A bloody business
The Reith Lectures RADIO Radio 4 & BBC World Service Tuesday 26 June
Why, as individuals and under collective identities, do we fight? It’s a question that lies at the centre of the latest series of Reith Lectures, The Mark of Cain, to be given by the eminent Canadian historian Professor Margaret MacMillan.
Over five lectures, she will also address such issues as how changes in society have affected the nature of war, and how wars themselves bring change. Many fields get a fillip from conflict, and the stories of how we came to develop penicillin, radar and rockets are bound up with war.
MacMillan will also look at the lot of women during times of conflict, and will conclude by examining how we think and feel about war, a recurring theme over the years for writers and artists. She will be delivering the lectures at five locations: London, York, Beirut, Belfast and Ottawa. Anita Anand will chair the talks, replacing Sue Lawley, who recently stood down after 17 years in the role.