Ancient to Recent

France is facing growing political divisions, social unrest and economic challenges. In this episode of Ancient to Recent, Joseph Parkinson speaks with Louis Sarkozy about the recent riots in France, the history of public protest, immigration and integration, and the future of French politics. With the 2027 French presidential election approaching, they discuss Marine Le Pen's chances of winni...

As a child he saw his uncles empire collapse, as a young man he was consumed by dreams of glory and as an adult he turned those dreams into reality. This is the story of Louis Napoleon, the last Emperor of France. A story of intrigue and delusion, of ambition and deceit of honour and shame as a man with nothing but his name rises to an imperial throne. In this episode Joseph Parkinson is joined by...

With peace comes a new policy direction from Washington. President Grant wants to find a new approach to dealing with the native peoples of the West but ambition, greed and dreams of empire drive the United States and the Lakota onto a collision course as promises are broken and different visions of the West Clash. Imperial arrogance leads George Armstrong Custer onto the battlefield of the Little...

As the United States descends into civil war the Lakota continue their expansion. But troubling news is brought west by the Lakota’s Sioux cousins the Dakota .  The United States government signs treaties forcing the Dakota to give much of their land away in return for a reservation but as more settlements come more demands follow. The Dakota rebel and Washington settles on a policy of military fo...

In the middle years of the 19th century the Lakota reach ever greater heights of power. They command a vast domain teaming with bison and they project their military might in all direction carried on the back of their powerful war horses. But North America is a land of constant change. The European empires may be a thing of the past but the United States continues its western expansion. War with M...

Napoleon has a dream of the restoration of French imperial power in the Americas. But his dream is dashed by the collapse of French power in Haiti and France sells Louisiana to the US for pennies. The United States believes it has acquired an empire but soon finds out that the land was not for sale.  The Lakota are enjoying their moment in the imperial sun, dominating trade networks as the US begi...

The Lakota are on the rise. For generations, the Sioux had possessed one enormous advantage: numbers. But numbers alone were not enough. The Lakota lacked the horses and firearms necessary to turn their strength into military power. Caught between rival European empires and powerful Indigenous nations, their expansion had repeatedly been checked. Now, everything is about to change. In this first e...

The first attempt has failed. Trotsky has survived the machine-gun assault on his home. But Stalin's campaign to destroy his old rival is entering its final stage. In this final episode, we follow Ramón Mercader as he moves deeper into Trotsky's inner circle, slowly gaining the trust of those closest to him. As Trotsky's world contracts behind fortified walls, he begins to reflect on t...

The assassin is already in position. As Leon Trotsky settles into his fortified compound in Mexico, Stalin's campaign to destroy him enters its final and most dangerous phase. In this fifth episode, we follow the NKVD's hunt for Trotsky and the extraordinary operation designed to penetrate his inner circle. We meet Ramón Mercader, the young Spanish communist who would eventually become one of the...

Trotsky has finally found refuge. After eight years of exile, the former leader of the Red Army arrives in Mexico, welcomed by President Lázaro Cárdenas and embraced by a circle of artists, intellectuals and revolutionaries. But safety is not the same as peace. In this fourth episode, we follow Trotsky from his arrival in Mexico in 1937 as he attempts to build a new life far from Stalin and the So...

Trotsky has lost his struggle with Stalin for leadership of the Soviet Union But his revolutionary fire still burns bright. The man who helped seize power and build the Red Army is now a political exile, hunted by the regime he helped create. In this third episode, we follow Trotsky from exile in Kazakhstan to Turkey, France and Norway as Stalin's campaign against his former rival intensifies....

Leon Trotsky has helped seize power, built the Red Army, and defeated the enemies of the Bolshevik Revolution. Now he is about to lose everything. By 1927, the man who had once stood beside Lenin at the centre of the Russian Revolution has been transformed from revolutionary hero into Stalin's most dangerous political rival. In this second episode of our series, we follow Trotsky through the Russi...

One of history's greatest revolutionaries awaits his assassination. As Leon Trotsky sits inside his heavily guarded villa in Mexico City, he knows that Joseph Stalin has not forgotten him.  Once hailed as Lenin's brilliant lieutenant and commander of the Red Army, Trotsky has become the Soviet dictator's most dangerous enemy. His extraordinary journey began decades earlier on the vast...

