Genius of the Modern World

Born into affluence, Marx became an angry, idealistic radical, on the run for his political agitating and incendiary writing. In Paris, he formulated his explosive analysis of capitalism and its corrosive effects. In London, his obsession dragged his family into poverty and tragedy. How did this man, whose funeral was attended by 11 people, generate one of history’s most influential ideologies?

Nietzsche’s story is one of breathtaking success and ultimate failure. His brutal, uncompromising ideas smashed the comfortable assumptions of religion, morality and science. But how did this man, violently opposed to anti-semitism, end up being the poster boy for Hitler’s drive for the Aryan ideal? How could an anti-totalitarian thinker end up strengthening a system of rule he would have hated?

Freud's influence is all around us. In our vocabulary - repression, penis envy, the Freudian slip - and in the freedom to talk openly about our deepest feelings and insecurities. But what do you learn when you take a Freudian approach to Freud himself? Historian Bettany Hughes travels to Vienna to discover how his childhood experiences led to the formation of the father of psychoanalysis.