Explaining History

What are we doing when we write or think about history? What is it that historians do and when did they start doing it? We're taking a new direction on the podcast here and exploring the origins of historical thinking, a type of writing that the Greeks thought to be the inferior cousin to philosophy. Each Saturday we'll explore the practices and theories of history, and approaches to understanding the past or exploring it from classical antiquity to postmodernism.

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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Between December 1937 and January 1938 on of the great crimes of Japan's war against China occurred at the Chinese capital of Nanjing. Determined to break Chiang Kai Shek's nationalist forces, the Japanese murdered tens of thousands of captured soldiers and proceeded to slaughter the civilian population. The Japanese army went of the rampage, killing children and raping the city's female population. In 1985 a permanent memorial hall to the horrors inflicted on the city and on China by Japan was unveiled in the city and this podcast hears from Keith Lowe's Prisoners of History as the historian explores the memorial hall and explores its significance the the questions that arise from contested historical memory.

• 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.

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

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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

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Website: explaininghistory.org

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

After February 1917 the Provisional Government had a weak grasp on power, a fact that was exploited by the Bolsheviks in order to seize power in October. This study podcast explores how the Bolsheviks were able to seize power from a position of relative weakness.

• 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.

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.

In the aftermath of the Second World War the New Deal came under a sustained assault by a newly resurgent Republican Party that used the threat of anti communism to shift politics towards the right. However, by the 1950s the New Deal was safe under a Republican Eisenhower presidency and the role of the state in the management of the economy continued to develop. Explore this paradox in today's Explaining History podcast.

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

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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

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Website: explaininghistory.org

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

In the early 1950s there was an unprecedented level of political organisation in the Gulag system amongst prisoners who were able to find out about the events of the outside world and deal brutally with camp informants. In this episode we explore Anne Applebaum's Gulag: A History of the Soviet Camps to understand this transition that led to uprisings following the death of Stalin that became almost impossible for the camp authorities to control.

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

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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

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Website: explaininghistory.org

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

By early 1942 Nazi Germany was facing a moment of crisis when it came to the production of munitions and other equipment. The inherent chaos of the regime, Hitler's selection of favourites who knew how to tell him only what he wanted to hear, along with the soaring war production of the USA, UK and USSR led to the appointment of Albert Speer as Minister for Armaments.

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.

Britain is about to experience another half decade of austerity as government budgets for social welfare are slashed. By the time the next general election is held the country will have experienced nineteen years of enforced cuts to the living standards of the poorest. This podcast explores interwar austerity and the long intellectual and ideological roots of our current malaise.

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.

Neville Chamberlain is chiefly remembered for his failed shuttle diplomacy with Hitler in 1938, but there is of course more to his time in office than just this. Chamberlain believed himself to be a social reformer, though the reality of life for the poor and those devastated by the Great Depression remained in many cases bleak. This podcast explores the state of housing, welfare, education and health in the second half of the 1930s.

You can read more from today's book, Britain's War by Daniel Todman here

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.

By March 1917 a new system of dual power had established itself in the capital city Petrograd. The Provisional Government, a group comprised of the Tsar's former ministers who refused to disband, and the Petrograd Soviet, a meeting of delegates from the committees established in factories and army regiments, existed in an uneasy partnership with one another. This episode of our AQA Revolution and Dictatorship 1917-53 study course explores in depth these two organisations and how their dysfunction provided opportunities for Lenin and the Bolsheviks.

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.

What happened when news of the Russian Revolution reached the empire's rural areas? How did the largely non literate peasantry interact with this change? How did the Russian Orthodox Church carry the message of the revolution? What did the empire's non Russian and non Christian peoples make of it? This episode explores the chaotic and fragmented way in which Russian society encountered revolutionary change.

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.