From the experiences of Quaker wives in the seventeenth century to the samplers and bibles in the homes of workers in the Industrial Revolution - Dr Naomi Pullin from the University of Warwick, and Professor Hannah Barker of the University of Manchester join historian and New Generation Thinker Tom Charlton to compare notes on the way their research marks a shift in the way religious beliefs of past times are being studied.

Naomi Pullin is the author of Female Friends and the Making of Transatlantic Quakerism, 1650-1750
Hannah Barker is Director of the John Rylands Research Institute and Historical Advisor for the National Trust at Quarry Bank Mill and has written on family, gender and business in the Industrial Revolution.

This episode is one of a series of conversations, produced in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council, part of UK Research and Innovation. You can find more on the website of the AHRC, and on the website for the Free Thinking discussion programme where there’s a playlist called New Research.

You might be interested in this Free Thinking discussion about religious divisions, puppet shows and politics in the middle of this programme https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0000xvn
There is a playlist Free Thinking explores religious belief on the programme website featuring Richard Dawkins, Simon Schama, Karen Armstrong, Shelina Janmohamed and others https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03mwxlp

Producer: Luke Mulhall