In the hidden world of the Nazi camps, Himmler's desire for order presented the sadists who worked as camp guards with strict regulations on prisoner treatment. Himmler desired order above all things, ensuring that the brutal violence meted out to prisoners was centrally organised and directed.

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In 1955, psychoanalyst Erich Fromm examined the emotional realities behind the lives of Americans experiencing unprecedented material wealth. His findings formed his book the Sane Society. It concluded that despite the advances in prosperity, modern society actually was far from sane and generated much emotional suffering and neurosis.

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For the Chinese people, the Second World War began in 1937, with Japan's ruthless invasion of the mainland and the destruction of cities such as Nanjing and Chongqing. This podcast explores the west's historical amnesia on the topic of Chinese wartime suffering and resistance.

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In the decade after 1945 American life was transformed by cheap housing, cheap fuel and the biggest increase in material well being in human history.

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Despite impressive victories against the allied powers during the First World War, by 1918 the Ottoman Empire was exhausted by fighting and the advantage was shifting towards Britain in the Middle East. General Edmund Allenby skilfully encircled Ottoman armies in late 1918, seizing Damascus and Beirut.

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In the 1930s Woodie Guthrie became the authentic voice of the dispossessed, drifting American diaspora in the drought afflicted heartlands of the USA. However, he was part of a long tradition of American folk and protest music.

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In the immediate aftermath of the German revolution, radical forces on the left and right were discontent with the development of a centre left Weimar Government. In January 1919, the army and freikorps violently suppressed the revolutionary movement of the Independent Social Democrats, also known as the Spartacists.

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Stalin's decision to ban private trade and to create state monopolies was carried out in haste with little planning during a period of immense economic upheaval. The results were chaotic and led to one of the most intense periods of economic hardship since the Russian Civil War.

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Strange Fruit was the first popular song that reached a mainstream audience which addressed the question of violence against black people in America and it made Billie Holiday, its original singer, a star. The song lived far beyond her death in 1959 and shaped protest music America throughout the 20th Century.

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Days after the November armistice was signed, the Red Army launched its bid for the Baltic States and only local anti communists, former German soldiers and German mercenaries stood in their way. The consequences for Latvia were horrendous, with warcrimes on both sides and civilians bearing the brunt of the violence.

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