display at Photofusion in Brixton in the autumn.
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Photo: Black Panthers in Brixton (Credit:听漏 Neil Kenlock, Brixton, London 1970s. Courtesy of Autograph ABP)
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Kilve Oil Shale
Making History listener Aubrey Knowles wanted the programme to find out what a disused brick building in the north Somerset village of Kilve was used for. Tom Holland enlisted the help of geologist Dr Nick Riley and Stephen Miles of the Somerset Industrial Archaeology Society.
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Nick Riley explained the geology of the area at Kilve and did an experiment with the loose shale he found on the beach there. By heating this shale, which was formed in the Jurassic, to a very temperature (not to be attempted by the amateur geologist or historian) he produced an oily residue. Geologists had noted the properties of this rock at the beginning of the twentieth century and the brick building that Aubrey Knowles had spotted was built to try and produce oil in industrial quantities. Called a retort it鈥檚 the last surviving building of its type in the UK.
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Broadcast
- Tue 10 Sep 2013 15:00大象传媒 Radio 4
Podcast
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Making History
Popular history series where the past connects with the present.
