While the Second World War tends to get more attention, this episode argues World War I was actually more historically significant.  Simply put, the Great War exhausted the nations of Europe, thoroughly discrediting traditional authorities, values and institutions.  This episode - the first of a two part series on the conflict - provides a general overview of the war itself, from its causes to its conclusion to the new weapons and great battles that made it so devastating.  Find out how a wrong turn literally led to the start of the war, how French taxi drivers saved the Third Republic, why poison gas was largely ineffective, the secrets to the Red Baron's rapid rise and literal fall and so much more!

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 On 8 September 2022 Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain – the second longest reigning monarch in history – passed away quietly at Balmoral Castle in Scotland. This special episode examines the life of a remarkable woman, placing her in her historical context. What was the Britain of 1952 like, and how did it change over the years? How did Elizabeth impact major events such as the collapse of the British Empire, the rise of multi-cultural Britain and the end of the Troubles in Ireland? Why was the year 1992 so devastating to the crown, and how did she help the monarchy recover in the two decades since? Above all else, the episode helps us understand Elizabeth’s historical significance, revealing how she succeeded as a monarch in a century that saw so many other monarchies fail. 

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How do we gain new knowledge?  How do we trust the knowledge that we gain? This episode   looks at the dramatic shift in the way Europeans answers these questions over the course of the 16th and 17th centuries, laying the groundwork for modern scientific practice.  Among other things, the episode discusses the contributions of major historical figures such as Copernicus, Galileo and Newton, as well as showing why mathematics became the primary language for understanding both God and the cosmos. 

Note: this episode was originally recorded in Nov. 2021

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just a quick note to announce the end of the first season of History Off the Page and a big thank you to all the listeners who joined us this year!  We'll be back in September with new episodes on the World Wars, life in Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, postwar recovery, the origins of multicultural Europe and much much more!  

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Ever wonder what it would be like to reach "the future?"  For many Europeans, life in the late nineteenth century felt that way, with massive technological changes leading to the conquest of hunger, violence and disease.  Yet as we transcend existing norms and boundaries, the future can also be a scary place.  This episode explores the pleasures and perils of modernity, discussing things like cabaret, Einstein and Freud, the ballpoint pen, Picasso and the building of the Eiffel Tower.

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The story of how Germany finally created a national state is well known.  But to paraphrase the Italian statesman Massimo d'Azeglio, having made Germany, how did one make Germans?  This episode covers the long march of unification from liberal dream to everyday reality, showing the challenges German patriots had to overcome along the way.  Here the story was not just a triumph over external enemies in Denmark, Austria and France, but the more difficult obstacle of overcoming internal regional, confessional and class divisions even after the national state was formed.  In the episode we'll therefore discuss the genius of Otto von Bismarck, but also the various institutions, monuments and cultural phenomena that helped create the modern German nation.

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Darwin's Theory of Evolution has undoubtedly been one of the most controversial scientific theories in history.  In this episode we'll explore why, while also doing some myth-busting. For example, the sensational aspect of his theory was not the idea of evolution itself - which he did not invent, but the idea of natural selection, which raised questions about the virtue of Christian morality.   As we'll see, while Darwin never drew out these conclusions, some of his acolytes began to imagine a world defined by conflict, violence and the "struggle for existence."  This episode examines the consequence of such beliefs, while also highlighting their relationship to European imperial expansion in the latter third of the 19th century.

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On February 24, 2022, Russian troops launched a massive invasion of Ukraine, starting the biggest war in Europe since at least the 1990s.  There is talk of genocide and ethnic cleansing, over a million refugees have fled, and rising tensions between NATO and Russia have raised fears of a World War.  How did we get to this place? How could anyone support such naked aggression in the 21st century?  In this special episode of History Off the Page, we discuss the shorter and longer term causes behind the war, including: the Orange Revolution (2004)  and Euromaidan protests (2014), the seizure of Crimea (2014), the breakup of the USSR (1991), the origins of Russian and Ukrainian nationhood (9th-19th centuries), and the role of genocide in the 1930s and 1940s. 

Visit our website www.historyoffthepage.com for a list of reputable charities dealing with the consequences of the war.

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We live today in a world primarily defined by nations and national identity.  But how did nationality acquire such powerful loyalty over us?  In this episode we'll talk about the barriers that initially made many people hostile to the idea of being part of a nation, as well as how those barriers were eventually overcome.  Highlights of the show include discussions of about the French emperor Napoleon III, Thanksgiving, kilts and the ways the school system was used to "teach" people national identity.

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Socialism.  Love it or hate it, the term evokes powerful emotions even to this day.  But why did socialism start in the first place?  This episode charts the rise of class consciousness at the start of the 19th century, covering major figures associated with the movement such as Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, the anarchist Mikhail Bakunin and the German Social Democratic Party (SPD).  We'll also see the emergence of a distinctive working class culture through things as varied as soccer clubs, May Day parades and the language socialists used to greet each other. 

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Support the show

For more information on History Off the Page, check out our website www.historyoffthepage.com! Or you can support the show via Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/historyoffthepage?fan_landing=true.