Explaining History

Latest Episodes:

American workers in Stalin's Russia Nov 11, 2024

Show notes

During the 1930s over 100,000 American workers left the USA and crossed the Atlantic to the USSR. There they worked in automobile plants and other industrial enterprises of Stalin's Five Year Plans. The crisis of capitalism that was evident through the great depression and the seeming dynamism of Stalin's USSR and its rapid construction of industry convinced many that Soviet communism was the future. This podcast explores the fortunes of Stalin's American guest workers, many of whom took Soviet citizenship and were swallowed up by the terror as Stalin's NKVD searched for spies and imagined enemies and found a ready supply of victims in the large pool of foreign workers that had come to the USSR.

I will be running a livestream Q&A for students on Wednesday November 20th. You can access it here, subscribe to the channel to get your reminder.
https://youtube.com/live/knBuNLBD-bU?feature=share (in case the link doesn't work)

Help the podcast to continue bringing you history each week

If you enjoy the Explaining History podcast and its many years of content and would like to help the show continue, please consider supporting it in the following ways:

If you want to go ad-free, you can take out amembership here

You can support the podcast viaPatreon here

Or you can just say some nice things about it here

Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share.

▸ Support the Show & Get Exclusive Content

Become a Patron: patreon.com/explaininghistory

▸ Join the Community & Continue the Conversation

Facebook Group: facebook.com/groups/ExplainingHistoryPodcast

Substack: theexplaininghistorypodcast.substack.com

▸ Read Articles & Go Deeper

Website: explaininghistory.org

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

Britain and the myth of the Special Relationship Nov 11, 2024

Show notes

The British political class has clung on to a fantasy of its own relevance in Washington DC for decades. The special relationship that British Prime Ministers like to refer to (a bond that perhaps existed for Roosevelt and Churchill) has been an article of faith in Downing Street for decades but not in the White House. During the second Trump presidency, it will be exposed as the fiction it is.

In 1948, the British finally ended their mandate government over Palestine. As they withdrew a vicious civil war between Jewish and Arab communities began, followed by a full invasion by the Arab League when the state of Israel had been declared. The British had created the tensions through their handling of Jewish immigration. This episode reads from Kenneth O.Morgan's The People's Peace.

I will be running a livestream Q&A for students on Wednesday November 20th. You can access it here, subscribe to the channel to get your reminder.
https://youtube.com/live/knBuNLBD-bU?feature=share (in case the link doesn't work)

Help the podcast to continue bringing you history each week

If you enjoy the Explaining History podcast and its many years of content and would like to help the show continue, please consider supporting it in the following ways:

If you want to go ad-free, you can take out amembership here

You can support the podcast viaPatreon here

Or you can just say some nice things about it here

Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share.

▸ Support the Show & Get Exclusive Content

Become a Patron: patreon.com/explaininghistory

▸ Join the Community & Continue the Conversation

Facebook Group: facebook.com/groups/ExplainingHistoryPodcast

Substack: theexplaininghistorypodcast.substack.com

▸ Read Articles & Go Deeper

Website: explaininghistory.org

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

Approaches to history Part Two: Teleology and the Middle Ages Nov 09, 2024

Show notes

In this second episode of our new Approaches to History series, we begin to explore how history was written in the Middle Ages and how that contrasted with the earlier, classical period. You can grab a copy of the text - History: A Very Short Introduction here

I will be running a livestream Q&A for students on Wednesday November 20th. You can access it here, subscribe to the channel to get your reminder.

Help the podcast to continue bringing you history each week

If you enjoy the Explaining History podcast and its many years of content and would like to help the show continue, please consider supporting it in the following ways:

If you want to go ad-free, you can take out amembership here

You can support the podcast viaPatreon here

Or you can just say some nice things about it here

Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share.

▸ Support the Show & Get Exclusive Content

Become a Patron: patreon.com/explaininghistory

▸ Join the Community & Continue the Conversation

Facebook Group: facebook.com/groups/ExplainingHistoryPodcast

Substack: theexplaininghistorypodcast.substack.com

▸ Read Articles & Go Deeper

Website: explaininghistory.org

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

Britain's withdrawal from Palestine: 1944-48 Nov 08, 2024

Show notes

I will be running a livestream Q&A for students on Wednesday November 20th. You can access it here, subscribe to the channel to get your reminder.

Help the podcast to continue bringing you history each week

If you enjoy the Explaining History podcast and its many years of content and would like to help the show continue, please consider supporting it in the following ways:

If you want to go ad-free, you can take out amembership here

You can support the podcast viaPatreon here

Or you can just say some nice things about it here

Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share.

