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Available for 26 days

The historian and bestselling author of The Five and Story of a Murder, Hallie Rubenhold examines what the subject of ‘history’ is and makes the case for keeping it personal. Her previous books have also included The Covent Garden Ladies which told the stories of the legion of ordinary women whose lives in the sex trade history has chosen to ignore. History, she argues, is so much more than the brave deeds of ‘Great Men’ as Thomas Carlyle would have us believe. It is instead made up of the ordinary and the often unchronicled lives of people who lived in the houses we live in, who travelled the same streets, maybe planted the same fields and gardens. Over five essays, Hallie makes a powerful case for the intimacy of history. Careful research can reveal the crucial hinterland to domestic objects which may be hundreds, even thousands, of years old, but this also means that the objects belonging to us or inherited from our parents and grandparents have stories to tell and a role in revealing the social history of our own and recent times. Hallie Rubenhold was born and grew up in California, her father is English and her mother was American. She studied history in the US and at Leeds University and has lived in the UK for most of her life. Her accent reflects a rich and complex heritage, as nuanced as her work which seeks to give voice to a whole range of hidden narratives often from the marginalized or female side of history. Written and read by Hallie Rubenhold Produced by Jill Waters The Waters Company for ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Radio 4