Short History Of...

By Noiser

History

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Short History Of... is the podcast series hosted by John Hopkins. Each week, we'll transport you back in time to witness history's most incredible moments and remarkable people. New episodes Mondays.

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The Renaissance

06.04.2023

The Renaissance of the 15th and 16th centuries was a time of rediscovery. With Florence as its epicentre, it saw a revival of the art, culture and philosophy of ancient Greek and Rome, triggering huge shifts in creativity and thought. ...

Short History Of... episodes:

06.04.2023 The Renaissance The Renaissance of the 15th and 16th centuries was a time of rediscovery. With Florence as its epicentre, it saw a revival of the art, culture and philosophy of ancient Greek and Rome, triggering huge shifts in creativity and thought. ...
05.28.2023 Thomas Edison Thomas Edison was one of history’s greatest inventors, who gave the world not only electric light but other landmark innovations in sound recording and moving pictures. He accumulated more patents in his lifetime than any other, and filled over 4000 ...
05.21.2023 Angkor Built by the Khmer kings centuries ago, Angkor in modern Cambodia had a footprint bigger than present-day New York. But after it fell into ruin, much of its unique architecture and intricate carvings were swallowed by the jungle. So, who ...
05.17.2023 The Soviet Union, Part 2 of 2 Despite its troubled infancy and the hardship faced during World War 2, in the second half of the 20th century the USSR became one of the world’s two superpowers. How did it manage this turn-around? What did its rise mean ...
05.14.2023 The Soviet Union, Part 1 of 2 From its initial creation in 1922, the Soviet Union was perhaps the most ambitious political experiment in human history. But how did this superpower come about? And in its first decades, how did its founding principles of equality transform to ...
05.07.2023 Alexander the Great Though he ruled for just 13 years, Alexander the Great is as famed for his hedonistic lifestyle as his military genius. But how did he become one of the best known military leaders in history? What inspired such loyalty among ...
04.30.2023 The Crown Jewels The British Crown Jewels is a priceless collection of items gathered over eight turbulent centuries. Consisting of 100 objects decorated with 23,000 gemstones, it’s held at the Tower of London, protected by guards and high-tech security. But why did one ...
04.23.2023 The Blitz From September 1940, Germany’s Luftwaffe subjected Britain to an intense bombing campaign lasting more than eight months. Around 43,000 civilians were killed, with many more injured or made homeless. But what led to the onslaught, and why could it not ...
04.16.2023 The Wild West Think of the Wild West, and you’ll imagine cowboys, shootouts, bank robberies and saloons. But it was also a time of massive resettlement, new technology and communications. But what the white settlers’ westward migration mean for the native people who ...
04.09.2023 British Castles For over 600 years, castles played a leading role in the story of Britain. From the Norman Conquest to the English Civil War, they are woven into the tapestry of British history. But when did they start to be built, ...
04.02.2023 Muhammad Ali From the day he burst onto the scene, Muhammad Ali changed boxing history. But he also influenced the American civil rights movement, the perception of Islam, the view of the war in Vietnam, and the self-branding of athletes themselves. So ...
03.27.2023 Introducing: Detectives Don’t Sleep - Murder in Paradise (Part 1 of 2) From Noiser, comes the brand-new podcast Detectives Don’t Sleep. The show takes you beyond the police tape to shadow the real detectives who worked history’s most intriguing cases. In this taster episode, we’re in the Bahamas in 1943. One of ...
03.26.2023 The Dinosaur Rush When Edward Cope and OC Marsh began their race to identify and name new species of dinosaur in the 1870s, palaeontology was still a new discipline. Before these two wealthy men entered the field, just eight species had been identified ...
03.20.2023 Frida Kahlo Frida Kahlo is as much a modern icon for her personal flair as she is for her paintings. But how did her style develop, and what did she intend it to communicate? What was so subversive about her work, and ...
03.13.2023 St Patrick Though St Patrick is honoured by millions of revellers worldwide every year, few know more about him than the popular myths concerning shamrocks and snakes. The real story of St Patrick reads like an adventure story, involving kidnapping, enslavement, and ...
03.06.2023 The Trans-Siberian Railway The Trans-Siberian railway is the longest train line in the world, spanning 5700 miles, seven time zones, and straddling two continents. Though today’s passengers on the week-long journey can enjoy relative luxury, the route has a dark past. Who were ...
02.27.2023 The Bayeux Tapestry Since it was created 900 years ago, the Bayeux Tapestry has survived war, revolution and the ravages of time. This fragile piece of linen, almost seventy metres long, depicts the events leading up to the Norman invasion of England. But ...
02.20.2023 The Real Robinson Crusoe Daniel Defoe’s 1719 novel Robinson Crusoe is one of the most widely published books in history. This story of a man stranded alone on an island is said to be second only to the Bible in its number of translations. ...
02.13.2023 The Mona Lisa Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa is the most famous painting in the world. 500 years old and just 77x53cm in size, it is kept behind bulletproof glass in the Louvre museum in Paris, where it draws 10 million visitors a ...
02.06.2023 The Partition of India In 1947, the British divided up its former colony of India into two provinces. What followed was confusion, chaos, and an unprecedented wave of sectarian violence that left up to a million dead. 15 million more were forced to flee ...
01.30.2023 D.B. Cooper At approximately 8:13 p.m. on November 24th, 1971, a hijacker exited Northwest Airlines flight 305 at an altitude of 10,000 feet, carrying just a case, a bagful of money, and a parachute. The subsequent investigation became one of the largest ...
01.23.2023 Agatha Christie Retaining the title of the “Queen of Crime” to this day, Agatha Christie is the best-selling novelist of all time. Across 66 novels, 14 short-story collections, and 20 stage plays, she depicted the evil lurking in the hearts of ordinary ...
01.16.2023 The Irish Potato Famine Between 1845 and 1852, Ireland suffered an appalling famine after the repeated failure of the potato crop, its national staple. But though caused by a natural blight, a combination of ancient prejudices, simmering tensions and political short-termism turned a national ...
01.09.2023 Las Vegas Best known for its world-class casinos and lavish hotels, the desert city of Las Vegas, Nevada has a darker side, too. For decades, connections to organised crime tarnished its reputation. Now, Las Vegas attracts tens of millions of tourists every ...
