Explaining History

Explaining History

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Explaining History episodes

  • The plot against Harold Wilson - 1967

    In the late 1960s the British secret state, bankers, right wing newspaper and TV proprietors and other elite figures sought to remove Prime Minister Harold Wilson from power. They were indifferent to the fact that he had won two general elections in a row and thought that a government that included unelected business figures would save the nation from the economic crisis they predicted.




    *****STOP PRESS*****


    I only ever talk about history on this podcast but I also have another life, yes, that of aspirant fantasy author and if that's your thing you can get a copy of my debut novel The Blood of Tharta, right here:




    Help the podcast to continue bringing you history each week


    If you enjoy the Explaining History podcast and its many years of content and would like to help the show continue, please consider supporting it in the following ways:


    If you want to go ad-free, you can take out a membership here


    Or


    You can support the podcast via Patreon here


    Or you can just say some nice things about it here

    Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share.

    ▸ Support the Show & Get Exclusive Content

    Become a Patron: patreon.com/explaininghistory

    ▸ Join the Community & Continue the Conversation

    Facebook Group: facebook.com/groups/ExplainingHistoryPodcast

    Substack: theexplaininghistorypodcast.substack.com

    ▸ Read Articles & Go Deeper

    Website: explaininghistory.org


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

    34 min
  • Carter, Reagan, Bush and China

    From the late 1970s onwards China and the USSR were on two very different historical paths and three US presidents, Carter, Reagan and Bush sought to harness the potential of the world's most populous country as it rapidly became wealthier. China, often cited as having embraced capitalism after Mao, abandoned inward looking autarchy and opened its economy up in the 1980s to foreign trade and investment. In the 1990s and 2000s there would be an explosion of offshoring that has partially created the historical crises America is experiencing now.


    *****STOP PRESS*****


    I only ever talk about history on this podcast but I also have another life, yes, that of aspirant fantasy author and if that's your thing you can get a copy of my debut novel The Blood of Tharta, right here:




    Help the podcast to continue bringing you history each week


    If you enjoy the Explaining History podcast and its many years of content and would like to help the show continue, please consider supporting it in the following ways:


    If you want to go ad-free, you can take out a membership here


    Or


    You can support the podcast via Patreon here


    Or you can just say some nice things about it here

    Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share.

    ▸ Support the Show & Get Exclusive Content

    Become a Patron: patreon.com/explaininghistory

    ▸ Join the Community & Continue the Conversation

    Facebook Group: facebook.com/groups/ExplainingHistoryPodcast

    Substack: theexplaininghistorypodcast.substack.com

    ▸ Read Articles & Go Deeper

    Website: explaininghistory.org


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

    28 min
  • Maoism and Anti Imperialism

    Mao's ideas presented a clear challenge to western imperialism throughout the 20th Century and became a rallying cry to national liberation movements and anti imperialist groups wiithin western countries from the Baader Meinhof Gang to the Yippees.



    *****STOP PRESS*****


    I only ever talk about history on this podcast but I also have another life, yes, that of aspirant fantasy author and if that's your thing you can get a copy of my debut novel The Blood of Tharta, right here:



    Help the podcast to continue bringing you history each week


    If you enjoy the Explaining History podcast and its many years of content and would like to help the show continue, please consider supporting it in the following ways:


    If you want to go ad-free, you can take out a membership here


    Or


    You can support the podcast via Patreon here


    Or you can just say some nice things about it here

    Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share.

    ▸ Support the Show & Get Exclusive Content

    Become a Patron: patreon.com/explaininghistory

    ▸ Join the Community & Continue the Conversation

    Facebook Group: facebook.com/groups/ExplainingHistoryPodcast

    Substack: theexplaininghistorypodcast.substack.com

    ▸ Read Articles & Go Deeper

    Website: explaininghistory.org


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

    25 min
  • Britain's Broken Media
    In the past two decades successive scandals have revealed that Britain has some of the worst media institutions in the developed world. The ability of ordinary people to interpret the news, use accurate information to hold politicians to account or to gain a coherent sense of the world has arguably never been weaker. In his new book Breaking: Breaking: How the Media Works, When it Doesn't and Why it Matters, Mic Wright sets out a coherent explanation of this key democratic failing in the UK (as well as analysing aspects of the US media too). Mic took some time to discuss the book and the various crises in the British media ecosystem.






