John Man

John Man

Biography:

John Man is a historian and writer with special interests in Central Asia and the history of written communication. He likes to combine history with travel to the places he writes about. He studied German and French at Keble College, Oxford, before doing two postgraduate courses, a diploma in the History and Philosophy of Science at Oxford and Mongolian at the School of Oriental and African Studies.

After working in journalism and publishing, he turned to writing, with occasional forays into film, TV and radio. In the 1990s, he began a trilogy on the three major revolutions in writing: writing itself, the alphabet and printing with movable type. Recently, he has turned to Japan. The Last Samurai, the story of Saigo Takamori's doomed 1877 rebellion against the Japanese emperor, took him in Saigo's footsteps across Kyushu. For Ninja, published in July 2012, he went in search of the ninjas' historical roots - and found a theme that has run through Japanese history for 1,000 years, far removed from the ninjas of modern fable.

Website(s):

Book(s):

Past Shows:

  • Ninjas

    Author and historian John Man joined Ian Punnett for a discussion on the ninjas' origins over 1,000 years ago, through their heyday in the civil wars that ended with Japan’s unification in 1600, and how they re-emerged in World War II. In the first hour, aerospace and...More »

Last Night

Election Transparency/ Power of Meditation
Election Transparency/ Power of Meditation
John Brakey and Tim White shared methods for ensuring transparent and verifiable election voting results. Followed by Bob Roth on the value of meditation.
Art Bell Vault

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