Generational Breakdown

When Greeks Flew Kites

In this new monthly series, broadcaster and acclaimed historical novelist Sarah Dunant, delves into the past to help frame the present, bringing to life worlds that span the centuries.

Taking modern day anxieties as its starting point, the series considers how certain questions are constant, yet also change their shape over time. Sarah celebrates the role of imagination in History and History as a discipline is at the heart of the programme, showing how historians are continually changing the questions they ask of the past.

The programme takes its name from the industrialist Henry Ford who, in 1921 reportedly told the New York Times, "History is Bunk" and asked "What difference does it make how many times the ancient Greeks flew kites?"

The opening episode examines the commonly-held anxiety that the future for the generations to come no longer looks as good as it did for past ones. Sarah explores the idea of tension and acceptance between generations. Dr Lucy Underwood introduces us to rebellious Catholic teens after the Reformation. Professor Helen Berry talks to Sarah about the struggle by the young to marry for love and the historian Lawrence Stone, who spawned a new interest in family history.

Sarah talks to Professor Ibram Kendi about the tension between successive generations of black Americans about how to overcome racism. And with Professor Peter Mandler, Sarah examines how the holy grail of social mobility, used by politicians on both sides long after its sell by date, was actually more complex and flawed than we have come to accept.

Presenter: Sarah Dunant Producer: Katherine Godfrey Assistant Producer: Nathan Gower Executive Producer: David Prest A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.