Night Waves - Egyptian Book of the Dead, The Sun, Universal Theory of History

A major exhibition at the British Museum gives the public its first opportunity to see the longest Book of the Dead in the world in its entirety. Jonathan Miller and Rabbi Julia Neuberger join Philip Dodd to discuss ancient Egyptian beliefs about life after death, and the range of human responses to death and the afterlife. Philip talks to Richard Cohen about his new book about the cultural and scientific history of our relationship with the star that gives us life - the Sun. And historians Ian Morris and Joanna Bourke argue the merits of writing universal history. Ian's new book Why the West Rules - for Now examines such grand themes as the rise of China and the fall of the West. Joanna argues that history is the preserve of the specific and the contextual, and is the study of individuals not of grand forces.