大象传媒

The new book by the prize-winning writer Sarah Bakewell is about 700 years of humanist freethinking, enquiry and hope. It begins in Tuscany in the 1300s where life is uncertain and conflict and hostilities are rife. Into this febrile atmosphere come Petrarch and Boccaccio. The reader is Emma Fielding.

Humanly Possible is the latest book from Sarah Bakewell, the award-winning author of 'How to Live' and 'At the Existentialist Cafe'. Here Bakewell delves into the lives of the thinkers who throughout history have set about understanding what it means to be human, and so created the school of thought that we know today as humanism.

In our series we encounter Petrarch and Boccaccio who look back to the ancients for models of good living based on friendship, wisdom and the power of words. Then we encounter Erasmus and find out about his views on education and civility. We'll also come across Wilhelm von Humboldt who redesigned Prussia's education system in the nineteenth century and ensured that it was founded on principles of mutual kindness and liberty. Moving on to the mid-nineteenth century we meet Darwin with his ground-breaking theories on evolution, and the writings of T.H. Huxley gave rise to scientific humanism. In the final episode, the twentieth century's humanists are compelled to confront the horrors of WWII and its far-reaching consequences.

The abridger is Richard Hamilton
The producer is Elizabeth Allard