Rana Mitter – författare

Det påstås att ungefär 14 500 krig har utkämpats sedan år 3 500 f.Kr. Mänskligheten har bara erfarit 300 år av fred på jorden. Under 1900-talet dödades fler människor i krig än något tidigare sekel. Relativt sett dödar vi dock varandra mer sällan. Håller vi gradvis på att bli mer fredliga? 

Oavsett hur många som dödas, och med vilken metod, kan vi vara säkra på att krig kommer att fortsätta utkämpas. Ligger orsakerna till krig i samhället eller i biologin, i tävlan om ekonomiska resurser eller sexuella, i historiska omständigheter eller i en universell våldsinstinkt? Allt sedan antiken fram till dagens terrorism har krig varit förstörare och skapare av stater och civilisationer. 

Essäerna i denna antologi har sitt ursprung i det internationellt välrenommerade Engelsbergsseminariet 2015 och är skrivna av historiker, journalister, tänkare, forskare och författare från hela världen. Huvudredaktörer är Kurt Almqvist och Alexander Linklater. 

A captivating anthology of programmes, painting a multi-faceted portrait of a unique countryJapan is a land of complexity, contrast and contradictions. The world''s third-largest economy, it is a powerhouse of innovation and a pioneer in technology, fashion and pop culture. But it also has a rich, ancient heritage and a deep reverence for custom, ritual and tradition. This illuminating 2-part radio collection traverses the different aspects of this fascinating country, from its famous historical figures to its diverse cultural landscape.Part 1: History opens with Japan in Five Lives, in which cultural historian Christopher Harding portrays the lives of five colourful characters from the country''s past to answer the question ''Who are the Japanese''? In Killing Time in Imperial Japan, he explores early 20th Century Tokyo, a bustling, cosmopolitan capital where the meaning of ''time'' was hotly contested. Dark Blossoms sees him examining the doubts and misgivings accompanying Japan''s rapid embrace of modernity, while in Japanese Tsunami, broadcasters Richard Lloyd Parry and Matthew Sweet discuss the devastating natural disaster that rocked the country in 2011. In Land of the Rising Sums, Alex Bellos visits Kyoto to ask why Asian cultures seem so much better at maths; in Japan and Religion, Roy Jenkins discusses the place of religious traditions in modern Japan; and in Supernatural Japan, Christopher Harding looks at how the Japanese have used ghosts and ghost stories to make sense of their world.Part 2: Culture celebrates Japan''s art, literature and film. In Japan Now 2020, Philip Dodd talks to writers Hiromi Ito and Yukiko Motoya and photographer Tomoko Sawada about women''s roles in Japanese culture today. Meanwhile, in Images of Japan, illustrator Fumio Obata and manga translator Jocelyne Allen discuss Japanese comic book imagery, and we join novelists Kyoko Nakajima and Yuya Sato in conversation with Christopher Harding. Landmark: Seven Samurai and Landmark: Rashomon see Matthew Sweet and Rana Mitter investigating the stories behind Akira Kurosawa''s two most influential films, in the company of guests including film scholar Ian Christie and authors SF Said, David Peace and Natasha Pulley. The Tale of Genji takes us into the shimmering world of mediaeval Japan, as Rana Mitter explores Murasaki Shikibu''s masterpiece, widely considered to be the world''s first novel. Finally, in Godzilla and Hayao Miyazaki, Christopher Harding considers cinematic depictions of Japanese fear, as exemplified by the legendary monster king and the 2013 animated film The Wind Rises.ContentsJapan in Five LivesKilling Time in Imperial JapanDark BlossomsJapanese TsunamiLand of the Rising SumsJapan and ReligionSupernatural JapanJapan Now 2020Images of JapanLandmark: Seven SamuraiLandmark: RashomonThe Tale of GenjiGodzilla and The Wind Rises© 2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd.

