Dan Snow's History Hit

In 1945, when Congress began reviewing the record of the most conspicuous acts of courage by American soldiers during WWII, they recommended awarding the Medal of Honour to 432 recipients. Despite the fact that more than one million African-Americans served, not a single black soldier received the Medal of Honour.

Rob Child is an Emmy-nominated screenwriter, director and published author. Allene Carter is the daughter-in-law of Edward Allen Carter Jr., an Army sergeant who exhibited heroism on the battlefield. Rob and Allene join Dan on the podcast to share why the seven African American soldiers had been denied recognition for 50 years and the remarkable story of how they were ultimately awarded the prestigious military decoration.

Produced by Hannah Ward

Mixed and Mastered by Dougal Patmore

If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today! To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple store.

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In a time of grave uncertainty about the future of our planet, the radical potential of democracy is more important than ever.

From its beginnings in Syria-Mesopotamia – and not Athens – to its role in fomenting revolutionary fervour in France and America, democracy has subverted fixed ways of deciding who should enjoy power and privilege, and why. Democracy encourages people to do something radical: to come together as equals, to determine their own lives and futures.

In this vigorous, illuminating history, acclaimed political thinker John Keane traces its Byzantine history, from the age of assembly democracy in Athens, to European-inspired electoral democracy and the birth of representative government, to our age of monitory democracy. He gives new reasons why democracy is a precious global ideal and shows that as the world has come to be shaped by democracy, it has grown more worldly – American-style liberal democracy is giving way to regional varieties with a local character in places such as Taiwan, India, Senegal and South Africa.

In an age of cascading crises, we need the radical potential of democracy more than ever. Does it have a future, or will the demagogues and despots win? We are about to find out.

Produced by Hannah Ward

Mixed and Mastered by Dougal Patmore

If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today! To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple store.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A cup of coffee was once a luxury. Now it is quick, cheap and widely available — a daily essential for many.

How did this happen? Today on Patented, Jonathan Morris walks us through the evolution of coffee: from how people first figured out its psychoactive properties, to the transformations in roasting, processing and preparation that resulted in a coffee shop on every high street.

Listen to the History of Coffee podcast here.

Find Jonathan's book, Coffee: A Global History here.

This episode was produced by Emily Whalley

The senior producer is Charlotte Long

Edited and mixed by Seyi Adaobi

If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today! To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple store.

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It's been an extraordinary day in British politics with dozens of Conservative MPs handing in their resignations and expressing a lack of confidence in Prime Minister Boris Johnson. It feels like this could be the end of his premiership. Johnson has clung to power despite scandal after scandal, including allegations of financial misconduct, risking national security and lying to parliament. Anyone else would have resigned or been ousted by now. How has Boris Johnson managed to stay in office?

Dan is down at Westminster after an explosive Prime Minister's Questions. With analysis from Labor MP and historian Chris Bryant, former Tory politician and diplomat Rory Stewart and Professor of Politics at Queen Mary University, Tim Bale, Dan looks to history for insight into the parliamentary system, how political conduct has changed over the last century and how we ended up here. 

Produced by Mariana Des Forges and Hannah Ward

Mixed and Mastered by Dougal Patmore

If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today! To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple store.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

During the War of 1812, the last time Britain and the United States went to war with each other, more than six thousand American sailors ended up in Dartmoor Prison. At the end of the war, prisoners remained behind Dartmoor’s walls for months after peace had been ratified. The prisoners’ fury at their continued incarceration led to an uprising on April 6, 1815, and then to a massacre: nine Americans were shot dead, the last men to be killed in a war between the two countries.

Nick Guyatt is a historian, author and lecturer in modern history. Nick joins Dan on the podcast to discuss the extraordinary story of what happened at Dartmoor during the War of 1812, what really took place in the prison, and how the tragedy created a brief and fiery outrage in the United States but then slipped from view.

Produced by Hannah Ward

Mixed and Mastered by Dougal Patmore

If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today! To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple store.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Born Malcolm Little in 1925, Malcolm X would become human rights activist— a prominent African American minister and figure during the civil rights movement. As a spokesman for the Nation of Islam until 1964, Malcolm X was a vocal advocate for Black empowerment, Black nationalism and the promotion of Islam within the Black community. After Malcolm X’s assassination in 1965, his posthumous autobiography popularised his ideas of Black pride, Black dignity and the importance of political activism.

Peniel E. Joseph is an American scholar, teacher, and public voice on race issues. Professor Joseph joins Dan on the podcast to discuss Malcolm X’s leadership of the Nation of Islam, comparisons made to Dr King, and his crucial legacy in the fight for social justice and equality.