The conquest reaches its devastating conclusion. As Hernán Cortés launches his final assault on Tenochtitlan, one of the greatest cities on earth becomes the scene of one of history's most brutal sieges.  Thirteen brigantines dominate the waters of Lake Texcoco, while tens of thousands of Spanish and indigenous allies advance along the great causeways. Street by street, canal by canal, the fat...

The splendour of Tenochtitlan soon gives way to horror. As the Spaniards settle into the heart of the Mexica capital, they are overwhelmed by its wealth, its markets and its astonishing organisation. Yet beneath the city's beauty lies an uneasy calm. Surrounded by tens of thousands of warriors, Cortés knows one wrong move could mean annihilation. This episode explores the fragile relationship...

From the mountain passes, the Spaniards finally see it. A vast city shimmering across a great lake. Towering pyramids. Broad causeways. Thousands of canoes. To many of Cortés's hardened veterans, Tenochtitlan appears less like a city than a dream. But before they reach the Aztec capital, they must first understand the empire they have entered.  This episode explores the astonishing rise of the...

Out of the eastern horizon, strange white shapes drift across the water. Not canoes. Not trading vessels. Floating mountains. What the peoples of the Americas witness that day will change their world forever, and it begins nearly three decades before Hernán Cortés ever sets foot in Mexico. This episode traces the origins of one of history's most consequential collisions: Christopher Columbus&#...

In the conclusion of Ancient to Recent's Eichmann series, Israeli Mossad agents make their move, seizing Adolf Eichmann on a quiet Buenos Aires street and smuggling him out of Argentina under a forged identity. Inside the Mossad safe house, Eichmann is confronted with the evidence against him and slowly admits who he is. But with his family, former SS associates and Argentina's far-right n...

In this episode of Ancient to Recent we continue the story of the hunt for Adolf Eichmann as Mossad agents close in on one of the most wanted fugitives in the world. After years of rumours, false leads and dead ends, investigators finally begin to uncover compelling evidence that Adolf Eichmann is living in Argentina under the alias Ricardo Klement.  What follows is a tense race against time as Is...

In this episode of Ancient to Recent we continues the story of the hunt for Adolf Eichmann as a handful of determined investigators begin closing in on one of the most wanted men in the world. As Eichmann settles into life in Argentina under a false identity, survivors, prosecutors and Nazi hunters refuse to let his crimes be forgotten. From Buenos Aires to Frankfurt and Tel Aviv, a growing networ...

In this episode of Ancient to Recent, we continues the story of the hunt for Adolf Eichmann as one of the architects of the Holocaust embarks on a desperate bid to escape justice and disappear from Europe forever. As Allied investigators, Jewish organisations and survivors begin uncovering the true extent of Eichmann's role in the Final Solution, the former SS officer adopts new identities and...

In this episode of Ancient to Recent, we begin the story of one of the most infamous manhunts in modern history: the search for Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi official who played a central role in orchestrating the Holocaust and then vanished into the shadows after the Second World War. The story opens on a cold evening in Buenos Aires in 1960, as a team of agents waits anxiously for a man who has spent...

In this episode of Ancient to Recent, Joseph Parkinson concludes the story of the 1956 Suez Crisis as Britain, France and Israel press forward with their invasion of Egypt, only to find military victory slipping into political disaster. British and French paratroopers land in Port Said, Israeli forces complete their advance across the Sinai and Gamal Abdel Nasser faces the darkest moments of his l...

In this episode of Ancient to Recent, Joseph Parkinson continues the story of the 1956 Suez Crisis as Britain, France and Israel launch their assault on Egypt. Israeli paratroopers drop into the Sinai, British and French fleets move towards the Suez Canal and Gamal Abdel Nasser prepares Egypt for war. As Operation Musketeer begins, the secret conspiracy behind the invasion starts to unravel at the...

In this episode of Ancient to Recent, Joseph Parkinson continues the story of the 1956 Suez Crisis as Britain, France and Israel move ever closer towards war. In secret meetings outside Paris, David Ben-Gurion, Moshe Dayan and Shimon Peres meet with British and French officials to lay out plans for a joint attack on Egypt. As tensions rise across the Middle East, Gamal Abdel Nasser’s growing influ...