Recorded in the FOH Buckinghamshire Outpost via a secure line to the Beckenham Bunker, our intrepid hosts run their mouths (again) about recent political events.

This could potentially be our last episode if we are to take cultural trends seriously, so listen fast before we are ourselves “toppled”!

Full site and more episodes at footnotesofhistory.com as always.

Yes we may be in the midst of a viral outbreak right now, but there was one far worse just over 100 years ago. In this episode, our daring hosts Tim and Dan take to the FOH darkweb-comms system (Tim's house phone) to discuss:

The upside-down pattern of the virus that attacked the young, the strong and the able first Obscene conditions on the frontlines  that created the pandemic Why Spain was the fall guy of Europe thanks to a media blackout! The reliable methods of virus protection people are still using today!

As always you can sign up for our emails on our home page but you may as well do something fun while you're there: we have a highly entertaining "survive the revolution" test which can also be found on our site!

Scrooge is practically tangible in the room with us today. Actually that’s me.

As usual it falls to the sensible people to do the important work of wishing you a Merry Christmas in an entertaining and informative way.

So in the absence of any sensible people on the FOH team, we’ve drafted in a glamourous assistant to do the work for us in this episode, which will be a short sleigh ride through some of the historic events we’ve covered on the podcast, as well as some we haven’t.

Our assistant will draw from the hat (ok Dan, beret) each time a number linking to a particular theme.

There are as always varying interpretations of the brief. For some reason, I singularly failed to make any of mine Christmassy, but Dan’s make up for it!

In case you can’t keep up with what is probably our greatest rapport to date (given that Dan sounds about 30 years older than usual due to inexplicable illness, probably not), what we discuss is listed below:

1 - The number of frost fairs held on the Thames in the 19th Century (1814).

2 - The actual number of governments there were in Revolutionary France in 1848.

3 - The number of print runs A Christmas Carolwent through in December 1843 (published on 19 December 1843).

4 - The number of armies on the march in the Hapsburg Empire in 1848

5 - 1845 - the Irish potato famine. Episode: https://footnotesofhistory.com/28

6 - Premier of The Nutcracker in the Old Style calender (6 December 1892). Episode: https://footnotesofhistory.com/27

7 - The number of the Pre-Raphaelites, one of whom; Edward Burne-Jones painted many versions of the Nativity. Episode: https://footnotesofhistory.com/26

8 - For the year of the general election 1868, the year after Disraeli extended the franchise to the working classes… then lost.

9 - 1869 and the completion of Monet's painting 'The Magpie '. Episode: https://footnotesofhistory.com/18

10 - For our tenth episode The Great Stink - still one of my favourites. Episode: https://footnotesofhistory.com/10

11 - In the song, it's usually “Swans a Swimming” so we can talk about The Swan King. (NB: it’s actually Seven Swans a Swimming in the Christmas song, but I think we got away with this one) Episode: https://footnotesofhistory.com/29

12 - December 1812, the Grand Armèe is chased out of Russia.

P.S. Make sure you sign up to our email list and play the revolution game here: https://footnotesofhistory.com/revolutionchallenge, become an FOH legionnaire and pick up your special Christmas present from the FOH team!

You won’t regret it!

After much anticipation we release today our latest Footnotes main series episode: Number 35, on the Bryant and May matchgirls strike of 1888.

As always - if you want the backdrop as well as knowing exactly when an episode is coming out and the ability to ask us email questions, join the subscriber list on the homepage: footnotesofhistory.com

As you would expect from this kind of episode, we entangle ourselves in centuries of highly politicised labour history, slightly questionable economics and – surprisingly – a number of insights which we really think ought to be better known, one of which includes the historian’s number one mistake: grafting modern views onto the past.

So what does a matchgirl want? Well they’re striking for a reason and you’ve got to listen in to find out. The episode will include:

· A profile of the idealistic Fabian-socialist writer who exposed conditions at the factory and why she – counterintuitively - didn’t want industrial action!

· The White Terror: the deadly chemical in matches and what they could do to someone’s face if the fumes were inhaled!

· Tim’s bigger-picture take on how match factory conditions may not have been as bad as we think - especially when compared to other East-End London jobs at the time!

· Bryant and May’s early match factories and why they turned to the dark side - and more dangerous products!

· A live, historic example of the Streisand Effect!

· Dan makes the case against the “uneducated” defenceless young women argument!

· How Big Matches churned through workers despite penury-level wages, a vicious discipline system and potentially lethal long term conditions (Hint: Irish immigration)!

As always, thanks for listening (and some apologies from Dan for his croaky voice) and if you get the chance, go to our page on apple podcasts to leave us a review.

This’ll help us get the word out about Footnotes of History and we can record more and more regular episodes!

Listeners,

Today after a lengthy interlude, Dan and I release the second half of the Scramble for Africa episode.

It’s controversial of course since, despite our normal dismissal of all the virtue signalling in modern media about empire and European history, we actually found ourselves rather moved by the cold brutality of the operation.

Dan actually burst into tears, but out of deference to his ego, I cut this from the tape.

Okay that didn’t happen, but before we get too carried away by the number one mistake historians always make (i.e. imposing modern values on the past), two caveats:

1) The right of conquest of course was a recognised concept at the time and 2) many lands were bought rather than “stolen”.

As historians, our role – unlike the famous quote – IS to reason “why”.

