HistoryExtra podcast

In order to understand why the Salem witch trials happened, we need to get to grips with how exactly things unfolded over the course of 1692. In this episode, we piece together a timeline of the events that reveals how the strange behaviour of a couple of young girls spread like a virus, mutating and mushrooming into community-wide paranoia that ultimately culminated in multiple executions. Hosted...

In 1692, 19 members of a small New England community were hanged for witchcraft. Over the course of the year, young girls convulsed and barked like dogs, women confessed to flying on poles to satanic sabbaths, and villagers recounted seeing ghostly apparitions and translucent cats. How can we explain these seemingly inexplicable events? With the help of experts, we’ll delve into the historical fac...

Irving Finkel speaks to Ellie Cawthorne about his book The First Ghosts, which looks at what we can learn from the first written evidence of ghost beliefs. He reveals what ancient Mesopotamian cuneiform tablets can tell us about everything from necromancy and getting rid of troublesome spirits to demons and the underworld.    (Ad) Irving Finkel is the author of The First Ghosts: Most Ancient of Le...

Greg Jenner talks about his latest book, Ask A Historian, which tackles 50 burning questions that people have about the past   Public historian Greg Jenner talks to Elinor Evans about his latest book, Ask A Historian, which tackles on 50 questions exploring some unexpected chapters of history that people have always wanted to know about – from whether people really ate powdered mummies, to the bes...

Listen to our new podcast series delving into one of the most fascinating and mysterious events in American history. Find the first four episodes in your podcast feed from 31 October.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We often focus on the views we can see through windows, but what about the windows themselves? Matt Elton speaks to cultural sociologist Rachel Hurdley to explore what windows can reveal about our past – from living conditions and architectural styles to wider issues of defence, politics and social change. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choice...

Christina Ezrahi speaks to Elinor Evans about the story of Nina Anisimova, one of the most famous ballerinas in Stalin’s Soviet Union. After being arrested for supposed counter-revolutionary activity, Anisimova was transported to a forced labour camp, only to make a remarkable return to the stage.   (Ad) Christina Ezrahi is the author of Dancing for Stalin: A Dancer’s Story of Courage and Survival...

A panel of expert historians discuss how history can help make sense of current events in Afghanistan   The Taliban recently regained control of Afghanistan as US forces withdrew after two decades in the country. How can history help make sense of this seismic moment? Matt Elton joins a panel of experts – William Dalrymple, Rabia Latif Khan, Elisabeth Leake and Bijan Omrani – to explore how Afghan...

What did the word ‘pharaoh’ mean? How did you become an ancient Egyptian king? And what was that beard all about? Speaking with Emily Briffett, Joyce Tyldesley answers listener questions and top internet search queries about ancient Egypt’s royal rulers. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Historian Dan Jones’s new book, The Tale of the Tailor and the Three Dead Kings, reimagines a medieval ghost story for modern audiences. He explains to Dave Musgrove what it tells us about attitudes to the afterlife in the Middle Ages. (Ad) Dan Jones is the author of The Tale of the Tailor and the Three Dead Kings: A medieval ghost story (Head of Zeus, 2021). Buy it now from Waterstones: https://g...

Chris Pearson talks to Elinor Evans about his latest book, Dogopolis, which explores how human-canine relationships shaped urban living in three cities – New York, Paris and London – in the late 19th and 20th centuries, from differing attitudes towards pets and strays, to their roles in modern security. (Ad) Chris Pearson is the author of Dogopolis: How Dogs and Humans Made Modern New York, London...

Martha S Jones discusses her Cundill History Prize-shortlisted book Vanguard, which charts African-American women’s long and determined fight for the vote. She speaks to Ellie Cawthorne about how the battle for suffrage connected to other issues and a wider struggle for political power. (Ad) Martha S Jones is the author of Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equ...

Tim Harper speaks to Ellie Cawthorne about his Cundill History Prize-shortlisted book Underground Asia, which reveals how clandestine networks of anti-colonialist rebels operated across Asia in the early 20th century.   (Ad) Tim Harper is the author of Underground Asia: Global Revolutionaries and the Assault on Empire (Allen Lane, 2020). Buy it now from Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Imperial-Un...