01.01.2023 Shakespeare No single writer has shaped the way we speak and think more than William Shakespeare. Whether we’re being cruel to be kind, wearing our hearts on our sleeves, or spotting the green eye’d monster — it’s almost impossible to use ...
12.25.2022 The Christmas Truce of 1914 (Repeat) It’s Christmas eve, 1914. On the Western Front, a British soldier peers out across No Man’s Land. A sound catches his attention – not artillery fire, but music. The enemy are singing Silent Night. The Christmas Truce of 1914 remains ...
12.19.2022 Pocahontas Pocahontas is probably the best known Native American in history. But the true story of her life has been eclipsed by a fictionalised version, played out as a romance between an intrepid English captain and a wild native princess. So ...
12.12.2022 Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln’s life reads like an American folk tale. The story of a boy born into poverty, whose drive and determination saw him become the most powerful man in the nation. But how did he navigate a path for a ...
12.05.2022 The Rosetta Stone In 1799, French soldiers in Egypt unearthed what would become one of the world’s most famous artefacts. After a desperate race to decipher its symbols, the Rosetta Stone provided the key to understanding Egyptian hieroglyphs, casting new light on the ...
11.28.2022 The Tower of London The Tower of London has been a symbol of the authority and power of the British crown for almost a thousand years. Established by William the Conqueror, the iconic building has served as a palace and a prison; a safe ...
11.21.2022 Easter Island First inhabited by the Rapa Nui people a thousand years ago, Easter Island is best known for its hundreds of giant stone statues. But what inspired a group of ancient Polynesian explorers to settle in such a remote spot in ...
11.14.2022 Vincent Van Gogh Vincent van Gogh was one of the most important and influential figures in the history of art. Though he created thousands of drawings and paintings, his was a life of commercial failure, instability and unhappiness. But who was Van Gogh ...
11.07.2022 The Conquistadors From the end of the 15th century, the Conquistadors changed the face of the Americas. Invading first the Caribbean and Mexico, they then plunged on into the rest of the continent and plundered the Pacific seaboard. So what do we ...
10.31.2022 Albert Einstein Albert Einstein overhauled our understanding of the universe—from the sub-atomic level to beyond the edges of the cosmos. Today his ideas are in evidence everywhere, from televisions and GPS systems, to our understanding of black holes and the Big Bang. ...
10.23.2022 The Great Train Robbery The Great Train Robbery of 1963 saw a gang of career criminals stage a daring heist of the multi-million pound cargo of a travelling Royal Mail train. The investigation that followed spanned many years and covered the globe. But how ...
10.16.2022 Cleopatra The last of the Ptolemaic Pharoahs, the enduring legend of Cleopatra has captivated imaginations for centuries. Though some write her off as a manipulative femme fatale, her competence as a ruler restored her country to a world superpower. But what ...
10.09.2022 The Conquest of Everest Standing over 29,000ft above sea level, the peak of Everest is the highest point on the planet. To the sherpa people of the Himalayas it is sacred, and to foreign adventurers, it is the holy grail of climbing. But what ...
10.02.2022 The Mongol Empire In the late Middle Ages, the Mongol Empire became the largest the world had ever seen. At its peak, maybe 100 million people lived under its banner, led by the Great Khans of the Asian steppe. But what unified the ...
09.25.2022 The Real Peaky Blinders Between the 1890s and 1910s, the British city of Birmingham was in the grip of a gang: the Peaky Blinders. Their crimes – from stone-throwing and petty assault to murder – were unpredictable and senseless, and the police seemed powerless ...
09.09.2022 Queen Elizabeth the Second, Part 2 of 2 (Repeat) To mark the passing of the Queen, Noiser brings you this episode from the archive of Short History Of… As the Queen’s family life became more complex, the relationship between palace and press intensified. But balancing the need for security ...
09.09.2022 Queen Elizabeth the Second, Part 1 of 2 (Repeat) To mark the passing of the Queen, Noiser brings you this episode from the archive of Short History Of… Spanning seventy years, Queen Elizabeth II’s reign saw the world change beyond recognition. And from her earliest public appearances representing the ...
09.08.2022 The Wars of the Roses, Part 3 of 3 After the death of King Edward IV, the heir to the throne, Edward V, is left under the protection of the late king’s brother Richard. But what lay in store for the 12 year old king? Will Richard honour his ...
09.07.2022 The Wars of the Roses, Part 2 of 3 With his father Richard of York’s head now on a spike, Edward’s determination to snatch the crown from Henry VI is stronger than ever. But how will he build support for his cause and assert his rights? Can he outmanoeuvre ...
09.04.2022 The Wars of the Roses, Part 1 of 3 Almost 600 years ago, two rival branches of the ruling house of Plantagenet dragged England into unprecedented bloodshed in what became known as the Wars of the Roses. But what were the causes of the conflict? Who were its key ...
08.28.2022 Introducing: Napoleon Noiser presents Napoleon, a new podcast examining the life and times of one of history’s most intriguing figures. You’ve heard the name Napoleon Bonaparte. But who was he, really? How did he become the most powerful man on Earth? And ...
08.21.2022 The Spanish Armada The defeat of the Spanish Armada by the English navy is often recounted as a ‘David and Goliath’ tale in which one tiny country overcame a huge and formidable empire. It secured the continuance of Protestant rule in England and ...
08.14.2022 Stonehenge Older than the pyramids and just as cryptic, the prehistoric British site of Stonehenge has dominated its landscape for thousands of years. But what is Stonehenge? A celestial clock? An ancient computer to predict eclipses? Was it a temple, a ...
08.07.2022 Amelia Earhart As one of the great pioneers of air travel, Amelia Earhart was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. She pushed aviation technology to its limits, broke countless records, and became world-famous for her skill, bravery and determination. ...
07.31.2022 Marco Polo In the thirteenth century, Marco Polo spent decades travelling the world. His adventures took him from his home in Venice as far east as the Yellow Sea, where he was a valued courtier of the legendary Mongol emperor Kublai Khan. ...
07.24.2022 The Spartans In 480BC, the Spartans secured their place in history when 300 of their soldiers fought to the death against the mighty Persian army at Thermopylae. Their reputation for brutal decisiveness and simple living have been admired for thousands of years. ...