This being said, it doesn’t get away from the fact that European leaders treated much of the continent as if it were essentially empty.

As well as the fact that they hid their imperial ambitions behind the veneer of respectability or “civilisation” (eg anti-slavery).

The Congress sounds cold and you’d be dead right:

It is a fascinating bureaucratic horror that saw a group of faceless civil servants draft the rulebook for late empire in Africa.

An interesting, if at times disturbing episode of a ruthless and impersonal governmental process applied to foreign lands, including:

Listen in and listen good.

On today’s tape: Dan managed to work his holiday story into the recording – he went to St. Nazaire on what he calls an “Inbetweeners Holiday” but with added history – notably from World War Two.

It’s a daring story of bravery, tenacity and pocket battleships.

On the flipside, I recall the numerous moments I’ve had with some people who seem to think “Austrians speak Austrian” and that’s just the way it is and always has been.

Granted, the stereotype of their culture is a little different nowadays, but there are few heated moments in history when things could have turned out differently for the former heartland of the Hapsburgs.

As always with these mini episodes, we’re diving deeper into the kind of topics that come up in our email dispatches. You can be a part of that secret society right here: footnotesofhistory.com

In this episode, your indefatigable young hosts delve deep into what is really the pinnacle of European Imperialism – the so-called Scramble for Africa, its effects, timeline and the apparent game that European powers seemed to be playing as it advanced.

Traditionally, Africa’s dangerous interior – including disease, dense and almost unnavigable river mouths and hostile populations made it almost impossible for Europeans to even consider “empiring” Africa in the ways that people usually anticipate.

This is reflective a wider trend really.

The risks are simply too great for a non-industrialised power to attempt any kind of subjugation.

It’s only really since Britain and Europe started to pull sharply away in terms of technology, living standards and general economic resource that their armies were able to conquer anything like the territory we see in this episode.

It’s a fascinating but also slightly unnerving period of colonisation and destruction that is important to properly understand if we are to avoid any kind of dodgy modern thinking on the subject.

What’s on the tape:

· Why the traditional “getting rich from the empire” ideas don’t make sense

· How Belgium – a country barely born by 1850 – bought off an intrepid explorer and manoeuvred under the noses of the Powers to become one of the largest land-owning powers in the Congo and the provocateur of the “scramble for Africa”

· Germany’s slightly pathetic reasons for calling the conference (it has to do with being a bit slow off the mark)

· A hint at the real life events that precipitated Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

· How a Britain and France double-act tricked Egypt into handing over the newly-constructed Suez Canal and a taster of how dangerous it is to stir up rebellions you can’t control

· Why Bismarck wasn’t as keen as you’d expect on empires

· Our “revenge of the landlords” theory of the Long Depression that identifies the economic incentives behind the land grab and New Imperialism

· How you can – from the results of the episode – see who would be the major players in WW1

· The devious (though potentially legitimate) pretences that some Powers used to legally capture African lands and colonise them

We reckon we’ve got a pretty interesting and unusual take on the period so get your safari kit on and your headphones plugged in.

Note: this is only part 1 of the Congress of Berlin (Africa) series – so subscribe to our email list footnotesofhistory.com to know exactly when the next episode will be out!

It’s not a big secret that TV shows based in history are sometimes a bit slapdash.

Often it’s time pressures, it’s adaptation for drama or even just the taste of the producer.

But in this episode, your Oracles of Truth kick around two previous Dispatches topics and get to grips with the “potential” truths that could be being told to you by your very own television RIGHT NOW!

These first concern the Rugby World Cup – this year in Japan no less, whose history is as dark as it is mysterious and as misunderstood as it is celebrated.

The second, equally dark topic, is that of British fascism and its infamous leader Sir Oswald Mosley, its origins and its surprisingly uncontentious way of running things at the time.

As always, if you want to get your controversies brought to you on a silver platter, sign up to our email list on the homepage at footnotesofhistory.com!

Quick note: Don't forget to sail yourself over the footnotesofhistory.com for more daring exploits from the past.

With that announcement out of the way, today's episode is equal parts grand, intrepid adventure and terrifying horror story.

That’s barring a few wars here and there in Europe – but I’m talking about islands, continents and oceans here, not Bismarck for once.

But there was one itch that kept nagging at the compulsive brains of the great and the good - and that was the Arctic.

The theory was sound:

Logically, from the spherical shape of the globe, there should be some kind of route from Europe that went due north west across the Atlantic, between the coasts of Greenland and Canada.

Then you would head sharply west at Baffin Bay and travel “over” the seas off the northern coast of Canada before finally heading south again into the clear waters of the Pacific.

From there it ought to be plain sailing to Japan, China and the rich trading zones of the Asian continent.

Easier said than done thanks to the treacherous polar ice – its habit of melting and suddenly re-freezing at random had trapped many an explorer in its fatal grip.

But the mission remained alluring for a few reasons:

So the stakes were high.

Step forward Sir John Franklin.

A veteran of polar exploration, eager to make his name and equipped with state-of-the-art ships, Franklin was tasked by the Royal Navy with the exploration of the last bit of the Arctic that was so far uncharted.

What would he find?

Well you’ll have to listen to the episode to find out!

In this mini-sode, we discuss 2 of our latest email dispatches in more detail, getting to grips with:

Enjoy the episode – but don’t forget you can join us on our daring historical journey simply by lending us your email address at footnotesofhistory.com!