Dan Snow's History Hit - TopPodcast.com

Latest Episodes:

The Habsburgs May 17, 2020

Show notes

It was an honour to be joined by Martyn Rady to discuss one of history's most thrilling families, the Habsburgs. Ruling for almost a millennium, their imperial vision was perhaps best realised in Emperor Frederick III's AEIOU motto: Austriae est imperare orbi universe, "Austria is destined to rule the world." Indeed, Frederick's descendants would extend their power into the Holy Roman Empire, Italy, Spain, the New World, and the Pacific, a dominion that Charles V called "the empire on which the sun never sets." Weathering religious warfare, revolution and all kinds of political storms, it drew to a close with the 1914 assassination of the Habsburg heir presumptive Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, which of course, marked the start of another epochal chapter of history.

Subscribe to History Hit and you'll get access to hundreds of history documentaries, as well as every single episode of this podcast from the beginning (400 extra episodes). We're running live podcasts on Zoom, we've got weekly quizzes where you can win prizes, and exclusive subscriber only articles. It's the ultimate history package. Just go to historyhit.tv to subscribe. Use code 'pod1' at checkout for your first month free and the following month for just £/€/$1.

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Winston Churchill May 14, 2020

Show notes

80 years ago this week, Winston Churchill became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom following the resignation of Neville Chamberlain and his calamitous handling of the Norway campaign. On the same day, Adolf Hitler launched a monumental assault on Western Europe. It was the toughest first week in office a Prime Minister has ever faced. We're marking this historic event with a podcast from our archive - the entirety of which is available exclusively to History Hit subscribers. In this podcast, I visited the house of Churchill's biographer, Andrew Roberts, to look at some previously unseen historic material - a fascinating insight into the world of the great man.

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Pandemics: Science and History May 12, 2020

Show notes

I was thrilled to be joined by the legendary Peter Frankopan, Professor of Global History at Oxford University and bestselling author of 'The Silk Roads: A New History of the World'. In this podcast we discussed the current crisis in a wider historical context, and Peter gave some fascinating insights. This podcast was the first of our live Zoom discussions between Dan, Peter and History Hit subscribers, who were invited to join the discussion at the end.

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Migration in Medieval Europe May 11, 2020

Show notes

I was delighted to be joined by Miri Rubin of Queen Mary University, London. In a terrific new book, Miri has scooped up a seemingly modern topic - migration - and settled it into the bustling town centres of medieval Europe. We discussed how these cities accommodated a plethora of languages, religions and occupations, and how some urban institutions took great care with the settlement of newcomers, working them into societal fabric to encourage economic growth. And of course, we chatted about how we could learn from our medieval ancestors to provide a fresh thinking on social exclusion in today's world.

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Europe's Tragedy: The Thirty Years War May 10, 2020

Show notes

The Thirty Years War devastated seventeenth-century Europe. It killed nearly a quarter of all Germans and transformed the map of the modern world. Professor Peter Wilson of Oxford University took me on a whistle stop tour through these tumultuous years - from defenestrations in Prague, Westphalian sovereignty and how the soldiers of WWI remembered these events three centuries later.

Subscribe to History Hit and you'll get access to hundreds of history documentaries, as well as every single episode of this podcast from the beginning (400 extra episodes). We're running live podcasts on Zoom, we've got weekly quizzes where you can win prizes, and exclusive subscriber only articles. It's the ultimate history package. Just go to historyhit.tv to subscribe. We have got our BEST EVER offer available at the moment. If you use the code 'VEDay' on sign up, you get 30 days free, then your first five months access will be just £1/€1/$1 - it's £5.99 a month after.

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Coffee May 09, 2020

Show notes

Coffee. Most of us are addicted. We need it on Monday mornings, post nights out, during nights out, in fact every morning. And afternoons. Augustine Sedgewick teaches history at the City University of New York. He has a new book out on how coffee reshaped the world as it became one of the most valuable commodities in history and our 'most popular drug.' He talked to me about the journey of coffee from its obscure beginnings in the Arabian peninsula and explained just how it has transformed our landscapes, physiologies, economy and the nature of work itself.

