Explaining History

As we approach the end of another year, Nick takes a moment to step back from the history books and reflect on the Explaining History podcast itself. What started 13 years ago as a "flipped classroom" experiment by a history teacher in Wales has grown into a global community. In this candid episode, Nick discusses his philosophy of history—why he rejects the "history as entertainment" model and th...

In 1908, the Ottoman Empire was on the brink of collapse. The despotism of Sultan Abdul Hamid II had stifled political life for decades, but a military uprising in Macedonia would soon change everything. In this episode of  Explaining History , Nick explores one of the great forgotten revolutions of the 20th century: the Young Turk Revolution. Drawing on Eugene Rogan's masterful book  Th...

Episode Summary: As 2025 draws to a close, Nick reflects on a pivotal year in global history. From the economic shockwaves of the Trump tariffs to the accelerating shift of power back to Asia, this episode argues that we are witnessing the terminal decline of the Anglo-American world order. We explore the existential threat of "de-dollarization"—a process accelerated not just by Trump, but by the...

In this episode of  Explaining History , Nick explores the unprecedented explosion of wealth and consumption in post-war America. We often focus on the economic decline of the middle class in recent decades, but today we look back at the era of mass abundance that preceded it. Drawing on James Patterson’s  Grand Expectations , we delve into the cultural and economic forces that transform...

Episode Summary: In this episode of  Explaining History , Nick explores the murky relationship between British intelligence, the Labour government, and the "gentleman capitalists" of the post-war era. Why was Harold Wilson, the most electorally successful British Prime Minister of the 20th century, targeted by paranoid elements within MI5 as a potential Soviet spy? We delve into Wilson's time...

As we close out 2025, Nick takes stock of the first year of Donald Trump's second term. While some liberal commentators hold out hope that the upcoming 2026 midterms will curb his power, Nick argues that the real conflict isn't between Left and Right, but between two factions of capital: the liberal-democratic establishment and the nativist, protectionist forces embodied by Trump. We explore the f...

Episode Summary: In this episode of  Explaining History , Nick delves into the critical years of 1928-1929, exploring the mindset of the Soviet leadership on the eve of the Great Famine. Drawing from Robert Conquest’s seminal work  The Harvest of Sorrow , we examine how Stalin’s paranoia and Marxist-Leninist ideology filtered his understanding of the peasantry. Why did the Bolsheviks vie...

Episode Summary: In this episode of  Explaining History , Nick moves beyond the familiar trenches of the Western Front to explore the terrifying reality of the Eastern Front in 1914. Drawing from Alexander Watson’s masterful book  Ring of Steel , we examine how the German and Austro-Hungarian empires experienced the outbreak of World War I not just as a military conflict, but as a fight...

In this episode of  Explaining History , Nick revisits Nikolaus Wachsmann's monumental study,  KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps . We explore a critical and often misunderstood aspect of the Holocaust: the relationship between the Concentration Camps (KL) and the extermination camps of the East. Why were Jews initially marginalized within the KL system? How did the failure of...

Episode Summary: In this episode of  Explaining History , Nick delves into the harrowing yet complex world of child labour during the British Industrial Revolution. Moving beyond the Dickensian caricatures of helpless victims, we explore Emma Griffin's groundbreaking book,  Liberty’s Dawn: A People's History of the Industrial Revolution . Through the voices of those who lived it—captured...

In 1840, a monk disappeared in Damascus, and the ancient, deadly accusation of "blood libel" was levelled against the city's Jewish community. This event, known as the Damascus Affair, became a pivotal moment in 19th-century Jewish history, sending shockwaves from the Ottoman Empire to the capitals of Europe. In this episode of  Explaining History , Nick continues his exploration of Jonathan...

In this episode of  Explaining History , Nick analyzes the newly published 2025 US National Security Strategy, a document that could be considered a foundational text for the global far-right. We explore how this strategy, with its language of "civilizational erasure" and "European greatness," mirrors the rhetoric of leaders like Viktor Orban and the conspiracy theories of the "Great Replacem...

Episode Summary: In the second part of our exploration into the Stalin-Tito split, Nick delves into the dramatic climax of 1948: the expulsion of Yugoslavia from the Cominform. Stalin famously boasted, "I will shake my little finger, and there will be no more Tito." But as history shows, he couldn't have been more wrong. We examine how Tito's audacious foreign policy—from supporting Greek communis...

