Black's History Week

Professor Jeremy Black joins Graham Stewart to talk 1960s geopolitics, the Cold War, and the long war in South East Asia. 

Professor Jeremy Black and Graham Stewart discuss the Cold War in the 1950s, the role of air forces and the development of nuclear brinksmanship.

Professor Jeremy Black and Graham Stewart discuss the evolution of Cold War thought, the errors of FDR, the complexities of containment and the unpredictable nature of foreign policy commitments.

Professor Jeremy Black speaks with Graham Stewart about geopolitics at the end of World War Two. Were there reasonable prospects for optimism about a new, more peaceful future? Or had power just been rearranged into differently dangerous forms? All this and China, the British Empire and more.

Professor Jeremy Black and Graham Stewart discuss geography, logistics and materiel in World War Two, and whether geopolitics represents the lens through which to see conflict or just one useful field of study.

Professor Jeremy Black and Graham Stewart discuss geopolitics in the United States in the approach to the Second World War, and the underrated importance of logistics and materiel in statecraft. 

Professor Jeremy Black and Graham Stewart discuss geopolitics in Nazi Germany and the United States, and explore the questionable influence of intellectuals and the predictive value of geopolitical theories.

Professor Jeremy Black and Graham Stewart discuss British air power, geopolitics and the relationship between ideas and technological progress. 

Professor Jeremy Black and Graham Stewart discuss how geography and infrastructure affected the First World War, but also how geopolitics is as much a rhetoric of power as a description of the world.

Professor Jeremy Black and Graham Stewart discuss the academic roots of the field of geopolitics and the intellectual overratedness of a key essay of Halford Mackinder.

The term “geopolitics” is flung around a lot these days, but what does the concept mean? Professor Jeremy Black and Graham Stewart begin their exploration of world politics and theory

Professor Jeremy Black and Graham Stewart finally reach the station as their series on the history of railways ends — discussing the slower rate of innovation and the complexities of investment.

Professor Jeremy Black and Graham Stewart discuss why rail projects often end up mired in delays and cancellations, from Facebook’s bridge to nowhere to HS2.

Professor Jeremy Black and Graham Stewart discuss the realities of modern rail — from the costs of construction to the limits of geography.

Professor Jeremy Black and Graham Stewart avoid train triumphalism in discussing the complex political and environmental circumstances that surround modern rail.

Professor Jeremy Black and Graham Stewart discuss rail in Britain in the 20th century, and why the infamous Beeching cuts must be seen in their proper historical context.

Professor Jeremy Black and Graham Stewart discuss the evolution of railways in the mid-to-late 20th Century, and their influence on the evolution of the age, considering labour disputes, nationalisation and the Cold War.

Professor Jeremy Black and Graham Stewart discuss the use of rail travel in WW2, from the logistics of war to the architecture of genocide.

In the early decades of the Twentieth Century, the USA and the Soviet Union took major steps towards becoming the two greatest powers in the world. What was the state of their railways? Professor Jeremy Black and Graham Stewart discuss.

Rail in the interwar period was not just Hercule Poirot on the Orient Express. Professor Jeremy Black and Graham Stewart discuss the politics of rail travel in the 1920s and 30s, from Stanley Baldwin to Benito Mussolini.

Professor Jeremy Black joins deputy editor Graham Stewart to discuss the role of locomotives in the First World War.

Professor Jeremy Black and Graham Stewart explore how railways spread across the world — from India to Australia — in what was a technological achievement but also a complex political phenomenon.

The car may be the defining vehicle of the United States of America, but as Professor Jeremy Black and Graham Stewart explore the train was integral to its development as well.

Professor Jeremy Black and Graham Stewart follow the development of railways across Europe and America, and reflect on their impact on the US Civil War.

How did the railways develop in France and Germany? Professor Jeremy Black and Graham Stewart take a European excursion.