Zeb Baker-Smith Archives - Page 2 of 8

AoH Book Club: Steven Veerapen on The Wisest Fool: The Lavish Life of James VI and I

In conversation with the Editor, the historian reflects on his mission to rescue England’s first Stuart king from centuries of caricature and revealing a politically astute monarch whose skills lay in image-making and peaceful governance.

Steven Veerapen

Hello Steven – thanks for talking to us a few years on from the publication of The Wisest Fool: The Lavish Life of James VI and I, our Book Club pick for June. In the book, you set out to strip away the myths around the first Stuart King of England – what was the...

Episode 270

The World’s Reformation: How Protestantism Became a Global Religion, by Alec Ryrie

A nuanced and globe-spanning examination of how Protestantism’s often chaotic missionary efforts helped shape the early modern world.

Zeb Baker-Smith

In a secular age, religious history can feel slightly tangential and recondite, particularly when set against the commercial and colonial designs of fledgling empires in the early modern age. Very well, except that is missing the point. Reformation Europe remains a...

Episode 268

AoH Book Club: Giles Milton on The Stalin Affair

The historian makes the case that the pragmatic partnership between Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin highlights how vital and difficult diplomacy and cooperation are then and today.

Giles Milton

Welcome back, Giles – we’re exactly two years on from the release of The Stalin Affair, and that question of the nature of diplomacy between allies seems ever more relevant in recent weeks and months in 2026. The ‘impossible alliance’ you discuss between Franklin D....

Episode 265

Athens and Sparta: The Rivalry that Shaped Ancient Greece, by Adrian Goldsworthy

An ambitious and successful account demonstrating how unlikely alliance and antagonism, rooted in identity and ambition, led to the Peloponnesian War.

Zeb Baker-Smith

The Romans too often get the good gigs, both on our screens and on the shelves, these days; the Greeks, not so much… That is the starting point of Adrian Goldsworthy’s journey east across the Mediterranean and his sweeping account of the two headline acts at the tip...

Episode 264

AoH Book Club: James Dunford Wood on The Big Little War

The author discusses the overlooked Anglo-Iraqi War of 1941, exploring how the improvised defence of RAF Habbaniya may have had far-reaching consequences for the Second World War.

James Dunford Wood

Hi James – your book, The Big Little War, was published just over three years ago. It seems apt that this month marks the 85th anniversary of the coup which led to the extraordinary events that you recount in the book, and you have a new, extended edition of the book...

Gladiators and the Roman Mind: In Conversation with Harry Sidebottom

Toned biceps on show during a deadly bout on the sands of the arena – but is the Hollywood depiction of gladiator less interesting than the actual truth?

Zeb Baker-Smith

It is telling just how few mainstream films have tackled ancient Rome in the 21st century, with two notable exceptions… you know the ones I mean. Gladiators and the arches of the Colosseum are two of the most iconic images we have of the Romans and the Eternal City’s...