The GCSE History Revision Podcast

The Chartists were a huge political movement, able to mobilise a lot of public support; born out of unhappiness with the Great Reform Act, their demands were simple and clearly designed to improve the representation of the working class in Parliament. But the movement collapsed by the 1850s, ending in abject failure. Or did it...?

What was the problem with elections in the 1800s? How did a meeting at St Peter's Field lead to the Great Reform Act? And how Great was it anyway? This is background to the Chartist movement which will be covered in the next episode. 

After the Civil Wars, the question of who ruled - Parliament or the King - was settled. The next phase of power shifting to the people would be about who was represented in Parliament. The first skirmish of this fight would be a war across the sea, when colonists declared that there should be no representation without taxation and, in their Declaration of Independence, wrote down some self-evident...

In our final episode of the class of 2018, we talk through with an AQA Lead Examiner how to answer each of the questions on the new paper.  For the last time, 2018 - good luck in your exams!   Good-BYEEEEE-EEEEEEE. 

England is at war with itself; the King versus Parliament. This confilct gave rise to new radical politics which would inform the rest of British political history. But not only that - hovering in the background is the biggest unanswered question of all - what do you do with the King?   Probably the most important turning point in the development of Power and the People is covered in this episode....

In August 1642 King Charles I raised his standard at Nottingham, declaring war on his own Parliament. The most serious challenge to royal authority in English history was about to begin - British history, actually, as the mid-1600s saw war engulf the three kingdoms of the British isles. How did it come to this? In this episode we talk through the steps to 1642 and what brought Parliament and the K...

Henry VIII had to deal with the challenge to his authority, but how? This episode wraps up the events of 1536 and looks at the impact it had for the people who rebelled, Henry and Thomas Cromwell.

In 1536 Henry VIII faced the most serious challenge to his power - the most serious challenge to any monarch since 1381. Why did nobles, commons and peasants alike join together to rise up against the Tudor king?

This is the second of the two episodes on the Peasants' Revolt; here we discuss the events and consequences of the revolt. We also discuss the differing interpretations of the revolt depending on the different point of view of different historians.

This is another episode for the Power and the People Theme Study. In the summer of 1381, peasants from the south east of England rampaged through towns and cities. They murdered merchants and tax collectors and even the Archbishop of Canterbury. What caused this sudden outburst of violence? This episode looks at the social, politcial and economic causes of the revolt while the next one looks at th...

How important was Simon de Montfort and what was the significance of his Parliament? This episode looks at the next major challenge to royal authority after Magna Carta and considers whether Simon de Monfort's meeting deserves the title of 'The First Parliament'.

Welcome to the second episode on Magna Carta with a new microphone cable. In this episode we cover the key clauses of the Great Charter and why they matter today.

Apologies for the sound quality on this episode - the microphone cable was damaged and I didn't have a spare. This is the first episode of the Power to the People Theme Study and it looks at where it all began: in 1215 witrh the document held by some to be the cornerstone of all modern democracy - the Magna Carta. But why did the Magna Carta come about?

Cathedrals were an important part of the organisation and structure of the Church, and Durham Cathedral was the one that established the pattern for all other Norman Cathedrals. This episode will prepare you for the 16-mark Historic Site question on Paper 2.

1066 is seen as a cataclysmic event, a moment that changed England forever: but how much actually changed for the peasant in the field? This summary episode looks at all the aspects of Norman England we've discussed so far and considers how life chnaged in the Norman period and, perhaps more importantly, for who.

The Domesday book paints a picture of the grown of towns in the Norman period; over 200 hundred of them in the reign of William alone. Why did towns grow - and perhaps more importantly, how did they grow?

In the final episode for the Class of 2017, we run through how to answer each of the questions on both of the AQA GCSE History B papers. So for us on Paper 1 that's: Origins of WW1 Peacemaking and the League of Nations Hitler's Foreign policy, Appeasement and the Origins of WW2   and, on Paper 2; USA in the 1920s Germany 1933-45 Vietnam 1954-75 For the last time - and we really do mean it: Thank y...

The USA lost. One of the two great superpowers lost. It can be argued that America never got over their defeat in Vietnam. So why did they leeave?   In this episode we consider the factors that led towards Nixon claiming that they had peace with honour while the world watched the last chopper flee from the American Embassy in Saigon, leaving screaming crowd to their fate.   This is the last episod...

How the VC won is a slightly different question: but why didn't the USA win? The strongest natio on earth faced some particular problems in the Vietnam War. What were they?

As a general rule the USA solves problems by throwing money and technology at them. But this did not work in Vietnam. Why?   In this essay style episode, we discuss which of the two sides in the war had the most effective tactics.

Why did the USA even get involved in Vietnam? It's thousands of miles away and, at first glance, of no strategic value. The answer lies in the background to the Cold War and some fairly tangled geo-politics and economics. Have a listen to this episode and decide for yourself - which was the main reason the Americans got involved in a land war in South east Asia?

Even leaving aside the apparatus of the police state, Nazi control of Germany must have depended to some extent on the support of the German People. So why did people support the Nazi regime? The answer, as is also true in the case of Dick Nixon, is simple: follow the money.

After the Enabling Act and the Emergency Decree, the Nazi party has control of most of the levers of power in the German State. But there was always one other power bloc in Germany: the army. And the army were willing to throw their support behind Hitler and his party - but at a price...

In early 1933, Adolf Hitler was Chancellor of Germany but he had very little, actual power. How did the Nazis sieze control of the German state? That long road started with a fire in the Reichstag.

How did Hitler become Chancellor? One of the most common mistakes people make is thinking that Hitler and the Nazis were elected to power. As you will see in this episode, the truth is rather more complex....