Dan Snow's History Hit

What can art tell us about a country's history? Well, a lot! In today's episode, Dan is joined by Art Historian Temi Odumosu and popular historian James Hawes to discuss the cultural works they think reveal something vital about the history of Britain. James enthuses about the Staffordshire Hoard- the largest collection of Anglo-Saxon gold ever found and what it tells us about the tumultuous polit...

Across the whole of Nazi-ruled Europe, the experience of occupation was sharply varied. As a result, resistance movements during World War II occurred through a variety of means - from open partisan warfare in the occupied Soviet Union to dangerous acts of insurrection in the Netherlands or Norway. While some were entirely home-grown, other resistance movements were supported by the Allies. Histor...

Assassin's Creed: Valhalla has brought the Viking Age to life in stunning detail, and now the game is even being used as an educational tool! Maxime Durand is World-Design Director at Ubisoft and the mind behind the hit franchise's Discovery Tour, which is a fun way to learn about history in the game's virtual world. Our very own Dr Cat Jarman acted as a historical consultant for the game, making...

Eric Thompson has had his finger literally on the nuclear button. He joined the Royal Navy submarine service in the early days of the Cold War. He served on WW2 era ships and submarines before ending his career as a senior officer on Britain's state of the art nuclear submarines. Each one is armed with intercontinental ballistic missiles with nuclear tips. He took Dan to the Royal Navy Submarine M...

In 1888 Louis Le Prince shot the world’s first motion picture in Leeds, England. In 1890, weeks before the public unveiling of his camera and projector – a year before Thomas Edison announced that he had invented a motion picture camera – Le Prince stepped on a train in France – and disappeared without a trace. He was never seen or heard from again. No body was ever found. Paul Fischer, film produ...

The greatest anti-imperial rebellion of the nineteenth century, The Indian Rebellion of 1857, witnessed mass violence against the British. Ninety years later, Indian freedom was founded on a deadly fratricide that singularly spared the outgoing masters. As a result, India’s founding fathers were tasked with how to steer the new nation in a context rife with hatred and violence. Shruti Kapila, Asso...

On April 2nd 1982 British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher declared war against Argentina over the Falkland Islands in the Southern Atlantic. To make sense of the conflict on its 40th anniversary, the podcast is bringing you a special season of episodes marking the key moments of the war with the help of experts, veterans, islanders and more. This first episode is Falklands 101: Dan gives a potted...

The enclosure of the commons was a centuries-long process. Gradually, through a combination of legal degrees and private acts, the land across Britain moved from a system of open field system to larger, enclosed farms. This was a transformative political, social and agricultural shift – that is still the source of much debate by historians.  Joining Dan for this episode of the podcast is Dr K...

One of the world's much loved stage and screen characters has just returned to the cinema in a new film version starring Peter Dinklage. But what may not be generally known is that Cyrano de Bergerac was a real person who was sharper, funnier and more modern than the romantic hero he inspired. In this edition of Not Just the Tudors , Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to Cyrano's biographer Is...

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) was a scientist, inventor, writer and diplomat. As one of the leading figures of early American history, Franklin helped to draft the Declaration of Independence in 1776, worked to negotiate the Treaty of Paris that ended the Revolutionary War in 1783, and was a delegate to the convention that produced the U.S. Constitution in 1787. Ken Burns joins Dan to explore the...

The Demerara Rebellion of 1823 was an uprising of over ten thousand enslaved people in the Crown colony of Demerara-Essequibo (now part of Guyana) on the coast of South America. Having grown tired of their servitude, the enslaved sought to resist in the most direct way they could. The rebellion took place on August 18, 1823, and grew to become a key trigger in the abolition of slavery across the e...

On 28 March 1942, in the darkest months of World War Two, Churchill approved what seemed to many like a suicide mission. Under orders to attack the St Nazaire U-boat base on the Atlantic seaboard, British commandos undertook “the greatest raid of all”, turning an old destroyer into a live bomb and using it to ram the gates of a Nazi stronghold. Five Victoria Crosses were awarded - more than in any...

