Explaining History

In the post war years a rise in union militancy was matched by an increase in anti union hostility by the federal government and a decline in union power due to a changing labour force and the privatisation of social security. This led to a gradual decline in union power. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the p...

The impulsive decision by Mussolini to invade Greece dragged the Balkans into the Second World War, with terrible consequences for Greece, Albania, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Romania. His inept campaign led Hitler to wage war in Greece and the Balkans to prevent the region from becoming a foothold for the British. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversation...

More on the inner workings of the Soviet Communist Party after 1928 Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share. ▸ Support the Show & Get Exclusive Content Become a Patron: patreon.com/explaininghistory ▸ Join the Community & Continue the...

Continuing from a previous podcast on the complications of the Russian Revolution to the attempts to create a European peace in 1919, this episode focuses on the differing approaches proposed to dealing with Soviet Russia by the Paris Peacemakers and the risks of leaving the vast country out of the proceedings. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations...

In the immediate aftermath of the Second World War a strong, organised American working class movement faced an uncertain future of stagnating wages and fears about a return to the Great Depression. By 1946 the USA faced unprecedented union militancy and strike action Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past...

The cold war certainties that existed up until March 1953 were thrown into doubt when Stalin died, leaving Eisenhower and his spy chief Alan Dulles with no reliable intelligence as to Soviet intentions. The Cold War entered one of its most dangerous and uncertain phases as a result. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We co...

In 1933 Hitler sought to extend his power over the German Civil Service and to politicise it by purging non Nazis. However, he hoped to achieve this without damaging the workings of a powerful organ of state. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and...

Despite being vastly outnumbered in Egypt, a small British Empire force inflicted devastating losses on a vast Italian Army. Mussolini's poorly led and poorly motivated troops were swiftly defeated by a small but well equipped and mobile force. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you e...

In the immediate aftermath of World War Two, women left war industries in huge numbers and some entered the domestic sphere. However the view that women existed in the 'comfortable concentration camp' theorised by Betty Friedan requires closer examination. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the prese...

This podcast is the first of several that explore the inner workings of the Soviet State and the Communist Party under Stalin after 1928. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share. ▸ Support the Show & Get Exclusive Content Become a Patron:...

Between 1890 and 1915 the eradication of political, social and economic gains that black Americans had achieved after the Civil War in the Reconstruction era occurred across the southern states. The most famous black American figure, Booker T Washington sought accommodation with white American society and argued the black people should earn acceptance through education and hard work. Explaining Hi...

After fifteen years of 'struggle' Hitler brought to orderly German Government the politics of the demagogue and the populist, and retreated from the bureaucratic business of government. His actions were typical of his outlook and of fascist and Nazi ideology. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the pr...

While revolution and civil war tore the former Russian Empire apart, the British, French and American leaders at the Paris Peace Conference were unsure as to how to deal with Russia and what part it might play in the shaping of a post war world order. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. I...

In 1911 Italy launched an opportunist war against the Ottoman Empire for control of Libya. Despite the huge costs and the unexpected guerrilla war that Italian troops found themselves fighting against Arab and Ottoman forces, Italy gained control of the Ottoman provinces. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the p...

Poorly equipped and with virtually no training, the American and British volunteers in the International Brigades, along with French, German, Belgian, Polish and other groups of anti fascists sustained huge casualties keeping the road to Madrid open. The battle of Jarama involved immense sacrifice but once again kept Spain's fascist generals out of the capital Explaining History helps you understa...

The wartime Manhattan project resulted in unforseen diplomatic tensions between the three powers and gave America unprecedented power which President Truman was reluctant to use and uncertain how to wield. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and sha...

The insertion of a highly personalised dictatorship into Germany's previously highly functional bureaucratic state and the gradual erosion of barriers between Fuhrer, state and party led to the growth of institutional chaos in a regime that projected in image of order. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past...

A temporary lull in imperial tensions, arms races and the threat of a major European war was illusory in the last years before the First World War. This podcast explores the nature of this 'Indian summer' and the causes of renewed tensions from 1911 onwards. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the pre...

Nazi Germany was more than simply a personal dictatorship and the manner in which the chaotic and restless Nazi movement captured and infiltrated all areas of the German state dictated the pace of events and change from 1933 onwards. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the sh...

As fascist armies raced across Spain to seize the capital they committed horrific war crimes against Spanish workers and peasants. Madrid braced itself for the onslaught, but managed to deny Franco and the generals a breakthrough victory Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy th...

The development of the CIA by 1949 into a well funded unaccountable agency with the scope for paramilitary operations against the USSR, meant that poorly conceived and ultimately doomed missions against the Soviet Bloc proliferated using anti communist emigres. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the...

Peacemakers at the Paris Peace Conference attempted to build new nation states out of the chaos of four collapsed empires. However, events on the ground in Eastern Europe overtook the pace at which decisions in Paris could be made. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show...

Hitler's capture of Germany's Government saw the introduction of Nazi ideas that sought to abolish the normal functioning of constitutional systems of governance. The concept of the Fuhrer swept away legalism and instead drew legitimacy from the notion of Hitler's relationship with 'the people'. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert inte...

Hi everyone, I'm inviting all listeners to join with me to debate about online hate speech which is creeping into the various Explaining History platforms. Have a listen and give me your views @https://www.facebook.com/Explaininghistory/ Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy th...

In Sven Beckert's book Empire of Cotton, he discusses the development of modern capitalism's first industry (and empire), that of global cotton. The complex interplay of states, capitalists, waged workers, peasants and slaves created the foundation of the world economy we now inhabit. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We...