Peace In Their Time

Returning to the domestic UK, the political character of the nation at the end of 1923 continued to evolve beyond the simple conservative/liberal split of yesteryear. It was time for the Labour party to finally move out of opposition and into a leadership role. And like so many things from these years, it didn't go well. This episode has everything. Politics! Economics! That's everything.    Bibli...

Not content with its gains in the Middle East, Britain also wanted to secure its influence in Turkey after WWI. With their Greek allies taking the lead in occupying Turkish lands and Britain itself securing its influence over vital waterways, it initially looked as though things would go their way. But a mixture of imperial rivalry and Greece's lack of resources meant the whole thing was destined...

With the Irish War for Independence escalating into a problem that could no longer be played down by the UK, the violence started to get out of control. But so soon after WWI the British were not inclined to commit to a full occupation of the island, and would start looking for an exit from one of their oldest imperial possessions.    Bibliography for this episode:  Hopkinson, Michael The Irish Wa...

If the post-wars years after WWI saw the British momentarily triumphant, they also found themselves having to address all the problems they had been putting off. Closest to home was Ireland. After having failed for years to make a satisfactory settlement on the self-governance of the island, Britain would be directly challenged by a rebellion, just at the time its focus was firmly turned elsewhere...

With the United Kingdom moving into the post-war years, the nation had to grapple with the changes wrought by WWI. Internationally the world looked very different, and Britain's attentions had to be split across the globe. It was internally though that presented the biggest challenges, as a nation that had previously been very big into small government found itself with a sprawling administration...

This week we get started on the last of the big western Entente powers, the United Kingdom. Often overlooked against the wreckage of the big battles of WWI, the war years transformed British life all out of recognition. What was once a very laissez faire country found itself centralized to an unfathomable degree, and it would be in an environment of political transition that the British would have...

With the invasion of the Ruhr backfiring on them, the French electorate swung to the left and put a new coalition in power. The wealthy elites of the country, ever sensitive to the specter of Socialism, did not take the change well. Just as the Ruhr crisis was being wound down, a financial one back at home was started.    Bibliography for this episode:  Adamthwaite, Anthony Grandeur and Misery: Fr...

Having won both war and peace, France then faced the challenge of actually enforcing that victory. Namely, they had to secure their finances and that meant turning the screws to the Germans and extracting every dime they could from them. Easier said than done, as the Germans were flat broke and France's erstwhile ally, the British, were half-hearted at best in helping get the money. The quest to s...

Today we get introduced to France, the land of wine, cheese, and staggering loss. A lot of what happens in the decades we cover revolves around France and its ability, or inability, to control events happening in Europe. So to start off, this episode provides the context that France finds itself in during the interwar era. And also just what the cost of winning WWI actually entailed for the nation...

Today is the last episode on Italy before the Great Depression and is also our first biography episode! Benito Mussolini is remembered mostly for his ineffectualness, and is often seen as the bumbling sidekick to the much more dangerous Adolf Hitler. And while that certainly isn't exactly wrong, it also focuses on those last years when everything got away from him. His early life, presented here,...

Once the business of taking power in Italy was completed, the Fascists began to turn inward. Mussolini starts to distance himself from the old guard Fascists, the businessmen of the country successfully defend their economic privileges in exchange for their support, and even the Catholic Church comes around. Plus I cover a grab-bag of Italy's foreign adventures in this period.    Bibliography for...

After the March on Rome, Mussolini found himself in charge as Prime Minister, but the Fascists were still a minority party. But now that any viable opposition had demonstrated that they were unwilling to resist him in any meaningful way, he began the work of breaking apart Liberal Italy and bending the political system to his will.    Bibliography for this episode:  Bosworth, RJB Mussolini's Italy...

Just when it looked like Fascism in Italy was going to be a non-starter, they decide to change the rules. Instead of being a strictly political party the Fascists begin to double-down on political violence and sign-on as muscle for business owners threatened by populist activity. With the official stance of the government being to wait the crisis out, Mussolini makes the most of his opportunity to...

The Socialists are riding a high, the Liberals are getting worried, and the Fascists are trying to find their niche in today's episode. Join me as I get into the strife within Italy after the unsatisfying conclusion to WWI. Long story short, the establishment didn't have the answers and it became a race to see which populist would win over the nation.    Bibliography for this episode:  Bosworth, R...

On today's episode we'll be covering Italy's experience in WWI and the political aftermath of the war years. Italy's military history in the twentieth century gets treated as kind of a joke, but there were very real consequences to all the disasters, which helped set the stage for Fascism to take root. The experience also caused an upsurge in populist politics in general, something the Italian eli...

On today's episode I get started on the miniseries covering Italy up to the Great Depression. The bulk of the first part of this show will be establishing context for each nation, and how they came to make the critical decisions that led to so much fighting later. There are a lot of reasons to cover why democracy in Italy failed and Fascism was able to take root here before anywhere else. Today I'...

This week's episode is a little change of pace from the last two, as before I get going into the histories of individual countries, I need to provide an intro into Fascism. This political ideology is absolutely vital to the period, and is a primary reason why the world turned to war and violence in the 1930s. Despite that importance though, Fascism remains a nebulous system of ideas, and its pract...

Today's episode is the second part to the Paris Peace Conference. In this part the terms of the peace deals are finalized, which alienate Entente allies like Italy and Japan, while infamously aggrieving the Germans to the point where they immediately begin dreaming of tearing this new status quo apart. The old order predating WWI is truly gone with this peace, and the new one will have a difficult...

Today's episode will be the first part of two covering the Paris Peace Conference. Best known for producing the Treaty of Versailles, the Conference was actually responsible for a whole collection of treaties to bring peace to the world. Long story short, it didn't work and we'll be going over the difficulties suffered during the negotiations.     Questions? Comments? Email me at peaceintheirtime@...

Hello and welcome to Peace in Their Time! This is the introductory description to the introductory episode of the podcast. The episode will be laying out the mission statement for the show and a general description of what topics you can expect me to cover.    Episode/Miniseries Index: Season 1: Table-setting and the wasted opportunities of the 1920s 1 - Intro 2-3 - Versailles 4 - Overview of Fasc...