Dan Snow's History Hit

By History Hit Network

History

What's Dan Snow's History Hit about?

History! The most exciting and important things that have ever happened on the planet! Featuring reports from the weird and wonderful places around the world where history has been made and interviews with some of the best historians writing today. Dan also covers some of the major anniversaries as they pass by and explores the deep history behind today's headlines - giving you the context to understand what is going on today. Join the conversation on twitter: @HistoryHit Producer: Natt Tapley "717090"

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Cheddar Man: Science and th...

03.03.2021

Today's episode is from our brilliant sibling podcast The Ancients. Cheddar Man is the oldest almost complete skeleton of a Homo sapien ever found in Britain and, for this fantastic episode, Tristan spoke to the scientist who has drilled a ...

Dan Snow's History Hit episodes:

03.03.2021 Cheddar Man: Science and the Skeleton Today's episode is from our brilliant sibling podcast The Ancients. Cheddar Man is the oldest almost complete skeleton of a Homo sapien ever found in Britain and, for this fantastic episode, Tristan spoke to the scientist who has drilled a ...
03.02.2021 French Resistance Heroine Heading to the Oscars Joining me on the podcast today are Alice Doyard and Anthony Giacchino to discuss their film Colette: The french resistance fighter confronting fascism which has been shortlisted for the Oscars 2021 in the Documentary Short category. The documentary tells the ...
03.01.2021 Queens of Jerusalem In today's episode of the podcast, I am joined by Katherine Pangonis a historian specialising in the medieval world of the Mediterranean and Middle East. She has recently written a fantastic book about the powerful women who dared to rule ...
02.28.2021 The Gulf War: 30 Years On On this day thirty years ago a ceasefire was declared bringing ground operations in the first Gulf War to an end. An overwhelmingly powerful coalition force had stormed across the desert driving Saddam Hussein's forces out of Kuwait and concluding ...
02.27.2021 The War Widow: Women of World War Two Today's episode is from our brilliant sibling podcast, The World Wars. Author, presenter and human right advocate Tara Moss joins James to discuss the role of women during and after the Second World War associeties across the world struggled under ...
02.26.2021 Lockdown Learning: The 19th Century Medical Revolution The 19th century saw the world in the grip of the industrial revolution, a firepower revolution on the battlefield and a communications revolution with the telegram. But there was another revolution happening at the same time; the medical revolution. This ...
02.25.2021 The Doolittle Raid Today, we're talking about one of the great stories of American military history; The Doolittle Raid. In 1942 after the humiliation assault on Pearl Harbour and determined to show that America still had offensive capabilities the charismatic figure of James ...
02.24.2021 Anti-government Violence in America Leah Sottile joins me today to talk all about domestic terrorism and anti-government groups in the USA. In particular, we talk about the armed standoff between law enforcement and a group of ranchers led by Cliven Bundy in 2014 over ...
02.23.2021 Remembering the Alamo with W. F. Strong In this episode taken from our archive, I headed out to Texas in 2016 to discuss the Battle of the Alamo and what its legacy means for modern Texas. I met with W. F. Strong, a famed historian of Texas, ...
02.22.2021 John of Gaunt: THE Royal Ancestor Helen Carr joins me today to discuss John of Gaunt: son of Edward III, younger brother to the Black Prince, uncle of Richard II and father of Henry IV. Not only was he the key intersecting ancestor around which the ...
02.21.2021 In Conversation with David Baddiel In this episode taken from our archive, David Baddiel talks to Dan about the Second World War, Trump's Mussolini-isms, and why Jim Callaghan makes comedy difficult. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
02.20.2021 Brexit History Showdown with Robert Tombs Five years after the announcement of the Brexit referendum I am joined on the podcast by Robert Tombs, author of The Sovereign Isle: Britain In and Out of Europe, for a Brexit history showdown. In this thought-provoking conversation Robert, a ...
02.19.2021 Vikings: River Kings Today, I am joined by Cat Jarman bio-archaeologist and author of a new book all about how the Vikings spread east, often utilising the rivers of central and Eastern Europe, all the way into central Asia. These travels enabled them ...
02.18.2021 Frostquake In the winter of 1962-63, the UK experienced a different kind of lockdown as freezing temperatures and ten weeks of snow kept people trapped at home in one of the coldest winters on record. Today, I'm joined by Juliet Nicolson ...
