Joseph Roth

Joseph Roth

From In Our Time With Melvyn Bragg by BBC

June 4, 2026 · 60 min

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: Melvyn Bragg

Guests: Misha Glenny, Helen Chambers, Deborah Holmes, Jon Hughes

Topics covered

  • Joseph Roth
  • Central Europe
  • Austro-Hungarian Empire
  • nationalism
  • literature
  • Jewish identity

Keywords

  • Joseph Roth
  • Austro-Hungarian Empire
  • nationalism
  • literature
  • Jewish identity
  • Central Europe
  • 20th century

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: University of St Andrews, University of Salzburg, Royal Holloway, University of London

Books & works: Radetzky March, Job, Rebellion, Flight Without End

Places: Galicia, Poland, Ukraine, Lviv, Vienna, Paris, Berlin

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