Subscribe to History Hit and you'll get access to hundreds of history documentaries, as well as every single episode of this podcast from the beginning (400 extra episodes). We're running live podcasts on Zoom, we've got weekly quizzes where you can win prizes, and exclusive subscriber only articles. It's the ultimate history package. Just go to historyhit.tv to subscribe. We have got our BEST EVER offer available at the moment. If you use the code 'VEDay' on sign up, you get 30 days free, then your first five months access will be just £1/€1/$1 - it's £5.99 a month after.

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

VE Day: 75 Years May 08, 2020

Show notes

For most of us, VE Day conjures up black and white images of carefree servicemen and women dancing and beaming in Trafalgar Square, of Churchill greeted by jubilant crowds in Whitehall, and of course, lots and lots of bunting. But was it really like this? In this podcast, you'll hear the speech given by Churchill from the Ministry of Health, cheered on by the boisterous crowd, an account by veteran Edward Toms about the drinking habits of the Soviets, and thoughts from two brilliant historians, Toby Haggith and Russell Miller.

Subscribe to History Hit and you'll get access to hundreds of history documentaries, as well as every single episode of this podcast from the beginning (400 extra episodes). We're running live podcasts on Zoom, we've got weekly quizzes where you can win prizes, and exclusive subscriber only articles. It's the ultimate history package. Just go to historyhit.tv to subscribe. We have got our BEST EVER offer available at the moment. If you use the code 'VEDay' on sign up, you get 30 days free, then your first five months access will be just £1/€1/$1 - it's £5.99 a month after.

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

How should we remember WW2? May 07, 2020

Show notes

The question of wars and how we remember them has always fascinated me. With WW1 we seem to remember the enormous, tragic loss of life - captured so beautifully by the likes of Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon. But WW2 seems to be more about stoicism, Spitfires and speeches. Lucy Noakes came on the podcast to discuss how our collective memory of WW2 and Churchill has changed through films, political campaigns, historians and present day agendas. We also chatted about what exactly we could learn from the 1940s, and how to apply those lessons to the challenges of today's world.

Subscribe to History Hit and you'll get access to hundreds of history documentaries, as well as every single episode of this podcast from the beginning (400 extra episodes). We're running live podcasts on Zoom, we've got weekly quizzes where you can win prizes, and exclusive subscriber only articles. It's the ultimate history package. Just go to historyhit.tv to subscribe. We have got our BEST EVER offer available at the moment. If you use the code 'VEDay' on sign up, you get 30 days free, then your first five months access will be just £1/€1/$1 - it's £5.99 a month after.

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Pandemics through History May 05, 2020

Show notes

I have hooked up with the Timeline Channel on youtube to do History Hit Live three times a week. Sometimes I'll share the audio as a podcast on this feed. My chat with Clifford Williamson, lecturer at Bath Spa University and specialising in the History of Public Health, was fascinating. We talked about the widespread pandemics of the last 150 years and what we can learn from them when we look at the current COVID-19 outbreak. He also had some suggestions about what may change as a result of the crisis we are going through.

Subscribe to History Hit and you'll get access to hundreds of history documentaries, as well as every single episode of this podcast from the beginning (400 extra episodes). We're running live podcasts on Zoom, we've got weekly quizzes where you can win prizes, and exclusive subscriber only articles. It's the ultimate history package. Just go to historyhit.tv to subscribe. We have got an offer available at the moment. If you use the code 'Pod3' on sign up, you get 30 days free, then your first three months access will be just £1/euro/dollar - it's £5.99 a month after.

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

Mudlarking May 04, 2020

Show notes

Lara Maiklem has scoured banks of the Thames for over 15 years in pursuit of the objects that the fast moving river water unearths. The Thames is one of the longest and most varied archaeological site in the world. Previous generations have been dumping rubbish and losing valuables for thousands of years. Lara took me Mudlarking on a beautiful, bright, winter day and we found objects dating back as far as the Romans. The undoubted highlight for me was finding a coin from the 1750s. That helped turn me into a ferocious Mudlarker.

In this podcast Lara and I had a follow up chat and, BRILLIANTLY, it got interrupted when a courier picked up a bag of human bones. I know. You have to listen to believe.

To watch the film of Lara and I wading along the banks of the Thames and check out our discoveries, please signup to www.HistoryHit.TV We have got a flash sale on at the moment for the next few days: Use code 'pod3' at checkout for your first month free and the following THREE months for just £/$1 per month.

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