Older episodes

Short History Of...

What's Short History Of... about?

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Short History Of... episodes:

The Renaissance

Thomas Edison

Angkor

The Soviet Union, Part 2 of 2

The Soviet Union, Part 1 of 2

Alexander the Great

The Crown Jewels

The Blitz

The Wild West

British Castles

Muhammad Ali

Introducing: Detectives Don’t Sleep - Murder in Paradise (Part 1 of 2)

The Dinosaur Rush

Frida Kahlo

St Patrick

The Trans-Siberian Railway

The Bayeux Tapestry

The Real Robinson Crusoe

The Mona Lisa

The Partition of India

D.B. Cooper

Agatha Christie

The Irish Potato Famine

Las Vegas

Shakespeare

The Christmas Truce of 1914 (Repeat)

Pocahontas

Abraham Lincoln

The Rosetta Stone

The Tower of London

Easter Island

Vincent Van Gogh

The Conquistadors

Albert Einstein

The Great Train Robbery

Cleopatra

The Conquest of Everest

The Mongol Empire

The Real Peaky Blinders

Queen Elizabeth the Second, Part 2 of 2 (Repeat)

Queen Elizabeth the Second, Part 1 of 2 (Repeat)

The Wars of the Roses, Part 3 of 3

The Wars of the Roses, Part 2 of 3

The Wars of the Roses, Part 1 of 3

Introducing: Napoleon

The Spanish Armada

Stonehenge

Amelia Earhart

Marco Polo

The Spartans