    *****STOP PRESS*****


    I only ever talk about history on this podcast but I also have another life, yes, that of aspirant fantasy author and if that's your thing you can get a copy of my debut novel The Blood of Tharta, right here:




    Help the podcast to continue bringing you history each week


    If you enjoy the Explaining History podcast and its many years of content and would like to help the show continue, please consider supporting it in the following ways:


    If you want to go ad-free, you can take out a membership here


    Or


    You can support the podcast via Patreon here


    Or you can just say some nice things about it here

    Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share.

    ▸ Support the Show & Get Exclusive Content

    Become a Patron: patreon.com/explaininghistory

    ▸ Join the Community & Continue the Conversation

    Facebook Group: facebook.com/groups/ExplainingHistoryPodcast

    Substack: theexplaininghistorypodcast.substack.com

    ▸ Read Articles & Go Deeper

    Website: explaininghistory.org


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

    37 min
  • Gaza Update

    Britain, France, Canada and other western governments have today issued a statement decrying the blockade of Gaza after nearly two years of offering unconditional support to Israel.This follows weeks of increasingly critical headlines in newspapers and magazines that are traditionally staunch supporters of the Zionist state. What does this suggest? Some major transition in support for Israel and its crimes is clearly happening and here we explore why this might be.






    *****STOP PRESS*****


    I only ever talk about history on this podcast but I also have another life, yes, that of aspirant fantasy author and if that's your thing you can get a copy of my debut novel The Blood of Tharta, right here:



    Help the podcast to continue bringing you history each week


    If you enjoy the Explaining History podcast and its many years of content and would like to help the show continue, please consider supporting it in the following ways:


    If you want to go ad-free, you can take out a membership here


    Or


    You can support the podcast via Patreon here


    Or you can just say some nice things about it here

    Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share.

    ▸ Support the Show & Get Exclusive Content

    Become a Patron: patreon.com/explaininghistory

    ▸ Join the Community & Continue the Conversation

    Facebook Group: facebook.com/groups/ExplainingHistoryPodcast

    Substack: theexplaininghistorypodcast.substack.com

    ▸ Read Articles & Go Deeper

    Website: explaininghistory.org


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

    30 min
  • China after Deng (Part One)

    Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao are often overlooked but pivotal figures in recent Chinese history whose role in steering China through its extraordinary economic transformation in the 1990s and 2000s is overshadowed by Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping. This is the first in a series of podcasts about these two figures and how they created the China now ruled by Xi Jinping.





    *****STOP PRESS*****


    I only ever talk about history on this podcast but I also have another life, yes, that of aspirant fantasy author and if that's your thing you can get a copy of my debut novel The Blood of Tharta, right here:


    Help the podcast to continue bringing you history each week


    If you enjoy the Explaining History podcast and its many years of content and would like to help the show continue, please consider supporting it in the following ways:


    If you want to go ad-free, you can take out a membership here


    Or


    You can support the podcast via Patreon here


    Or you can just say some nice things about it here

    Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share.

    ▸ Support the Show & Get Exclusive Content

    Become a Patron: patreon.com/explaininghistory

    ▸ Join the Community & Continue the Conversation

    Facebook Group: facebook.com/groups/ExplainingHistoryPodcast

    Substack: theexplaininghistorypodcast.substack.com

    ▸ Read Articles & Go Deeper

    Website: explaininghistory.org


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

    26 min
  • Discussing Mark Twain's 'Jim'

    The character of Jim in the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain was written as a condemnation of the Jim Crow regimes that were springing up across the South as the Reconstruction Era slowly came to an end. Twain's Jim was the first Black character in popular American literature that can be thought of as being written in depth and without becoming another racist caricature. The story, set before the civil war, has been the subject of ongoing scholarship and contestation ever since. In this podcast episode, we hear from academic Shelley Fisher Fishkin whose new book Jim: The Afterlives of Huckleberry Finn's Comrade explores the legacy of the character from the late 19th Century through to the Civil Rights era and the Black Lives Matter moment





    *****STOP PRESS*****


    I only ever talk about history on this podcast but I also have another life, yes, that of aspirant fantasy author and if that's your thing you can get a copy of my debut novel The Blood of Tharta, right here:









    Help the podcast to continue bringing you history each week


    If you enjoy the Explaining History podcast and its many years of content and would like to help the show continue, please consider supporting it in the following ways:


    If you want to go ad-free, you can take out a membership here


    Or


    You can support the podcast via Patreon here


    Or you can just say some nice things about it here

    Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share.

