Explaining History

Two weeks ago Sinn Fein achieved something that had previously been considered politically impossible in Northern Ireland, it gained a majority in the Northern Ireland Assembly elections and is now likely to form a government. This edition of the update explores the ramifications for Northern Ireland, Britain, the Irish Republic and the EU of this momentous event and the ongoing problems caused by...

In today's episode of the podcast, I explore Richard Overy's arguments in Blood and Ruins and discuss his ideas around the necessity for expansionism during the 1930s among the three Axis powers, Germany, Italy and Japan. The great depression triggered ideas of expansionism as a solution to economic hardship and eugenic beliefs about growing, vital populations taking the resources of 'lesser' peop...

Even before the war had officially ended, German cities began the process of clearing debris and rubble and rebuilding. Often, municipal authorities didn't wait for allied authorisation, they simply organised the clearances and began to move the millions of tonnes of brick and stone that had been left in the wake of allied bombing and Soviet shelling. In some instances, vigilante groups ordered fo...

Germany was able to inflict huge losses on Britain during the Battle of the Atlantic. The British organised merchant ships into trans-Atlantic convoys, but between 1940-41 the German U-Boat wolf packs sank millions of tonnes of shipping. The initial successes were gradually replaced with ever greater losses for Germany, as inadequate U-Boats (too small and too few), were met with improving intelli...

This episode of the update explores the enormous consequences of the US Supreme Court's decision to overturn the Roe vs Wade ruling 1973, effectively giving states the power to make abortion illegal. 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. ▸...

Today's update focuses on the emerging dynamics of the Ukraine war and the possible long term position on the crisis that the Biden administration is taking. Plus, a short history of Moldova and Transnistria and the power of Russian gas. 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...

This is the first of many podcasts exploring the writing of historian Sean McMeekin in his revisionist exploration of the role of the USSR in World War Two. In this episode we examine how conventional ideas about Stalin's intentions, preparedness and his outlook regarding the prospects of the allied powers against Germany by 1941 need to be revised. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th...

In today's episode we discuss author and lawyer James Philips new book, Two Revolutions and a Constitution, which explores the impact of Britain's Civil Wars in the 17th Century, and the American war of Independence in the 18th Century on the shaping of the US Constitution. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the...

In today's update, we look at the implications for Twitter as it faces takeover by the tech billionaire Elon Musk. 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/explainingh...

Part two of today's exploration of Chiang Kai Shek's decision making in the summer of 1937 as Japan's armies placed ever greater pressure on northern China. 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 Conten...

After six years of Japanese control of Manchuria, and the establishment of control piecemeal across northern China, a skirmish at the Marco Polo bridge near Beijing presented Chiang with a fateful decision, to wage war now against Japan to prevent China further weakening or to ignore the crisis. Chiang knew that China would be forced to fight alone, as there would be no help forthcoming from embat...

Today's update takes a sidestep away from Ukraine to look at the historic developments in France, following the defeat of Marine Le Pen and the Front National in Sunday's presidential election by Emmanuel Macron. 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...

This is the fourth part of my exploration of the Ukraine crisis, and its wider ramifications. Across Europe and America both the Russian Federation and more recently Ukraine have found sympathisers whose support to either side reflects the state of cultural conflicts that have divided western democracies in the past decade. Whether this is by Russian design or not, these divisions and the support...

In this special extended feature episode of the Explaining History podcast, I had the great pleasure to chat with Dominic Selwood, author of Anatomy of a Nation: A history of Britain in 50 documents. In this episode we discuss British national identity throughout the post war era and the crisis of identity that marks the Brexit era. You can purchase a copy of the book here . Explaining History hel...

SS killers approached the violence and brutality of their murderous work in the camps during the war as part of the wider racial struggle that the Nazi regime had tasked them with. The camp SS viewed the camps as a battlefield and the murder of prisoners as another arena of warfare, so much so that SS murderers were given medals by Heinrich Himmler. However, not all camp SS could cope with the bru...

This is the third Ukraine update and in this episode, we look at the wider strategic and diplomatic realignments that are rapidly occurring, including China's current strategic ambiguity and Britain's growing diplomatic irrelevance under Johnson's Brexit government. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to...

The failure of Nazi Germany to seize the small British mediterranean colony of Malta was a significant strategic error. In 1941, Hitler decided not to invade the island and instead decided to put his energies into the seizure of Crete, which he believed would pose a threat to Romania's oil fields if it remained in British hands. General Erwin Rommel (later promoted to field marshal), had a year of...

In this week's Ukraine update, I focus on the bigger strategic and geopolitical problems that face a kleptocratic state in Russia and the shortcomings of a Sino-Russian alliance. 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 &amp...

This is the first of a series of special episodes dedicated to exploring the Ukraine crisis. I will post these weekly, alongside regular history podcasts in order to help navigate the rapidly changing situation. 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 a...

After the detection of the Soviet Union's first atomic bomb test in 1949, the race to create bigger and more destructive weapons led to testing in the wide expanses of Utah and at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific. The horrific costs of on civilians of these tests was mirrored by the USSR, which air-detonated bombs in the Urals to see if soldiers on the ground could continue fighting. The effect on the...

China, in the British or American historical memory of the Second World War is rarely seen as an equal allied power, despite the huge sacrifices endured by the Chinese people during the conflict. This is the second part of a series of podcasts based on the work of Dr Rana Mitter, which re-examines China's wartime role and origins and causes of Japan's brutal invasion in 1937. Explaining History he...

In August 1914, German leaders of the SPD, including the anti war Hugo Hasse accepted the inevitability of conflict and voted against their principals of internationalism and solidarity. The fear of the Rusian army invading Germany, or of state repression against political parties viewed as treacherous or disloyal created the illusion of unity. Elsewhere, the Kaiser appeaeld to all parties as 'Ger...

Eisenhower's domestic policy is often obscured to students of history by the struggles of the era (the Red Scare and McCarthyism and the civil rights struggle), making the president's own policy agenda and his political inclinations less easy to explore. This podcast looks at the conservative tendencies of Eisenhower, his opposition to the growing role of the state in the lives of Americans was bo...

China was the first country to be invaded by an Axis power and historian Rana Mitter has argued that its wartime experience is one of the most obscured and misunderstood in the west, though Chinese losses dwarfed those experienced by European and American combatants. Only the USSR suffered more during the war than China, but the immediate civil war that engulfed China and the victory of the commun...

Robert McNamara was John F Kennedy's choice to fix the sprawling bureacracy at the Department of Defence. McNamara employed an economist's mind to problems, had greatly increased the destructive power of the USAAF during the Second World War by using data and intelligence to firebomb Japanese cities more effectively, and became the first non family member to run the Ford Motor Company. Kennedy wan...