Black's History Week

The  Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands  finally got its chance at power again in the late 90s — historian Jeremy Black joins Critic deputy editor Graham Stewart to discuss the rise and fall of Gerhard Schröder's government.  

Professor Jeremy Black joins the Critic's deputy editor Graham Stewart to discuss why the fall of East Germany was far from inevitable.

In this Critic podcast recorded whilst Britain and the Commonwealth prepare for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, the historian, Professor Jeremy Black, talks with The Critic 's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about the Queen's place in British history.

In this episode of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black talks to The Critic 's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about the smoke and mirrors that obscured the reality of a failing East Germany. (Photo shows East Berliners rioting against Soviet occupation, 1953.)

How exceptional was West Germany's politics and prosperity in the 1950s and 1960s compared to other western European countries and what became of its Far Right? In this episode of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black discusses German exceptionalism with The Critic 's deputy editor, Graham Stewart. Photo shows a newsstand in West Berlin's Kurfuerstendamm during night time, 1955. (Photo by P...

Were there realistic alternatives to dividing post-war Germany along ideological lines and were West German politics an Anglo-American creation or the response of Germans to the circumstances in which they found themselves? In this episode of Black's History Week, The Critic 's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, talks to Professor Jeremy Black about the emergence of rival Germanys. 

In this episode of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black continues his series on German history and talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about Germany's home front during the Second World War and what ordinary Germans knew about Jewish persecution and the Holocaust.

In this episode of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black, author of A Brief History of Germany , talks to The Critic 's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about how Nazi foreign policy differed from the traditional objectives of German nationalism. (Photo credit: AFP via Getty Images)

Continuing the series on German history, in this episode of Black's History Week Professor Jeremy Black talks to The Critic 's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about how Hitler entrenched his power across all aspects of German life in the 1930s.

Did the Nazis win power in 1933 because of the popular appeal of their message or through the divisions and miscalculations of their opponents? In this episode of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black, author of A Brief History of Germany, talks to The Critic 's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about how the Nazis won with only a third of the vote. Picture: Adolf Hitler is welcomed by support...

In this episode of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black, author of A Brief History of Germany , talks to The Critic 's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about the Weimar Republic and whether its collapse blinds us to its achievements. Picture: DDP poster for the Reichstag elections. May, 1928. "Clean up the Reich! Vote German Democrat!" Germany. (Photo by: PHAS/Universal Images Group via Gett...

How was Germany governed during the pressures of the First World War and what caused the shortages that delivered so much hardship to its civilians? In this episode of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black talks to The Critic 's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about wartime in the Kaiser's Reich.

How democratic was Germany in the prelude to the First World War and what were the tensions in politics and society that ensured so much trust was placed in militarism? In this episode of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black talks to The Critic 's deputy editor, Graham Stewart about Kaiser Wilhelm II, his chancellors and the mood of a modernising country racing towards catastrophe. Picture...

In this episode of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black, author of a A Brief History of Germany , talks to The Critic 's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about the path of German unification, from the failed revolutions of 1848 to the creation of Bismarck's Reich.

In this episode of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black, author of A Brief History of Germany talks to The Critic 's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about how the wars with revolutionary France and annexations by Napoleon reshaped the German lands. Photo: "Blucher the Brave Extracting the Groan of Abdication from the Corsican Blood Hound", April 9, 1814. Artist Thomas Rowlandson. (Photo by...

In this episode of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black, author of A Brief History of Germany , talks to The Critic 's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about the role of Prussia in the eighteenth century and whether its ruler, Frederick, really was so great. Picture: Portrait of Frederick II of Prussia (1712-1786). (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

In this episode of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black explains to the The Critic 's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, how German states that were ravaged by the Thirty Years War recovered to produce the cultural achievements of the Baroque Age. Picture: A View in Cologne, c. 1660. Found in the collection of the National Gallery, London. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images...

In this episode of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black, author of A Brief History of Germany, talks to The Critic 's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about the origins and course of the Thirty Years War in the German lands. Picture: "Death of King Gustav II Adolf of Sweden at the Battle of Lützen", 1855, by Carl Wahlbom (1810-1858)

How much of a German identity was there in the Holy Roman Empire in the 700 years between Charlemagne and the eve of the Reformation? In this edition of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black, author of A Brief History of Germany , discusses where medieval power lay with The Critic 's deputy editor, Graham Stewart.

In this podcast, Professor Jeremy Black, author of A Brief History of Germany, talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about the effect that Martin Luther and the Reformation had on the German lands and whether a compromise solution existed but was missed.

In this concluding episode of his four part history of the Caribbean, Professor Jeremy Black talks to The Critic 's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about how the nations of the Caribbean have adapted to modern times.

In this edition of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black, author of A Brief History of the Caribbean talks to The Critic 's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about the Caribbean in the nineteenth century as it adapts to an economy no longer dependent upon slavery and responds to the growing regional influence of the United States of America.

In this episode of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black, author of A Brief History of the Caribbean , talks to The Critic 's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about the reality of the slave economy created by the Caribbean's European colonisers as well as the processes that drove its expansion and ultimately its dismantlement.

In this episode of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black, author of A Brief History of the Caribbean, talks to The Critic 's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about Caribbean society before Columbus and whether the European colonisers were primarily driven by religious, economic or strategic interests.

In this episode of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black, author of A Short History of War , talks to The Critic 's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about how wars are brought to a conclusion.