Towering above the Wiltshire countryside, Stonehenge is perhaps the world's most awe-inspiring ancient stone circle. Shrouded in layers of speculation and folklore, this iconic British monument has spurred myths and legends that persist today. Dan is joined by Neil Wilkin, curator of a special exhibition housed at the British Museum, that reveals the secrets of Stonehenge, shines a light on its pu...

Russia and the UK have very different political structures and ambitions, from their alliance at the Battle of Navarino in 1827 to the historic low of their relations now. In this episode of Warfare , James is joined by Lord David Owen, who formerly served as Navy Minister, British foreign secretary, and EU peace negotiator in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. With over two decades of working cl...

Ed Caesar joins Dan on the podcast to tell the extraordinary but largely forgotten story of World War I veteran Maurice Wilson, Britain's most mysterious mountaineering legend. Wilson served with distinction during the First World War winning the Military Cross in April 1918. However, after the war, he struggled to reintegrate into society and became severely ill. Whilst recuperating he became fas...

Shocked by the fall of France in 1940, panicked U.S. leaders rushed to back the Vichy government despite their Nazi sympathies. This policy caused instability at home whilst also driving a wedge between the allied nations. In this episode, Dan is joined by war historian Michael S. Neiberg to discuss this fateful decision that nearly destroyed the Anglo–American alliance. If you'd like to learn mor...

Dan is joined by Professor Kate Williams to discuss the rise and fall of Mary Queen of Scots, one of the most dramatic and tragic figures of the Sixteenth Century - https://pod.fo/e/1148a4 If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today! To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple store....

The Confederacy was more than an army. It was a national project. A whole state, albeit an internationally unrecognised one, formed between 1861-1865 complete with its own capital city, constitution and even a postmaster general. In this episode, Dan is joined by Stephanie McCurry to dig into what was happening behind the front line. They get into how the secession crisis, the national building pr...

From the summer of 1940, approximately 30,000 so-called ‘enemy aliens’ were indefinitely sent to internment camps across Britain. Gripped by spy fever and the panic over the fall of France, the British government adopted an aggressive internment policy targeting a broad cross-section of Austrian and German passport holders who were then living in the UK. Many of these people were refugees who had...

To mark the end of a truly epic journey, Dan wanted to hear from you -the listeners- those that have dedicatedly followed the story of Endurance22. Find out the answers to your questions as Dan responds candidly to the things that you all wanted to know. In the concluding episode of the Endurance22 series, we also share Dan’s conversation with John and Viv James, the sons of Endurance veteran Regi...

The use of the word ‘Oligarch’ has been increasingly rampant across international news outlets since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine just weeks ago. But what does it actually mean? Jeffrey A. Winters, an American political scientist at Northwestern University who specialises in the study of oligarchy, notes that the common thread for oligarchs across history is that wealth defines them, empowers them...

The revolution in speed ground to a halt in the 1960s. The previous half-century saw great leaps in how quickly people could get from place to place: high-speed railways, cars, intercontinental flight. In our lifetime transport may have become safer and comfier — but we aren't getting anywhere any faster. How did these great leaps happen? What grove this focus on transport innovation and where doe...

March 15th 44BC is perhaps the most notorious date in all of ancient history. On that fateful day, the Ides of March, 55-year-old Roman dictator Gaius Julius Caesar was assassinated by a group of disaffected senators. In this episode – the first of our special Ides of March miniseries this month – Tristan from The Ancients (with a little help from Dr Emma Southon and Dr Steele Brand) untangles fac...

The KGB was the main security agency for the Soviet Union. Tasked with surveillance and rooting out dissidents, religious practitioners and anti-government organisations, the KGB were feared for their intimidation tactics and brutality. They operated across the soviet countries with a particularly sinister presence in Ukraine. In his desperate attempt to restore the Soviet Union, Putin has silence...

In this special episode Dan Snow teams up with Alice Levine, Jamie Morton and James Cooper from My Dad Wrote A Porno to chat about all things sex and history. Expect slow thrusting, Henry The Eighth sexual slander and more filth than you can shake a bread dildo at. You have the power to do something incredible this Red Nose Day. Whether it’s a little or a lot, the money you donate will help tackle...