Following the fortunes of one extended family in a south-western French town in the 18th and 19th centuries, Emma Rothschild’s Cundill Prize-shortlisted book An Infinite History builds up a picture of what life was like for ordinary people in provincial France. She tells Rhiannon Davies how generations of the family survived revolution, wars and sweeping economic changes, to reveal a fascinating s...

Wayne Dooling answers listener questions on South Africa’s Apartheid regime. Speaking to Ellie Cawthorne, he covers subjects including the policy’s origins, the everyday experience of racial segregation, internal and international resistance, and the regime’s legacy on the country today.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastch...

Historian Marjoleine Kars tells Elinor Evans about a little-known 1763 rebellion by enslaved people in Berbice, in present-day Guyana. Chronicled in her Cundill prize-shortlisted book Blood on the River, it was an event that revises our understanding of the actions of enslaved people at the dawn of the Age of Revolution. (Ad) Marjoleine Kars is the author of Blood on the River: A Chronicle of Muti...

Hannah Skoda delves into the bloody and brutal spectacle of trial by combat in the Middle Ages  To coincide with the release of new film The Last Duel, Hannah Skoda explores the bloody and brutal spectacle of trial by combat in the Middle Ages. Speaking to Ellie Cawthorne, she reveals how judicial violence was used to settle legal disputes, and recounts some of the most dramatic real cases.  Hoste...

Tyler Stovall speaks to Ellie Cawthorne about his Cundill prize-shortlisted book White Freedom, which explores how European and American ideas about ‘liberty’ and ‘freedom’ have been underpinned by racism since the Enlightenment. (Ad) Tyler Stovall is the author of White Freedom: The Racial History of an Idea(Princeton, 2021). Buy it now from Waterstones: https://go.skimresources.com?id=71026X1535...

Andrew Roberts discusses his landmark new biography of King George III and takes on some of the myths that have surrounded the monarch Historian Andrew Roberts discusses his landmark new biography of King George III with Rob Attar. He takes on some of the myths that have surrounded the king, such as: Was he really a tyrant? Was his “madness” caused by porphyria? And how responsible was he for the...

“The Horde” was an empire like no other, ruled by Nomadic Mongol Khans for three centuries. But how was the Mongol empire governed, and what was everyday life like within it? Marie Favereau speaks to David Musgrove about her Cundill prize-shortlisted book on the subject. (Ad) Marie Favereau is the author of The Horde: How the Mongols Changed the World (Belknap Press, 2021) Buy it now from Amazon:...

Archaeologist Sophie Hay responds to listener questions and popular search queries about the city that was destroyed by a volcanic eruption in AD 79 and has gone on to become one of our best sources of information about everyday Roman life.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nick Baker and John Woolf, writers of Stephen Fry’s Edwardian Secrets, discuss some lesser-known aspects of the Edwardian age The Edwardians were not just about the afternoon tea and croquet on the lawn. Behind the Downton Abbey image of the age lies a much murkier reality. Nick Baker and John Woolf, writers of the new Audible series Stephen Fry’s Edwardian Secrets, discuss some of the lesser-know...

From when our ancestors first mastered fire to the rise of modern cities, humanity’s progress has been accompanied by a revolving door of parasites, bacteria and viruses, wreaking havoc on our health. Kyle Harper, author of Plagues Upon the Earth, discusses the sprawling history of infectious disease.   (Ad) Kyle Harper is the author of Plagues Upon the Earth: Disease and the Course of Human Histo...

Military historian, author and broadcaster James Holland tells the story of the Sherwood Rangers, a British tank regiment which was in the thick of the action from the Allied assault on Normandy on D-Day until the final defeat of Nazi Germany. (Ad) James Holland is the author of Brothers in Arms: A Legendary Tank Regiment's Bloody War from D-Day to VE Day(Transworld, 2021). Buy it now from Waterst...

Manan Ahmed Asif discusses his book The Loss of Hindustan, the Invention of India, which has just been shortlisted for the Cundill History Prize Historian Manan Ahmed Asif discusses his recent book The Loss of Hindustan, the Invention of India, which has just been shortlisted for the Cundill History Prize. He explores the historical concept of Hindustan and reveals how, through the colonial era, i...