Explaining History

Explaining History

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Explaining History episodes

  • The Nazi Camps and the 'workshy'

    For those unable or unwilling to offer manual labour in service of the Nazi volksgemeinschaft, mass arrests and imprisonment in the growing camp system was an ever present threat. The Nazi camps by 1938 were full of 'asocial' prisoners who were arrested largely on the basis of poverty, vagrancy or the inability to fit into the new world of the Third Reich.

    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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    26 min
  • The Maoist takeover of China 1949

    Following the end of a bloody civil war in China, the communist party began to rapidly seize the levers of power and create class categorisations for the population. Control of the police and a network of communist spies and informers began a wave of repression which was but a foretaste of catastrophes and horrors to come.

    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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    26 min
  • British decision making and the Dardanelles Campaign 1915

    A complete absence of intelligence about new German guns along the Dardanelles led Britain into a disastrous campaign against the Ottoman Empire in 1915, in the hope that naval power alone could defeat Germany's ally and lead to a break through away from the western front.

    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

    Substack: theexplaininghistorypodcast.substack.com

    ▸ Read Articles & Go Deeper

    Website: explaininghistory.org


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

    25 min
  • America's cold war cross roads 1946-7

    By 1946 America's political class, it's intellectuals and opinion formers and the population as a whole was broadly anti Soviet but had not committed to any major confrontation with the USSR. It would take changes in world circumstances in 1947 to bring about this commitment in the guise of the Truman doctrine.

    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

    Substack: theexplaininghistorypodcast.substack.com

    ▸ Read Articles & Go Deeper

    Website: explaininghistory.org


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

    26 min
  • Artillery and Intelligence: Breaking the deadlock 1918

    After three years of fixed positions, trenches and deadlock, the First World War became a conflict of rapid movement again in 1918. This podcast explores how military innovation made this possible, focusing on artillery and intelligence.

    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
  • Stalinist consumerism and advertising

    Between 1928 and 1935, bread rationing in the USSR had been implemented due to the extraction of foodstuffs from the peasantry for export and Stalin's disastrous collectivisation policy. In 1935 Stalin signalled a shift towards consumerism, but many Soviet citizens saw little improvement in their living conditions.

    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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    ▸ Read Articles & Go Deeper

    Website: explaininghistory.org


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

    26 min
  • Austria, Germany and the Armistice 1918

    By October 1918, the resolve of the central powers to carry on the war was crumbling. The Austro Hungarian Empire fragmented following a manifesto by the new emperor Karl promising a federal future and German resolve finally ended with the German revolution.

    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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    ▸ Read Articles & Go Deeper

    Website: explaininghistory.org


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

    25 min
  • The Long Telegram and the Iron Curtain Speech: February - March 1946

    In a two month period Truman's policy towards the Soviet Union became more entrenched in the face of Soviet advances in eastern Europe and Iran. Truman, with little foreign policy experience was swayed by wartime diplomats such as George Kennan and the former Prime Minister of Britain, Winston Churchill.

    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
  • Lysenkoism, eugenics and the USSR

    During the Stalin era, the science of genetics came under a sustained attack and was denounced as a bourgeois ideology. This podcast explores the changing thinking of British communist scientist J.B.S. Haldane and the Stalinist fraud Trofim Lysenko

    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
  • The British Empire and the Mandate system 1919

    How did a combination of Wilsonian liberal internationalism and British colonial ideas about civilisation intersect with Britain's objectives in expanding its territories after the First World War? The Mandate system for administering German and Ottoman colonies was a largely British project, influenced by American internationalism and resented by the French.

    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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