The Long Summer

The one hundredth anniversary of the start of the First World war looms on the horizon. 1914 is a date forged into the British consciousness, just as it's carved into monuments the length and breadth of the UK and many places beyond. With that awareness comes an understanding that it was the war to end all wars, shocking the culture, politics, and societies of Europe, but particularly Britain, out of their comfortable progress and reshaping everything. But in this series Michael Portillo challenges that notion. Looking at a series of themes, the suffrage movement, the Irish question, the decline of the liberal party and the arts, he argues that to a large extent Britain was already in a state of flux by 1913 and many of the developments we think of as emanating from or being catalysed by the war, were actually in full flow. In the first programme Michael samples the atmosphere of June 1913. Producer Tom Alban.

You can listen to The Long Summer online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

The Long Summer is an episode from 1913: The Year Before by BBC.

This episode is 13:32 long.

This episode was published on Jun 11, 2013.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from 1913: The Year Before when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.