Produced by Hannah Ward

Mixed and Mastered by Dougal Patmore

If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today! To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple store.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore and a Scotsman, dropped in the middle of a forgotten spot in the Caribbean by providence impoverished in squalor, grow up to be a hero and a scholar?

This is the famous question posed by Lin Manuel Miranda in his smash-hit Broadway show Hamilton that's swept the globe. It's a celebration and looks into the life of the once lesser-known founding fathers, instrumental in the creation of the United States in the late 18th Century. To mark American Independence Day celebrations, Senior Lecturer of American Studies at the University of Manchester Dr Natalie Zacek joins Dan to break down Alexander Hamilton's life, role in the American Revolutionary War and whether he really was as important as Miranda's play makes him out to be.

Produced by Mariana Des Forges & Hannah Ward

Mixed and Mastered by Dougal Patmore

If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today! To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple store.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the dying days of the eighth century, the Vikings erupted onto the international stage with brutal raids and slaughter. The medieval Norsemen may be best remembered as monk murderers and village pillagers, but this is far from the whole story. Throughout the Middle Ages, long-ships transported hairy northern voyagers far and wide, where they not only raided but also traded, explored and settled new lands, encountered unfamiliar races, and embarked on pilgrimages and crusades.

In this episode recorded at the 2022 Chalke Valley History Festival, Dr Eleanor Barraclough joins Dan to talk about all things Viking- from the old sagas that tell exotic wonder-tales of Norse life to the recent archaeological discoveries that are now challenging our understanding of these far travelling people.

You can learn more in Dr Barraclough's new book 'Beyond the Northlands: Viking Voyages and the Old Norse Sagas'. 

Produced by Mariana Des Forges

Mixed and Mastered by Dougal Patmore 

If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today! To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple store.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Alexander the Great’s untimely death at Babylon in 323 BC triggered an unprecedented crisis across his continent-spanning empire.

Within a couple of days, the very chamber in which he died witnessed a gore-soaked showdown between his previously united commanders and soldiers. Within a fortnight, Babylon saw the first siege of the post-Alexander age.

In this special explainer episode to mark the anniversary of Alexander’s death, Tristan brings to life the imperial implosion that was the immediate aftermath of the Macedonian king's death - a subject he knows one or two things about, seeing as he’s written a book on it!

Tristan’s book The Perdiccas Years, 323-320 BC (Alexander's Successors at War) is available on Amazon here.

This episode was produced by Elena Guthrie and mixed by Aidan Lonergan. It contains translations of contemporary speeches by JC Yardsley & music from Epidemic Sound.

If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today! To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple store.

Further Reading - Primary Sources

Arrian Events After Alexander 1.1–1.9A.

Curtius 10.5–10.10.

Diodorus Siculus 18.1–18.6.

Justin 13.1–13.4.

Plutarch Life of Eumenes 3.

Secondary Sources

Anson, E. (1992), ‘Craterus and the Prostasia’, Classical Philology 87 (1), 38–43.

Anson, E. (2015), Eumenes of Cardia, Leiden, 58–77.

Bosworth, A. B. (2002), The Legacy of Alexander: Politics, Warfare, and Propaganda under the Successors, New York, 29–63.

Errington, R. M. (1970), ‘From Babylon to Triparadeisos: 323–320 bc’, The Journal of Hellenic Studies 90, 49–59.

Meeus, A. (2008), ‘The Power Struggle of the Diadochoi in Babylon, 323bc’, Ancient Society 38, 39–82.

Meeus, A. (2009), ‘Some Institutional Problems concerning the Succession to Alexander the Great: “Prostasia” and Chiliarchy’, Historia 58 (3), 287–310.

Mitchell, L. (2007), ‘Born to Rule? Succession in the Argead Royal House’, in W. Heckel., L. Tritle and P. Wheatley (eds.), Alexander’s Empire: Formulation to Decay, California, 61–74.

Worthington, I. (2016), Ptolemy I: King and Pharaoh of Egypt, New York, 71–86

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In April 1944 nineteen-year-old Rudolf Vrba and fellow inmate, Fred Wetzler broke out of Auschwitz. Under electrified fences and past armed watchtowers, evading thousands of SS men and slavering dogs, they trekked across marshlands, mountains and rivers to freedom. Vrba's mission: to reveal to the world the truth of the Holocaust.

Celebrated journalist and broadcaster Jonathan Freedland joins Dan on the podcast to tell this astonishing story which can be found in his new book 'The Escape Artist'.

This episode does contain descriptions that some listeners may find distressing.

Produced by Mariana Des Forges

Mixed and Mastered by Dougal Patmore

If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today! To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple store.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.