About this episode
Misha Glenny and guests discuss the life and works of Joseph Roth, a significant writer on Central Europe post-World War I.
Misha Glenny and guests discuss one of the great writers on Central Europe after the first world war and on the dying of the old orders with the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian empire. As a German speaking Jew from Brody in the north-eastern edge of that Empire, which was then in Galicia, next in Poland and is now in Ukraine, Roth (1894 - 1939) was to spend his short life moving first to Lviv then to Vienna and finally to Paris via Berlin without ever finding a settled home. Roth explored the loss of homeland and anticipated the dangers of the new nationalism through his journalism and in his novels including Radetzky March, Job, Rebellion and Flight Without End, and his books were among the first the Nazis burned. With Helen Chambers Emeritus Professor of German at the University of St Andrews Deborah Holmes Associate Professor of Modern German Literature at the University of Salzburg And Jon Hughes Reader in German and Cultural Studies at Royal Holloway, University of London Producer: Simon Tillotson Reading list: Jon Hughes, Facing Modernity: Fragmentation, Culture and Identity in Joseph Roth's Writing in the 1920s (MHRA, 2006) Heinz Lunzer and Victoria Lunzer-Talos, Joseph…
People in this episode
Host: Misha Glenny
Guests: Helen Chambers, Deborah Holmes, Jon Hughes
Topics covered
- Joseph Roth
- Central Europe
- Austro-Hungarian Empire
- nationalism
- literature
- journalism
Keywords
- Joseph Roth
- literature
- Austro-Hungarian Empire
- nationalism
- journalism
- Radetzky March
Mentioned in this episode
Books & works: Radetzky March, Job, Rebellion, Flight Without End
Places: Austro-Hungarian empire, Brody, Lviv, Vienna, Paris, Berlin, Poland, Ukraine
More episodes of In Our Time
- The Garamantes · June 11, 2026 · 58 min
- Cybernetics · May 28, 2026 · 53 min
- Indian Indentured Labour · May 21, 2026 · 52 min
- M.C. Escher · May 14, 2026 · 55 min
- Handel's Messiah · May 7, 2026 · 54 min
- The Spanish-American War 1898 · April 30, 2026 · 55 min
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the In Our Time podcast page.