02.17.2021 Besieging Masada Dramatically placed on a plateau with drops of 400m to the east and 90m to the west, Masada translates from Hebrew as fortress. It became just that when Herod the Great built a magnificent palace complex upon it between 37 ...
02.16.2021 Love Lives: From Cinderella to Frozen We cover all the big topics on the podcast including weapons of mass destruction, climate change, great power rivalry and the struggle for democracy and many others, but today's podcast is all about the biggest subject of them all. Love. ...
02.15.2021 Hitler and Stalin I am joined by Laurence Rees, the best selling author, who has met more people that had direct contact with both Hitler and Stalin than any other historian. In this episode, we delve into the differences and similarities of these ...
02.14.2021 Fallout: The Secret History of Nuclear Testing How do you test a weapon of mass destruction? A weapon whose potential you can only estimate. Since 1945, countries with nuclear capabilities have been coming up with solutions to this problem, but they are not without pitfalls. Traces of ...
02.13.2021 Living Through the Dresden Firebombing with Victor Gregg Victor Gregg is a veteran of World War Two and the Dresden Bombings, and travelled with Dan to visit Dresden a couple of years ago for a documentary. In this episode, taken from our archive, Victor talks about what it ...
02.12.2021 Lockdown Learning: The Rise of USA For Lockdown Learning this week I am joined by Dr Fabian Hilfrich, head of American History at Edinburgh University. He takes us through from the late 19th Century to the beginning of the 20th century when America rose to challenge ...
02.11.2021 The 18th Century Precedent for Trump's Impeachment As the impeachment trial of Donald Trump got underway in the USA the 18th-century case of Warren Hastings, the former Governor-General of Bengal was cited as a precedent for someone being impeached after they had left office. But what happened ...
02.10.2021 Empire with Sathnam Sanghera Journalist and author Sathnam Sanghera joins me on the podcast to talk about his latest book Empireland which examines how much of what we think of as Britain and British is owed to our imperial past. We compare notes on ...
02.09.2021 Historical Novels with Ken Follett Today, I am joined by best-selling author Ken Follett to discuss his latest book The Evening and the Morning. We also talk about his love of history and the historical research involved with writing one of his novels, his method ...
02.08.2021 China 1949: Year of Revolution In 1949 Mao Zedong led the Chinese Communist Party to victory in the long and bloody Chinese Civil War. The impact of this victory was felt not just within China itself, but globally throughout the Cold War and into the ...
02.07.2021 Sutton Hoo The release of The Dig has brought the story of the Sutton Hoo dig to the forefront of people’s minds of late. The real hero of that story though is not the people involved but rather the stunning archaeology discovered ...
02.06.2021 Emily Davison with Kate Willoughby In this episode, originally released in 2018, Dan talks to actor, activist, and "part-time suffragette" Kate Willoughby about Emily Davison, the centenary of the Representation of the People Act, and what still needs to be done. See acast.com/privacy for privacy ...
02.05.2021 Lockdown Learning: Interwar Europe For this episode of Lockdown Learning Professor Richard Toye joined me on the podcast to talk about the interwar period and answer the key questions of what caused the Second World War. We spoke about why the Treaty of Versailles ...
02.04.2021 The History of Social Media with Kara Swisher Facebook was founded on the 4th of February 2004 and began as a tool to stay in touch with friends and family, but has ended up being a place where you can plan insurrectionist movements and anti-vax rallies. Today I ...
02.03.2021 The AIDS pandemic In this episode of the podcast, I’m joined by Tash Walker and Adam Zmith, hosts of The Log Books podcast, to discuss the Aids pandemic of the 1980s and 1990s and the lessons that might be drawn for dealing with ...
02.02.2021 Edges of Empire: Rome's Northernmost Town Roughly two miles south of Hadrian’s Wall lie the remains of Roman Corbridge, the northernmost town of the Roman Empire. The site’s archaeology is unique. The remains highlight what was once a bustling town. As its centre was the high ...
02.01.2021 How the Establishment Resisted the Abolition of Slavery Historian Michael Taylor joined me on the podcast to discuss the resistance of the British establishment to the ending of the slave trade. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
01.31.2021 Elvis: Destined to Die Young Sally Hoedel joined me on the podcast to talk about the turbulent life and career of Elvis Presley, King of Rock ‘n’ Roll. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
