Explaining History

During the Cold War a range of liberal and left intellectuals looked at the new technologies born of the Second World War and its aftermath with mounting concern and alarm. Figures like Herbert Marcuse and Theodore Adorno of the Frankfurt School and the Philosopher Martin Heidegger reacted to the destructive power of the atomic bomb and the cultural power of the mass media with fear and pessimism...

The most significant European fascist since Franco, Jean Marie Le Pen, died this week aged 96. This podcast explores the context of the rise of Le Front Nationale, and explores his role within it. Part two will examine how Le Pen used the failings of Mitterand's government in the 1980s to his advantage. Help the podcast to continue bringing you history each week If you enjoy the Explaining History...

In 1988 Mikhail Gorbachev visited the USA on a state visit and experienced celebrity treatment in Times Square in New York as he came to visit the new president elect George H.W. Bush. This episode explores this fateful visit and as the Soviet Union crumbled from within and Gorbachev's formative years and career in the Communist Party its machinery. Help the podcast to continue bringing you histor...

Continuing our Approaches to history series, here are some thoughts on the construction of historical memory. Help the podcast to continue bringing you history each week If you enjoy the Explaining History podcast and its many years of content and would like to help the show continue, please consider supporting it in the following ways: If you want to go ad-free, you can take out a membership here...

In late 1942 the battle for Stalingrad consumed Nazi Germany's sixth army and both German and Soviet war correspondents attempted to give a picture of the horror and brutality. Western war reporters were unable to reach the battle until it had finished and were escorted through the ruins. Help the podcast to continue bringing you history each week If you enjoy the Explaining History podcast and it...

At the end of the Second World War, European capitalism had been comprehensively devastated by the conflict and America seized an opportunity to rebuild the world economic order in its interests and that of the wider international capitalist class. In today's podcast we explore The Making of Global Capitalism by Leo Panitch and Sam Gindin . Help the podcast to continue bringing you history each we...

Donald Trump is about to introduce the largest concentration of billionaires in history into his cabinet, but this is simply the continuation of a long established oligarchic trend in the White House. Help the podcast to continue bringing you history each week If you enjoy the Explaining History podcast and its many years of content and would like to help the show continue, please consider support...

The Battle of Stalingrad was the greatest German defeat of the war, consuming the entire German 6th Army and dealing a catastrophic blow to German morale on the home front as the illusion of a possible victory vanished for millions of German civilians. This is the third of a series of Christmas podcasts on the siege and its bloody aftermath: Help the podcast to continue bringing you history each w...

Throughout the 20th Century, alongside the advancement of women in academia there had been a focus on women's history based on biological sex. However, from the 70s onwards gender history that explores the roles of feminine and masculine gender in different historical moments has been a developing field of research. Help the podcast to continue bringing you history each week If you enjoy the Expla...

The Battle of Stalingrad was the greatest German defeat of the war, consuming the entire German 6th Army as Stalin and his generals struggled to adapt to the onslaught and ordered that no Russian, civilian or military, be allowed to retreat. This is the second of a series of Christmas podcasts on the siege and its bloody aftermath: Help the podcast to continue bringing you history each week If you...

The Battle of Stalingrad was the greatest German defeat of the war, consuming the entire German 6th Army as Stalin and his generals struggled to adapt to the onslaught and ordered that no Russian, civilian or military, be allowed to retreat. This is the first of a series of Christmas podcasts on the siege and its bloody aftermath: Help the podcast to continue bringing you history each week If you...

Karl Marx is the most influential figure in the production of 20th Century history texts, influencing Marxist and non Marxist historians alike. This is the first part of our exploration of his significance and the debates surrounding his legacy. Help the podcast to continue bringing you history each week If you enjoy the Explaining History podcast and its many years of content and would like to he...

In the immediate post war years, the arrival of Black British citizens from the Caribbean was met with widespread racism across most areas of British life. Black people encountering Britain for the first time discovered not a wealthy land of enterprise but one with a poor white working class whom assumed superiority by dint of their skin colour. Help the podcast to continue bringing you history ea...