Twenty audio portraits telling the story of China through key personalities - plus a bonus edition of In Our TimeAward-winning author and historian Professor Rana Mitter introduces us to some of the remarkable individuals who have shaped the arc of Chinese history. Selecting men and women from ancient times to the modern era - some rich and powerful, others poor and unknown - he explores their sensational life stories, from Mongol emperors to 19th-century factory girls.Here is China''s only female emperor, Wu Zetian, whose path to the top was littered with elite corpses; Mao Zedong, the man who revolutionised China, but at the cost of millions of lives; and Deng Xiaoping, who enabled China''s economic miracle, but crushed protests with ferocity in 1989. Alongside them are numerous other extraordinary characters, including celebrated philosopher Confucius, Muslim sailor Zheng He, Jesuit mathematician Matteo Ricci, global film star Bruce Lee - and a pioneering TV documentary series, River Elegy, that started a national debate about regeneration and democracy.What can Ding Ling''s lustful literary creation, Sophie, teach us about 1920s China? What role would kidnapped monk Kumarajiva play in the future of Chinese chanting? And how did Chiang Kai-shek and Soong Meiling become Asia''s first power couple? Rana Mitter reveals the answers in this engrossing series, which ranges across time and geography to zoom in on the people and ideas that have made China what it is today. Insightful, stimulating and superbly researched, it shows the astonishing diversity and complexity of Chinese society, painting a multi-dimensional picture of the world''s most populous nation.Also included is an episode of In Our Time, in which Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss China''s Warring States period of 400 BC-200 AD, examining how this turbulent epoch sparked a Golden Age of intellectual and cultural productivity and laid the foundations for the first Chinese Empire.Production creditsPresented by Rana MitterEdited by Hugh LevinsonProduced by Ben CrightonResearcher: Elizabeth Smith RosserContents:1. Wu Zetian: The Female Emperor 2. Chiang Kai-Shek and Soong Meiling: Asian Power Couple 3. Kumarajiva: Translator Monk 4. Matteo Ricci: Jesuit and Geometrist 5. Ding Ling: Sophie, Sensation and Sex 6. Sima Qian: Grand Historian 7. Kublai Khan: Cosmopolitan Conqueror 8. Confucius: Becoming the Sage 9. Li Qingzhao: Patriotic Poet 10. River Elegy: River and Ocean 11. Zheng He: The Admiral Goes to Africa 12. Robert Hart: Chinese Customs 13. Lu Xun: Compassionate Cynic 14. Wang Jingwei: Revolutionary Renegade 15. Hong Xiuquan v Zeng Guofan: The Duellists 16. Cixi: Ambivalent Empress 17. Factory Girls: Modern Girls, Modern Dreams 18. Mao Zedong: The Man Who Made Modern China 19. Bruce Lee: Screen Warrior 20. Deng Xiaoping: Black Cat, Yellow Cat21. In Our Time: China''s Warring States Period © 2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd(p) 2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Chinese leaders once tried to suppress memories of their nation’s brutal experience during World War II. Now they celebrate the “victory”—a key foundation of China’s rising nationalism.

For most of its history, the People’s Republic of China limited public discussion of the war against Japan. It was an experience of victimization—and one that saw Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-shek fighting for the same goals. But now, as China grows more powerful, the meaning of the war is changing. Rana Mitter argues that China’s reassessment of the World War II years is central to its newfound confidence abroad and to mounting nationalism at home.

China’s Good War begins with the academics who shepherded the once-taboo subject into wider discourse. Encouraged by reforms under Deng Xiaoping, they researched the Guomindang war effort, collaboration with the Japanese, and China’s role in forming the post-1945 global order. But interest in the war would not stay confined to scholarly journals. Today public sites of memory—including museums, movies and television shows, street art, popular writing, and social media—define the war as a founding myth for an ascendant China. Wartime China emerges as victor rather than victim.

The shifting story has nurtured a number of new views. One rehabilitates Chiang Kai-shek’s war efforts, minimizing the bloody conflicts between him and Mao and aiming to heal the wounds of the Cultural Revolution. Another narrative positions Beijing as creator and protector of the international order that emerged from the war—an order, China argues, under threat today largely from the United States. China’s radical reassessment of its collective memory of the war has created a new foundation for a people destined to shape the world.

Historien, mänsklighetens samlade erfarenheter, lär oss om nuet och framtiden. Hur är det möjligt att titta på händelser i det förflutna och med hjälp av dem lösa samtidens politiska eller ekonomiska förhållanden och konflikter?

Essäerna i denna antologi härrör från Engelsbergsseminariet 2019 där dessa frågor diskuterades. Ur bland annat idéhistoriskt och evolutionspsykologiskt perspektiv tillämpar skribenterna historien på nutida företeelser som internationella relationer, geopolitik och nationalekonomi, individens roll och den mänskliga naturen. Kanske är det bara genom att tillämpa historien som vi hittar vägen framåt?

Porträttserien från Engelsberg Ideas höjer upp och ger plats åt de sidofigurer som har satt historiens hjul i rullning. Här finns bland andra Churchills halvt bortglämda högra hand, en av La Belle Epoques parisiska ledstjärnor som försvunnit i historiens dunkel och en tidig rymdpionjär som är nästan helt okänd utanför sitt hemland Ryssland. Historien tillhör inte bara de allmänt kända, utan också de andra: de män och kvinnor som plötsligt fann sig framdrivande i en flod av händelser eller som gjorde unika inlägg i sin tids stora debatter.

Genom den här serien visar oss ledande skribenter hur individer har format den värld vi känner till, och undersöker deras framgångar lika mycket som deras misslyckanden. Den engelsk­tyska romanförfattaren W.G. Sebald skrev vid det senaste sekelskiftet "allting faller ständigt i glömska med varje utsläckt liv". I Porträtt ur historien hittar vi de dunkla spåren av spännande liv som levts och rekonstruerar dem omsorgsfullt för att de återigen ska få glänsa, starkt och levande, här och nu.