01.30.2021 Persecuted Under the Nazis: Black and Roma Peoples For International Holocaust Memorial Day 2021, James spoke to Professor Eve Rosenhaft about the experiences of Black and Roma peoples during the Third Reich. Eve is a historian at the University of Liverpool. She has been looking into how the ...
01.29.2021 Lockdown Learning: Russian Revolution Helen Rappaport, a specialist in Russian history, joined me on the podcast for the third episode of our lockdown learning series to talk about the Russian Revolution. We run through some key moments in the fall of the Romanovs. Many ...
01.28.2021 Pirates Rebecca Simon joined me on the podcast to talk about the Golden Age of Piracy within the British-Atlantic world. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
01.27.2021 Survivors of Genocide For Holocaust Memorial Day Dan talks to people who have experienced and survived genocide. Four guests from four different parts of the world. Sophie Masereka, Ruth Barnett, Kemal Pervanic, Sokphal Din all share their traumatic experiences. All of them lost ...
01.26.2021 How the Irish Shaped Britain with Fergal Keane Fergal Keane joined me on the podcast to talk about the profound influence the Irish have had on Britain over many centuries. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
01.25.2021 Liberalism with Ian Dunt In this episode, I was joined by journalist Ian Dunt, a well known a commentator on politics and on Brexit. Ian is host of the 'Oh God What Now' podcast and editor of politics.co.uk. We discuss his recent book which ...
01.24.2021 Cold War Submarine Warrior Eric Thompson has had his finger literally on the nuclear button. He joined the Royal Navy submarine service in the early days of the Cold War. He served on WW2 era ships and submarine before ending his career as a ...
01.23.2021 Lucy Worsley on Queen Victoria BAFTA winning historian and Joint Chief Curator of Historic Royal Palaces Lucy Worsley takes Dan on a tour of Kensington Palace, one of the principle royal residences since 1689, and the childhood home of Queen Victoria. See acast.com/privacy for privacy ...
01.22.2021 Lockdown Learning: The Middle Ages In this week's Lockdown Learning episode, I was delighted to be joined by medieval historian Marc Morris. We discuss broad themes relating to the Middle Ages - what were they and which periods did they come in between. We ask ...
01.21.2021 Rediscovering Amazon Civilisations Ella Al-Shamahi, explorer, paleoanthropologist, evolutionary biologist and stand-up comic, joined me on the podcast to talk about Amazon Civilisations. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
01.20.2021 Marissa Roth, Photojournalist Marissa Roth, Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist, joins me on the podcast to talk about her pictures of the 1992 LA riots and lifetime of war photography, especially dealing with women in war. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
01.19.2021 Indonesian Cave Art: A Dramatic New Discovery It’s a paradox for the ages, breaking news about people who lived and died thousands of years ago. This discovery is no different, because Adam Brumm and his team in Sulawesi have released their discovery of the oldest known art. ...
01.18.2021 The Second Reich On 18 January 1871 as the Siege of Paris raged a couple of miles away King Wilhelm I of Prussia was proclaimed Emperor of the German empire in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles. It was the ...
01.17.2021 Impeaching the President He's made history. Donald Trump has become the only President in US history to be impeached not once but twice. Three years ago Dan talked to Joshua Matz, an attorney and constitutional scholar in Washington DC and author of "To ...
01.16.2021 Toxic: A History of Nerve Agents In 2018, the British city of Salisbury crashed into newspaper headlines worldwide when former Russian military officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, were poisoned with nerve agents there. This was the first time that many people had heard of ...
01.15.2021 Lockdown Learning: The Tudors We're very pleased to bring you this special 'Lockdown Learning' episode of the podcast, featuring the brilliant Dr Anna Whitelock on the Tudor period. Anna is Director of the London Centre for Public History and Heritage and head of history ...
01.14.2021 Treason in America Constitutional law and legal history scholar Carlton Larson talked to Dan during Christmas about treason in the American legal system. How is it defined in the US constitution and how has it been used by prosecutors over the centuries? The ...
01.13.2021 LGBTQ+ History: With the team from the Logbooks Podcast Tash Walker and Adam Zmith join me to talk about The Log Books Podcast, a history of LGBTQ+ life in the UK. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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