In this episode of the podcast we continue with our study of the AQA syllabus - Russia 1917-53: Revolution and Dictatorship. We explore the nature of Stalin's first Five Year Plan and its economic and social consequences. Help the podcast to continue bringing you history each week If you enjoy the Explaining History podcast and its many years of content and would like to help the show continue, pl...

Lenin had no intention of national independence for Ukraine or any of the other non Russian nations of the former Tsarist empire. This podcast explores how the Bolsheviks responded to the national movement in Ukraine during the Russian Civil War. Help the podcast to continue bringing you history each week If you enjoy the Explaining History podcast and its many years of content and would like to h...

Franklin Roosevelt knew that supporting black emancipation in the south would lose critical southern white support for the New Deal and so ignored for the most part the plight of black Americans and the horrors of lynching. During the 1950s and 1960s the coalition of black and white voters that the Democrats drew to them began to fragment as black rights advanced throughout the period. This was a...

Karl Marx is the most influential figure in the production of 20th Century history texts, influencing Marxist and non Marxist historians alike. This is the first part of our exploration of his significance and the debates surrounding his legacy. Help the podcast to continue bringing you history each week If you enjoy the Explaining History podcast and its many years of content and would like to he...

The sudden collapse of the Assad regime and the actions and intentions of the regional and global powers involved present us with strange contradictions, but we must also be aware of the terrible human cost of the conflict as tens of thousands of Syrians and other nationals remain in squalid concentration camps across the country, the final victims of ISIS. Help the podcast to continue bringing yo...

In 1935, Italy invaded Abyssinia, creating one of final crises of the League of Nations. The deal made between British Foreign Secretary Samuel Hoare and his counterpart Pierre Laval to allow League of Nations sanctions against Italy to be broken led to widespread outrage. What did ordinary British people think about tihs and how did it shape the actions of the political class? Help the podcast to...

This is part ten of the Explaining History study course based on the AQA A level history module Revolution and Dictatorship: Russia 1917-53. In this episode we examine Stalin's motivation for the Great Turning, and the economic, political and strategic reasons for the Five Year Plans. Help the podcast to continue bringing you history each week If you enjoy the Explaining History podcast and its ma...

American conservatism fundamentally changed in 2016, its old nostrums were destroyed by the Trump movement and replaced with a mixture of MAGA nationalism and anarchocapitalism. This episode explores the different strands of thought in Trump's coalition. Help the podcast to continue bringing you history each week If you enjoy the Explaining History podcast and its many years of content and would l...

How did Stalin's terror spread to incorporate more and more victims? This podcast episode explores the effect of Stalin's terror on ordinary people and how denunciations, confessions and the effect of 'contagion' caused the terror to metastasise. Help the podcast to continue bringing you history each week If you enjoy the Explaining History podcast and its many years of content and would like to h...

In the 48 hours since the Assad regime fell there has been a flurry of speculation about the effect on the Middle East. This episode explores the effect on Russia, Assad's patron and its collapse of influence in the Middle East and beyond. Help the podcast to continue bringing you history each week If you enjoy the Explaining History podcast and its many years of content and would like to help the...

This is a special one off podcast episode on the key events of the last 24 hours in Syria, following the overthrow of the Assad regime. I will be running a livestream Q&A for students on Wednesday November 20th. You can access it here , subscribe to the channel to get your reminder . https://youtube.com/live/knBuNLBD-bU?feature=share (in case the link doesn't work) Help the podcast to continue...

In this episode we continue to explore the historical practices associated with empiricism, and we're reading from The Houses of History I will be running a livestream Q&A for students on Wednesday November 20th. You can access it here , subscribe to the channel to get your reminder . https://youtube.com/live/knBuNLBD-bU?feature=share (in case the link doesn't work) Help the podcast to continu...