Explaining History

Explaining History

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Explaining History episodes

  • Mao, Deng and the Sino Soviet Split

    By the late 1950s ties between the USSR and China were weakening and there was mutual hostility and suspicion between the two powers. Deng Xiaoping in 1960 was involved in advancing China's role as a key player in the shaping of world communist thought. This podcast examines his role and the crises that shape both regimes.




    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
  • Nazi economic plunder of western Europe and war production crises

    In the aftermath of Germany's stunning victories in 1940, the countries of western Europe were economically exploited by Germany. From the level of individual soldiers who stole and purchased at fire sale cost consumer goods that their families in Germany couldn't possibly afford, all the way to the wholesale expropriation of French, Dutch, Belgian and Scandinavian economies by the Nazi state.



    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
  • Approaches to history Part Five: Empiricism continued

    In this episode we continue to explore the historical practices associated with empiricism, and we're reading from The Houses of History



    • I will be running a livestream Q&A for students on Wednesday November 20th. You can access it here, subscribe to the channel to get your reminder.
    • https://youtube.com/live/knBuNLBD-bU?feature=share (in case the link doesn't work)



    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.

    35 min
  • American Lend Lease to the Soviet Union 1941-42

    In 1941 the USSR was desperate for American war materiel from trucks to tanks to aircraft and grain but the intensity of German submarine and aircraft attacks on convoys sailing to the Soviet Arctic ports meant that in the summer of 1942 they had to temporarily be suspended and re-routed by the Pacific. In the meantime the complex web of diplomacy, suspicion and mistrust between western allies and the USSR had side effects including the further mistreatment of Stalin's Polish prisoners.


    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
  • AQA Revolution and Dictatorship: Russia 1917-53 part 9

    This is part nine of the Explaining History study course based on the AQA A level history module Revolution and Dictatorship: Russia 1917-53.


    In this episode we examine how the Russo-Polish War, the Treaty of Rapallo and the Zinoviev Letter impacted on Russia's post civil war foreign policy.


    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
  • Truman, anti communism and the Marshall Plan

    In 1947 US Secretary of State George Marshall announced that the US government would offer unprecedented assistance to the European countries devastated by war in a bid to prevent the expansion of communism and other extremist politics into western Europe. The fear that countries like France might even fall to the communists after the wave of new communist states emerging across eastern Europe was extremely concerning to US policy makers. The grants offered to Europe, of course, was not born of altruism but of hard headed geopolitical calculation, but it showed how Truman's overseas anti communism differed significantly in tone from the crack down happening at home in the USA.


    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.

    29 min
  • Mao, Deng and the Great Leap Forward

    In 1959 as the process of communalising agriculture and the forced industrialisation of the Great Leap Forward led to catastrophe on an unprecedented scale, Mao was challenged at the Lushan Conference by Peng Duhai, who denounced him in ways the few party members had ever dared. Mao was temporarily marginalised from leadership of the state but not the party and Deng Xiaoping and Lui Shaoqi were the beneficiaries. These events set up Mao's political comeback in the mid 1960s and his vengeance on the party with the Cultural Revolution.


    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
  • Approaches to history Part Four: Empiricism

    This is part four in our weekly exploration of the practices of historians - Approaches to history. We now examine the empiricist approach, based on pure archival research and a faith that the facts in their purest form can bring us the truth.



    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.

    23 min
  • China and the west in the 21st Century

    The western world as we understand it, is over. China's advances in key technologies has reached an inflection point that is historically without precedent, soon western countries will offer access to their markets in return for Chinese technology transfers. Listen to this special Friday analysis report on China and the west.


    This is part seven of the Explaining History study course based on the AQA A level history module Revolution and Dictatorship: Russia 1917-53.


    In this episode we explore the aftermath of the Russian Civil War and the challenges that the Bolshevik Regime faced from within the party, the peasantry and the Kronstadt sailors. We also explore how Lenin's changes to the party functioning enabled the rise of Stalin.



    • Here is today's livestream on Stalin 1928-34
    • https://www.youtube.com/live/1Tz4NgVtx3c?si=i2CjCfysdj3BP325


    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.

    35 min
  • War Reporting in China and the Pacific 1937-41

    Drawing from the classic history of war reporting The First Casualty by Phillip Knightley, we explore the history of news, propaganda and misinformation from the Nanjing Massacre and the battle of Shanghai in 1937-8 to Pearl Harbour in 1941.


    This is part seven of the Explaining History study course based on the AQA A level history module Revolution and Dictatorship: Russia 1917-53.


    In this episode we explore the aftermath of the Russian Civil War and the challenges that the Bolshevik Regime faced from within the party, the peasantry and the Kronstadt sailors. We also explore how Lenin's changes to the party functioning enabled the rise of Stalin.



    • I will be running a livestream Q&A for students on Wednesday November 20th. You can access it here, subscribe to the channel to get your reminder.
    • https://youtube.com/live/knBuNLBD-bU?feature=share (in case the link doesn't work)



    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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