    ▸ Support the Show & Get Exclusive Content

    Become a Patron: patreon.com/explaininghistory

    ▸ Join the Community & Continue the Conversation

    Facebook Group: facebook.com/groups/ExplainingHistoryPodcast

    Substack: theexplaininghistorypodcast.substack.com

    ▸ Read Articles & Go Deeper

    Website: explaininghistory.org


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

    36 min
  • Melting Point: Russian Jews and the journey to Texas

    In the decade before the First World War over ten thousand Russian Jews travelled across the Atlantic but instead of alighting in New York, where a large Jewish diaspora community was established, they came to Galveston, Texas. Galveston was not the final destination for most of the new arrivals, many travelled across the USA and settled in its rural and urban centres. In this episode of the Explaining History podcast we speak with author Rachel Cockerell, who traces the story of the Galveston Jews and the activities of her Great Grandfather David Jochelmann, who was the driving force behind the Galveston Movement.




    *****STOP PRESS*****


    I only ever talk about history on this podcast but I also have another life, yes, that of aspirant fantasy author and if that's your thing you can get a copy of my debut novel The Blood of Tharta, right here:








    Help the podcast to continue bringing you history each week


    If you enjoy the Explaining History podcast and its many years of content and would like to help the show continue, please consider supporting it in the following ways:


    If you want to go ad-free, you can take out a membership here


    Or


    You can support the podcast via Patreon here


    Or you can just say some nice things about it here

    Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share.

    ▸ Support the Show & Get Exclusive Content

    Become a Patron: patreon.com/explaininghistory

    ▸ Join the Community & Continue the Conversation

    Facebook Group: facebook.com/groups/ExplainingHistoryPodcast

    Substack: theexplaininghistorypodcast.substack.com

    ▸ Read Articles & Go Deeper

    Website: explaininghistory.org


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

    31 min
  • The Contradictions of Thatcherism

    Margaret Thatcher sought to revive Britain's fortunes during the 1980s, she was a social conservative and a free market fundamentalist; a contradictory set of ideological positions. The liberation of market forces devastated the social structures that Thatcher claimed to uphold, principally the family, which underwent dramatic transformations throughout the decade as individualism, urbanisation, mobility, rising expectations and declining ideas of deference transformed it.


    *****STOP PRESS*****


    I only ever talk about history on this podcast but I also have another life, yes, that of aspirant fantasy author and if that's your thing you can get a copy of my debut novel The Blood of Tharta, right here:



    Help the podcast to continue bringing you history each week


    If you enjoy the Explaining History podcast and its many years of content and would like to help the show continue, please consider supporting it in the following ways:


    If you want to go ad-free, you can take out a membership here


    Or


    You can support the podcast via Patreon here


    Or you can just say some nice things about it here

    Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share.

    ▸ Support the Show & Get Exclusive Content

    Become a Patron: patreon.com/explaininghistory

    ▸ Join the Community & Continue the Conversation

    Facebook Group: facebook.com/groups/ExplainingHistoryPodcast

    Substack: theexplaininghistorypodcast.substack.com

    ▸ Read Articles & Go Deeper

    Website: explaininghistory.org


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

    26 min
  • Trump's tariff capitulation

    In a hundred years time will China offshore its manufacturing to poorer countries? Not if it has any sense. Today Trump's great retreat from the tariff war began in earnest as some cold economic realities have begun to bite, but what is the historical long view here? This episode explores how offshoring and America's weakening dollar supremacy, combined with the ownership of nearly $2 trillion of debt by China and Japan place America in an economic position it has never experienced in its nearly 250 year existence. The Chinese Century arrived and it started this year.


    *****STOP PRESS*****


    I only ever talk about history on this podcast but I also have another life, yes, that of aspirant fantasy author and if that's your thing you can get a copy of my debut novel The Blood of Tharta, right here:







    Help the podcast to continue bringing you history each week


    If you enjoy the Explaining History podcast and its many years of content and would like to help the show continue, please consider supporting it in the following ways:


    If you want to go ad-free, you can take out a membership here


    Or


    You can support the podcast via Patreon here


    Or you can just say some nice things about it here

    Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share.

    ▸ Support the Show & Get Exclusive Content

    Become a Patron: patreon.com/explaininghistory

    ▸ Join the Community & Continue the Conversation

    Facebook Group: facebook.com/groups/ExplainingHistoryPodcast

    Substack: theexplaininghistorypodcast.substack.com

    ▸ Read Articles & Go Deeper

    Website: explaininghistory.org


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

    27 min

About Explaining History

From the publisher's feed

How do we make sense of the modern world? We find the answers in the history of the 20th Century.


For over a decade, The Explaining History Podcast has been the guide for…

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