Episode Summary: In this episode of  Explaining History , Nick takes a deep dive into the history and necessity of taxation, connecting the Tudor reign of Henry VII to the modern crisis of inequality in the UK. With the Green Party surging past Labour in recent polls by promising to "tax the rich," we explore why this idea is about more than just funding public services—it's about democracy i...

Episode Summary: In this episode of  Explaining History , Nick explores one of the most critical schisms in Cold War history: the rupture between Joseph Stalin and Josip Broz Tito. While the Sino-Soviet split often grabs the headlines, the breakdown in relations between the USSR and Yugoslavia in 1948 was the first major crack in the monolithic facade of international communism. We delve into...

Episode Summary: In this episode of  Explaining History , Nick delves into Jonathan Frankel's seminal work,  Crisis, Revolution, and Russian Jews . We explore how moments of acute crisis—from the Damascus Affair of 1840 to the pogroms of 1881—shaped the political and intellectual life of Jewish communities in the Russian Empire. How did a diaspora community, scattered across Europe and l...

In this episode of  Explaining History , Nick delves into the institutional failures of the Imperial Russian Army in the critical decade before World War I. Drawing from the essay collection  Reforming the Tsar’s Army , we explore how the disastrous defeat in the Russo-Japanese War of 1905 shook the foundations of Tsarist power. We examine the struggle between military modernizers like G...

Episode Summary: In this episode of  Explaining History , Nick returns to Philip Knightley's seminal work,  The First Casualty , to examine how British and American journalists covered the Vietnam War. While American reporters were often "embedded" and compromised by military PR, British correspondents like John Pilger offered a searing, independent critique of the conflict. We explore t...

In 2025, Venezuela is once again in the crosshairs of US foreign policy, facing the threat of military intervention and heightened sanctions from a new Trump administration. But to understand the resilience of the Venezuelan people today, we must look back to a pivotal moment in their history that is often overlooked: the "Trienio" of 1945-1948. In this episode, Nick explores the dramatic coup of...

In this episode of  Explaining History , Nick takes a hard look at the state of the British Left in late 2025. With the Starmer government firmly entrenched in "continuity Thatcherism," the opposition has splintered. We analyze the chaotic founding conference of the new left-wing coalition, "Your Party," led by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana. From walkouts and factional disputes to the retur...

In this episode of  Explaining History , we sit down with author Maggie Ritchie to discuss her latest novel,  White Raven . We explore the remarkable true story of Moira Beattie, a Glasgow art student recruited into the heart of Bletchley Park at just 18 years old. Maggie reveals how a chance encounter with the elderly artist unveiled a secret life of wartime codebreaking and a romance w...

Is the era of Western global dominance coming to an end? This episode explores the profound decline of Western, and particularly American, "hard" and "soft" power on the world stage. We begin by contrasting two pivotal moments in history: Lord Palmerston's 19th-century Britain, which could blockade a nation over the dubious claims of a single subject, and the modern United States, a superpower una...

From Restraint to Ruin - The Birth of the Bombing War At the dawn of World War II in 1939, a fragile consensus existed among the warring powers. Spurred by an appeal from President Roosevelt, leaders like Neville Chamberlain and even Hitler gave public undertakings to abstain from the horror of aerial attacks on civilians. There was a genuine, if naïve, belief that the looming conflict could be "h...

Explaining History Podcast: 2025 in Review - The Year the Tech War Was Lost As 2025 draws to a close, we reflect on a pivotal year that historians may one day see as the moment the world changed forever. This episode delves into the most significant geopolitical shift of our time: the American retreat from its tech and trade war with China, and the quiet acknowledgment that the battle has been los...

In this episode of the Explaining History podcast, host Nick Shepley is joined by veteran journalist and author Paul Vallely to explore the definitive inside story of Live Aid and its far-reaching legacy. Vallely’s new book, Live Aid: The Definitive 40-Year Story from Pop and Poverty to Politics and Power , chronicles the journey from the 1984–85 Ethiopian famine and the iconic 1985 Live Aid conce...