Explaining History

By the mid to late 1960s the Republican Party had found a series of wedge issues that combined to break three decades of Democrat power by 1968. Richard Nixon implemented the Southern Strategy, a direct appeal to working class white voters in the South who were resentful about the social advances made by black Americans throughout the decade. This podcast explores this struggle in the context of the New Deal era.

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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.

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It's my mission in 2025 to unpack ideologies and navigate their complex fluid nature, contradictions, theorists and explanations of the world. In January we're starting with anarchism and this is the first part of a series of podcasts exploring what exactly anarchism is and what anarchists believe.

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:

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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.

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During the Cold War a range of liberal and left intellectuals looked at the new technologies born of the Second World War and its aftermath with mounting concern and alarm. Figures like Herbert Marcuse and Theodore Adorno of the Frankfurt School and the Philosopher Martin Heidegger reacted to the destructive power of the atomic bomb and the cultural power of the mass media with fear and pessimism and believed that the world was sleepwalking into catastrophe. In this episode of the Explaining History podcast we speak with Dr Caroline Ashworth of Oxford University about her new book Catastrophic Technology in Cold War Political Thought.

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:

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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.

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Website: explaininghistory.org

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The most significant European fascist since Franco, Jean Marie Le Pen, died this week aged 96. This podcast explores the context of the rise of Le Front Nationale, and explores his role within it. Part two will examine how Le Pen used the failings of Mitterand's government in the 1980s to his advantage.

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:

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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.

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Become a Patron: patreon.com/explaininghistory

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Website: explaininghistory.org

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In 1988 Mikhail Gorbachev visited the USA on a state visit and experienced celebrity treatment in Times Square in New York as he came to visit the new president elect George H.W. Bush. This episode explores this fateful visit and as the Soviet Union crumbled from within and Gorbachev's formative years and career in the Communist Party its machinery.

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:

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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.

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Become a Patron: patreon.com/explaininghistory

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Website: explaininghistory.org

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Continuing our Approaches to history series, here are some thoughts on the construction of historical memory.

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:

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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.

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In late 1942 the battle for Stalingrad consumed Nazi Germany's sixth army and both German and Soviet war correspondents attempted to give a picture of the horror and brutality. Western war reporters were unable to reach the battle until it had finished and were escorted through the ruins.

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:

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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

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Facebook Group: facebook.com/groups/ExplainingHistoryPodcast

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Website: explaininghistory.org

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At the end of the Second World War, European capitalism had been comprehensively devastated by the conflict and America seized an opportunity to rebuild the world economic order in its interests and that of the wider international capitalist class. In today's podcast we explore The Making of Global Capitalism by Leo Panitch and Sam Gindin.

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:

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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

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Facebook Group: facebook.com/groups/ExplainingHistoryPodcast

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Website: explaininghistory.org

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Donald Trump is about to introduce the largest concentration of billionaires in history into his cabinet, but this is simply the continuation of a long established oligarchic trend in the White House.

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:

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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.

The Battle of Stalingrad was the greatest German defeat of the war, consuming the entire German 6th Army and dealing a catastrophic blow to German morale on the home front as the illusion of a possible victory vanished for millions of German civilians. This is the third of a series of Christmas podcasts on the siege and its bloody aftermath:

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:

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You can support the podcast via Patreon here

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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.