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Sam Mendes on 1917 Jan 09, 2020

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In this podcast Dan talks to Golden Globe winning film maker Sam Mendes about his new World War One film 1917.

Based in part on an account told to Mendes by his paternal grandfather, Alfred Mendes, it chronicles the story of two young British soldiers at the height of WWI during Spring 1917.

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The Persian War Jan 08, 2020

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In the 5th century BC the world's first super power, the Persian Empire, went to war against a ragtag collection of cities and statelets on its western frontier. It was the start of the Persian War. Thankfully for us this war was recorded in some detail by the world's first historian. Herodotus. Despite previous millenia of history in the ancient Near East, this historical record means that the Persian Wars feels recognisably modern. The attitudes and decisions of commanders are discernable. The course of the battles, traceable.

William Shepherd has written an engaging new account of the war. He took some time to sit down with Dan and explore the course of the war and why it still matters.

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Interwar Germany’s Secret Ally: The USSR Jan 06, 2020

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After the First World War the German Army was in crisis. Limited in the size and its equipment by the Versailles Treaty which ended the war, it was a shadow of the mighty force it had been in 1914. Help came from a surprising source. Soviet Russia.

Historian Ian Johnson explains to Dan how it was the Soviets who helped rebuild the German military machine before World War Two.

30% of Weimar Germany's defence spending took place in the USSR. 25% of German officers passed through camps in Soviet soil. This is the shocking conclusion reached by Ian Johnson who has trawled through the archives to understand just how much the German war machine owed to Soviet support. The cash strapped communists were happy to take German money in return for training areas, tank development labs and other activities banned by the Versailles Treaty.

The Soviets helped turn the Wehrmacht into a military machine that in 1941-2 came very close to toppling the Soviet state.

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Ink: A History of Tattooing Jan 05, 2020

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Matt Lodder is the world's leading expert on the history of tattoos. He has found evidence of people using ink or charcoal on their bodies stretching back thousands of years. He explodes myths at every turn. Tattoos were common long before Captain Cook allegedly imported them back from the Pacific in the 18th Century, and he demonstrates that they were never the exclusive preserve of marginalised subcultures, but actually adorned the bodies of royalty.

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Geordies: A History Jan 03, 2020

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'Northumbrian patriot' Dan Jackson, who has just written a book on the history of Northeast England and its people, comes on the podcast to talk about his native Northumberland.

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The Crusaders' Last Battle for the Holy Land Jan 01, 2020

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Roger Crowley is the author of the new book, Accursed Tower: The Crusaders' Last Battle for the Holy Land.

The city of Acre, powerfully fortified and richly provisioned, was the last crusader stronghold. When it fell in 1291, two hundred years of Christian crusading in the Holy Land came to a bloody end. Dan had a chat with Roger, which was a nice complement to his podcast with Dan Jones on the Crusades as a whole, earlier in the year.

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

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