Explaining History

At the end of the Second World War an American survey of Jewish survivors in Europe recommended mass Jewish immigration into Palestine. President Harry Truman embraced the study partly out of idealism, but also with his own calculating political considerations, knowing the existing levels of anti Semitism in America. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical convers...

The conflict in Spain attracted writers and correspondents from around the world and excited passions among their readers in Europe and America. Many were openly partisan in favour of the republic and saw Spain as the world's last chance to stop fascism Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present....

A series of disastrous miscalculations led the French Army and the British Expeditionary Force to fall into the German Army's trap in 1940. The fall of France was Hitler's greatest military triumph but was in large part the result of allied mistakes. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If...

By the end of the First World War, French Prime Minister Clemenceau knew that France's security relied on maintaining an Anglo American alliance with France to keep the war ravaged country safe from Germany. However, the chances of achieving this dwindled week by week. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past...

The election of a left wing Popular Front government in Spain triggered a coup by rebel generals against the Second Spanish Republic. Hitler and Mussolini's intervention in the guise of a massive airlift across the Straits of Gibraltar saved Franco's coup and doomed the republic. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We conne...

Following the disaster of the Great Leap Forward and during Mao's attempts at reclaiming his power, a vast new initiative to defend western China was launched. The Third Front proved to be the most costly misallocation of public resources in 20th Century history. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to th...

Chaos, incompetence and poor intelligence by the British and French handed Hitler an easy victory in Norway, seizing a vital source of raw materials. The loss of Norway showed Britain had a long learning curve ahead. 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 subscr...

Initially, all sides in the First World War were wary and suspicious of journalists, fearing they would give away vital intelligence or impede the progress of the war. Later, as the conflict dragged on, politicians in Britain, but not British generals, began to see the propaganda value of journalism. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert...

Expecting to report to the House of Commons a terrible military disaster, Winston Churchill on June 4th 1940, gave the most important speech of his career and the most famous speech of the 20th Century. 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....

In December 1918 US president Woodrow Wilson set sail for Europe to build a lasting peace after four years of devastating war. The principled but often dogmatic Wilson wanted to create a more democratic world, but one geared towards America's economic interests. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the...

In Phillip Knightley's seminal account of war reporting 'The First Casualty', the British came to excel in distorting war reporting and influencing public thinking, presenting the war as the 'Great struggle for civilisation' 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, pleas...

After eight years of devastating war with Japan, China found an uncertain peace in the summer of 1945, which would soon come crashing down. The civil war between the Nationalists and Communists was temporarily suspended, but intervention from the USA and the USSR gave both sides the resources to resume the conflict. Please support Explaining History via Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=7633...

In 1939 American diplomats were certain that Britain and France faced defeat and Roosevelt would have to play the role of peace broker. A new prime minister in 1940, Winston Churchill, spoke the language of defiance and struggle that impressed the US president and was key in securing American aid. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert in...

The outbreak of war in the Korean peninsula in 1950 was preceded by half a decade of careful consideration by Stalin and an desire by Mao to take on the capitalist world. Prior to this, Korea had been an afterthought for the Soviet dictator, who was more interested in affairs in Europe. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. W...

Hitler's war industries experienced critical manpower shortages throughout the war and the solution was to import millions of foreign workers from allied and conquered territories. However, this profoundly altered German society during the conflict. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If...

The horrors of the Holocaust have shaped how we see Germany and Europe's Jews, mainly as victims. However, German Jews were among the most emancipated and assimilated diasporas in the world prior to 1914 and significantly contributed to German national life. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the pre...

In 1968 a new wave of political purges began, following two years of anarchy in the Cultural Revolution. This time, young people were sent to be ideologically transformed through hard labour in the countryside. Many embraced this new life, but for most, the reality was misery and back breaking labour. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and exper...

In the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, a skeptical Harry Truman abolished America's only spy agency the OSS, without a replacement. Within two years, as British military and intelligence power declined, Truman discovered the need for a new organisation was paramount. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We conne...

How did Australia adapt to the decline of the British Empire and the challenges of the Cold War, while seeking to contain its own oppressive racial policies during the 1960s? 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 & Ge...

The British government had a long standing suspicion of the powers of broadcasting when the BBC was established in 1922. The experience of the General Strike, however, established the BBC as the most effective means of disseminating hegemonic ideas in Britain. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the p...

In the first two years of the First World War, German society was largely unified in fear of external enemies, particularly Russia. However, by 1916 this unity had broken down and major social and political divisions - along with economic and political crises emerged. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past...

In 1939 Franklin Roosevelt struggled against the popularity of isolationism in the USA and his plans to aid Neville Chamberlain's Britain and Eduard Daladier's France were crippled by half a decade of neutrality acts 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 subscr...

Following the death of the dictator and the end of Stalinism, different Warsaw Pact members attempted to solve their economic problems by building consumer societies. Each met with varying degrees of short term success and long term failure. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjo...

Reviewing books by Linda Colley, Benedict Anderson and David Reynolds on the development of British national identity 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/explaini...

Often seen as a failed experiment in state 'moral' control, prohibition was the product of Christian, industrial and suffragist pressure. 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:...