History Book Club

Today’s episode is a subject that has been prominent in the last few years, the Atlantic slave trade, and today’s book, Survivors is a quite brilliant one that focusses on one voyage in particular, the Clotilda. Joining is Hannah Durkin who tells the harrowing tail of one boat’s enslaved people, from when they are capture in West Africa, through to their journey across the Atlantic, to Mobile Alab...

This is the first movie to appear on the History Book Club pod. It's perhaps the most influential film to depict combat in the last thirty years. Steven Spielberg's epic captures the pathos of warfare. In this episode we discuss Saving Private Ryan Links Bixby Letter ⁠James Holland on Saving Private Ryan⁠ Our Awards Best Performance Most Egregious Overracting Biggest Plot Flaw Historical Inaccurac...

This week we are going back to late 17th and early 18th century Britain, a time when politics as we recognise today was formed: the development of the party system – Whigs and Tories, The Act of Union with Scotland, and foreign wars often unpopular at home. Joining me, is George Owers, and as you heard he describes a fantastic romp through the period, which is the subject of his book The Rage of P...

The History Book Club is staying with the 20th century as we discuss the V-Force, the aircraft best exemplified by the Vulcan which was the plane that played a huge role in the James Bond film, Thunderball. It was a remarkably beautiful engineering feat, that remains an iconic vision of where British design and science was at in the 1950s. It was capable of flying vast distances where it was inten...

After last week’s episode on the Iranian Revolution, I wanted to stay with the 1970s, and so Jason Burke joins me to discuss terrorism during the period, and specifically the Red Army Faction and Palestinian paramilitaries who would cooperate throughout the decade. This is an era when air travel was luxurious, booze sodden and fun – not like now sadly. Another element of flying back then was the v...

As you may be aware, there is an uprising across Iran, and the government has lost the bazaars due to economic collapse. The Bazaars are the middle class shops, and their owners an important demographic in a country like Iran. The last time this happened, the Shah fled and regime we see today took power. Joining me is Scott Anderson, the author of King of Kings, as we discuss the revolution, its p...