Talk:Bettany Hughes

All Greek to me

She is a historian, not a linguist. Just because someone can't speak the language of a country like a native doesn't mean they can't know a lot about it. In any case, Greece is not an Islamic nation, and nor was the Troy of ancient legend, since it existed long before the rise of Islam. Maxwell's Demon 17:09, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

Pope's translations of Homer are arguably still the very best and he didn't speak a word of Greek. I could list numerous such examples. Creative genius is independent of mere upping the ante. SEMTEX85 (talk) 21:44, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

Bettany's Athens: the Dawn of Democracy puts your supposition that she does not udnerstand Plato to shame! SEMTEX85 (talk) 21:49, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

"dead in the head and the spirit"?!? My God, how snobby! I bet they know Troy wasn't an Islamic city though!! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.243.205.49 (talk) 22:14, 24 March 2010 (UTC)

Troy is not a fairy tale. It did exist, although there's no evidence of Helen or the Horse. Look up Ilion or Wilusa. It was apparently related to the Hittites, and sided with them for defence against Mycenae. In any event, I agree that she doesn't really add anything new to the intellectual party. I did find her last one about Athenian democracy very good, though. It had far less fluff than the Sparta documentary.72.78.6.125 (talk) 09:39, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

I know one shouldn't feed a troll, but you are a strange fellow/woman, Pliny. I'm sure there are message boards where you can actually debate these things, rather than talking to yourself, here. Guv2006 (talk) 00:19, 9 June 2010 (UTC)

Degrees

I'm a little confused as to which degrees she has because there seems to be a mix of colloquial UK usage and Oxbridge usage (which is amongst the biggest source of confusion). Normally an Oxbridge graduate who's been conferred the MA is only referred to as "Foo Foo MA", with the BA ignored (regarded the Masters as effectively an upgrade of the Bachelors, not a separate degree). And the range of postgraduate Masters degrees from Oxford is highly conusing - see Degrees of the University of Oxford#Masters' degree. Timrollpickering 15:00, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

Article - 'The Spartans'.

I've just submitted the first entry for this documentary - feel free to add to it. (PS - User 62.64.238.74 .... my 17:11, December 29, 2006 removal of the "lesbian" quote from the 'Trivia' section wasn't "vandalism".)Gardener of Geda 13:17, 31 December 2006 (UTC)

Public relations

Look, I've changed the intro because it's far too gushing for an encyclopaedia. Where's the citation for "an acclaimed" historian who "reaches a wide audience". As a PR-person, I can pretty much guarantee that this was written by a PR. Whatever anyone feels about Bettany Hughes (and I'm sure she's a great historian etc etc) please can we keep Wikipedia objective, and resolve to delete PR puffery as and when it appears. Robjessel (talk) 20:35, 26 March 2011 (UTC)

The value and importance of Bettany Hughes programs

I just watched "When the Moors Ruled in Europe" narrated by Bettany Hughes and I am very impressed by the program. I already knew the most essential facts the program showed, but it is very valuable to have those facts put together in a single program which is accessible to all people in the world. Look up When the Moors Ruled in Europe Bettany Hughes and you will find that the program is available for free in many places on the internet, for example here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Daz0n5l8cJE

I have seen many programs narrated by Bettany Hughes before and I think she is a very good narrator. This program about the Moors in Spain is especially valuable because it describes how the Greek ideas about dialogue as a tool for progression of knowledge, and the necessary companion, freedom of speech, the idea of democracy, with its necessary companion equality, and the development of sciences came to Europe via the Moors in Spain. These ideas are the basis for humanism, which broke the power of the Pope and slowly but surely transformed Europe into the modern world we see today.

The Catholic church fought against these ideas with every means possible for hundreds of years. When the idea of equality among people reached the minds of the people in France they realized that they should not accept to be treated like animals by the higher classes and the king so they started the French Revolution, which had a very big influence on world history.

A little later the idea of equality created the worker's unions, socialism, social democracy and communism. Today socialism and communism are dead words, but social democracy, a mixed system, a compromise between socialism and capitalism is in rule in most of the countries in the world. And science and technology are now free from all religious limitations.

Bettany Hughes is very important because she makes valuable science and knowledge available to people in general, which is also obvious when we hear that her programs have been watched by more than 100 million people. Very few academic authors or speakers have reached such a numerous audience. I think this article should be enlarged and separate sections for certain programs should be added. Roger491127 (talk) 15:14, 1 August 2011 (UTC)

You make many valuable points, Roger491127. Pliny (talk) 20:11, 1 September 2011 (UTC)

Her date of birth

This article has long categorised her as a a 1968 birth, so I have now put this information at the beginning of the article - that seemed a little more encyclopaedic.ACEOREVIVED (talk) 18:53, 25 August 2011 (UTC)

What are her degrees?

Is her degree a BA, or does she have a PhD? The article is not clear. Slrubenstein | Talk 19:39, 7 November 2011 (UTC)

Naomi Sargent Prize?

"In 2010 Hughes was awarded the Naomi Sargent Prize for Broadcast Excellence and was given a Special Award for services to Hellenic Culture and Heritage."

The prize appears to be real (1), but I cannot find anyone but Hughes who has been awarded the prize. The only, maybe reasonable, source for the award that I can find is this collection of author profiles in The Times of India (2), but I doubt this has been subject to editorial supervision as it is not a normal article and the material has obviously just been taken from publishers profiles and the like. Other sources appear to consist largely of non-reliable profiles on the pages of various academic institutions. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.2.82.207 (talk) 20:20, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

COI and Ownership

The history of this article is concerning, several IP contributors claim to work for Bettany Hughes and have inserted laudatory, unsourced material peppered with peacock terms (eg). The summary of that edit, "ACCURATE INFO - PLEASE DO NOT CHANGE, I work for Bettany Hughes, she relays the information she wants on Wikipedia, and how she wants it", is particularly concerning as it betrays the fact that Hughes and her employees believe they should control the content of the article. The last edit of this type is as recent as a month ago. It appears the IPs have edit warred over material as well. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.2.82.207 (talk) 20:45, 12 April 2012 (UTC)

Expansion

Currently I don't have the time to expand this article, but it is sore need of expansion. There are many, many news articles either on Hughes or her works, or by Hughes herself (see the 298 results on Google News Archives). The article also needs some kind of structure along the lines of:

• Early life and family
• Education and early career
• Works of popular history
  • Books
  • Broadcasting
• Recognition and awards
• Support for causes/Advocacy — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.2.82.207 (talk) 22:08, 12 April 2012 (UTC)

Thank you - this page has improved

I just wanted to thank the people who worked hard on improving this page! ACEOREVIVED (talk) 15:11, 24 July 2012 (UTC)

Reference to her brother

According to this article, she is the brother of "Simon Hughes" and this article describes him as a "cricketer and journalist" - but is he not also a sports commentator? ACEOREVIVED (talk) 15:00, 26 July 2012 (UTC)

Her latest television series

Shouldn't this article put in, in her list of television programmes, the name of her latest series, that she is presenting in June 2013 - "Britain's Secret Homes", that she is presenting with Michael Buerk on ITV on Friday nights? ACEOREVIVED (talk) 22:53, 16 June 2013 (UTC)