A Historian's Life
In a new podcast from the Institute of Historical Research, IHR Fellow Lisa Pine talks to historians about their lives in history and the history of their own lives, in a podcast aimed at inspiring a new generation of researchers.
The host of A Historian's Life, Lisa Pine, is an Associate Fellow of the Institute of Historical Research, University of London and Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. Her main research interests are the history of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. She was educated at the London School of Economics and was awarded her PhD from the University of London in 1996. She is the author of Nazi Family Policy, 1933-1945 (1997), Hitler’s “National Community”: Society and Culture in Nazi Germany (2007, 2017), Education in Nazi Germany (2010), Debating Genocide (2018) and (with Kees Boterbloem) Soviet and Nazi Posters: Propaganda and Policies (2025). She is the editor of Life and Times in Nazi Germany (2016), The Family in Modern Germany (2020) and Dictatorship and Daily Life in Twentieth-Century Europe (2022). She has also published numerous journal articles and chapters in books on her areas of expertise. She is currently editing a new book Food and Food Policies in European Dictatorships for publication by Bloomsbury Academic. She is co-editor (with Peter C. Caldwell) of the book series German History in Focus (Bloomsbury Academic).
The podcast is produced with support from Vanessa Rockel, History Community Liaison at the IHR, and that of staff across the Institute.
Series 1
Listen to all of the podcasts from series 1
A Historian's Life - Lisa Pine talks to Richard Overy
Lisa Pine talks to Richard Overy about his life in history and the history of his life.
Richard James Overy FRHistS FBA is a British historian who has published on the history of World War II and Nazi Germany. In 2007, as The Times editor of Complete History of the World, he chose the 50 key dates of world history. Overy, after being educated at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, and becoming a research fellow at Churchill College, taught history at Cambridge from 1972 to 1979, as a fellow of Queens' College and from 1976 as a university assistant lecturer. He moved to King's College London, where he became professor of modern history in 1994. He was appointed to a professorship at the University of Exeter in 2004.
A Historian's Life - Lisa Pine speaks with Margot Finn
Margot Finn is Professor of Modern British History at UCL and President of the Royal Historical Society. Previously editor of the Journal of British Studies, she is a co-editor of Cambridge University Press’s Modern British Histories monograph series and serves on the Executive Board of UCL Press. Finn’s early publications focused on nineteenth-century British radical culture and politics in a broader European context. Her second major monograph explored the intersections of literary, legal, social and cultural developments in the history of debt and credit in eighteenth- and nineteenth-Britain, with particular attention to the histories of courts, prisons and women. A collaborative project which she led, funded by the Leverhulme Trust and entitled ‘The East Company at Home’, examined English, Scottish and Welsh country houses as both global and imperial artefacts and national icons. Many of the outputs resulting from this project were co-produced with local and family historians, heritage professionals, archivists and curators.
Lisa Pine speaks with Rana Mitter
Professor Mitter studies the emergence of nationalism in modern China, both in the early twentieth century and in the contemporary era. He is particularly interested in the impact of China's war with Japan in the 1930s and 1940s on the development of Chinese politics, society, and culture. His publications include China's War with Japan, 1937-45: The Struggle for Survival (2013), Modern China: A Very Short Introduction (2008), and A Bitter Revolution: China's Struggle with the Modern World (2004, 2005).
Lisa Pine speaks with Simon Schama - Part 1
Sir Simon Michael Schama CBE FBA FRHistS FRSL is an English historian and television presenter, who specialises in art history, Dutch history, Jewish history, and French history. He is a professor of history and art history at Columbia University.
Schama first came to public attention with his history of the French Revolution titled Citizens, published in 1989. He is also known for writing and hosting the 15-part BBC television documentary series A History of Britain (2000–2002), as well as other documentary series such as The American Future: A History (2008) and The Story of the Jews (2013). Schama was knighted in the 2018 Queen's Birthday Honours List.
Lisa Pine speaks with Simon Schama - Part 2
Views expressed in these interviews are those of the participants, and should not be seen as representative of those of the IHR as an organisation. The IHR does not accept liability for any obscene or libellous material that these interviews may contain.