Zeb Baker-Smith Archives - Aspects of History

AoH Book Club: Brian Williams on Marshal Ney: Fall from Glory

The author of a biography of the ‘The Bravest of the Brave’ comments on his remarkable career and tragic downfall, his astronomic rise through the Revolutionary and Napoleonic armies up to Waterloo, his controversial execution and the enduring myths surrounding his legacy.

Brian Williams

Hello Brian, and welcome back to Aspects of History. A year on from its publication, Marshal Ney: Fall from Glory is your first book, but your fascination with the Napoleonic Wars goes back to childhood. What was it about Ney in particular that made you want to tell...

Episode 287

Episode 286

Episode 285

The African Kingdom of Gold: Britain and the Asante Treasure, by Barnaby Phillips

A thoughtful history of the Asante treasures traces their journey through conquest, exile and contested repatriation and sheds light on the urgency of the debate over colonial legacies today.

Zeb Baker-Smith

Much is made to make history relatable to audiences, readers and listenerships in the 2020s, whether that is parallels with bygone eras, the immutable notion that we can plot what will come from what once happened. Barnaby Phillips’ The African Kingdom of Gold can lay...

AoH Book Club: Barney White-Spunner on Nations in Arms

In conversation with the Editor, the historian reflects on the lessons of his book a year on, from historical military reform and the relationship between armies and society to the impact of Ukraine on modern warfare, and his fascination with Constantine the Great.

Barney White-Spunner

Great to have you back in the Book Club hotseat, Barney. A year on from the publication of Nations in Arms, what first drew you to the idea of comparing these five armies, separated by such vast swathes of time, and what did you hope a comparative study would reveal...

Episode 280

Themistocles: The Rise and Fall of Athens’s Naval Mastermind, by Michael Scott

Scott has achieved one of the hardest tasks for an ancient historian, this portrayal possessing accessibility, narrative zip and a desirable balance between the political and the personal.

Zeb Baker-Smith

If one was to conceive of Themistocles’ story as an altarpiece (and it seems the eponymous subject did so!), the central image would be a well-known one: the Athenian slipping surreptitiously out of the Greek naval command’s evening deliberations to send his...

Episode 279

Leadership, Vision and the Making of the Post-War Order – In Conversation with James Holland

A timely reflection on his latest book, the Chalke Festival supremo, historian and broadcaster explores how the moral clarity and internationalism of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman shaped the post-war order – and why their example may offer urgent lessons for today.

James Holland

It is little over a year since Donald Trump stood in the White House Rose Garden and announced a raise in tariffs on foreign imports into the US for nearly every country in the world. ‘Liberation Day’ as he branded 2nd April 2025, and the fall-out from it, was the...