▸ Support the Show & Get Exclusive Content

Become a Patron: patreon.com/explaininghistory

▸ Join the Community & Continue the Conversation

Facebook Group: facebook.com/groups/ExplainingHistoryPodcast

Substack: theexplaininghistorypodcast.substack.com

▸ Read Articles & Go Deeper

Website: explaininghistory.org

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

Populism and the crisis of whiteness Nov 07, 2024

Show notes

In today's episode, as much of the world still pieces through the results of the election, we explore one of the many explanations for the rise of nativist populism and fascism across the world - the crisis of whiteness. You can read the featured thread from Professor Alan Lester here.

I will be running a livestream Q&A for students on Wednesday November 20th. You can access it here, subscribe to the channel to get your reminder.

Help the podcast to continue bringing you history each week

If you enjoy the Explaining History podcast and its many years of content and would like to help the show continue, please consider supporting it in the following ways:

If you want to go ad-free, you can take out amembership here

You can support the podcast viaPatreon here

Or you can just say some nice things about it here

Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share.

▸ Support the Show & Get Exclusive Content

Become a Patron: patreon.com/explaininghistory

▸ Join the Community & Continue the Conversation

Facebook Group: facebook.com/groups/ExplainingHistoryPodcast

Substack: theexplaininghistorypodcast.substack.com

▸ Read Articles & Go Deeper

Website: explaininghistory.org

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

AQA Revolution and Dictatorship: Russia 1917-53 part 6 Nov 06, 2024

Show notes

This is part six of the Explaining History study course based on the AQA A level history module Revolution and Dictatorship: Russia 1917-53.

In this episode we explore Lenin's creation of a new regime after the October Revolution and the beginnings of revolutionary terror and the civil war that would devastate Russia.

I will be running a livestream Q&A for students on Wednesday November 20th. You can access it here, subscribe to the channel to get your reminder.

Help the podcast to continue bringing you history each week

If you enjoy the Explaining History podcast and its many years of content and would like to help the show continue, please consider supporting it in the following ways:

If you want to go ad-free, you can take out amembership here

You can support the podcast viaPatreon here

Or you can just say some nice things about it here

Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share.

▸ Support the Show & Get Exclusive Content

Become a Patron: patreon.com/explaininghistory

▸ Join the Community & Continue the Conversation

Facebook Group: facebook.com/groups/ExplainingHistoryPodcast

Substack: theexplaininghistorypodcast.substack.com

▸ Read Articles & Go Deeper

Website: explaininghistory.org

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

Trump and the crisis of the Democrat Party Nov 06, 2024

Show notes

Why has Donald Trump won an enormous victory not just amongst the electoral college votes but the popular vote too? For decades both parties have pursued economic policies that were developed in the Nixon and Reagan eras, which have benefitted finance capital over American society. The Democrats have simply offered more of the same, whilst Trump has presented a racist, nativist solution. Here the rest of my analysis in this special post election recording.

I will be running a livestream Q&A for students on Wednesday November 20th. You can access it here, subscribe to the channel to get your reminder.

Help the podcast to continue bringing you history each week

If you enjoy the Explaining History podcast and its many years of content and would like to help the show continue, please consider supporting it in the following ways:

If you want to go ad-free, you can take out amembership here

You can support the podcast viaPatreon here

Or you can just say some nice things about it here

Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share.

▸ Support the Show & Get Exclusive Content

Become a Patron: patreon.com/explaininghistory

▸ Join the Community & Continue the Conversation

Facebook Group: facebook.com/groups/ExplainingHistoryPodcast

Substack: theexplaininghistorypodcast.substack.com

▸ Read Articles & Go Deeper

Website: explaininghistory.org

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

Trumpism and the crisis of neoliberalism Nov 05, 2024

Show notes

In anticipation of today's vote, the Explaining History Podcast dissects the road to Trumpism, how four decades of neoliberal economics led to the current polarised, oligarchic political moment.

I will be running a livestream Q&A for students on Wednesday November 20th. You can access it here, subscribe to the channel to get your reminder.

Help the podcast to continue bringing you history each week

If you enjoy the Explaining History podcast and its many years of content and would like to help the show continue, please consider supporting it in the following ways:

If you want to go ad-free, you can take out amembership here

You can support the podcast viaPatreon here

Or you can just say some nice things about it here

Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share.

▸ Support the Show & Get Exclusive Content

Become a Patron: patreon.com/explaininghistory

▸ Join the Community & Continue the Conversation

Facebook Group: facebook.com/groups/ExplainingHistoryPodcast

Substack: theexplaininghistorypodcast.substack.com

▸ Read Articles & Go Deeper

Website: explaininghistory.org

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

The Legacy of the First World War Nov 04, 2024

Show notes

In the late summer of 1914 a war began that was largely unexpected, unwanted and which lasted for four years, destroying the European civilisation that existed beforehand, along with large parts of the continent, the Middle East and Africa. It spawned two brutal regimes in the guise of Nazi Germany and the USSR, along with generations of physically and mentally traumatised men. This podcast, drawn from the Adam Hochschild book To End All Wars, explores the legacy of and the destructive power of the war.

Here's my article from last year on Poppy Madness
I will be running a livestream Q&A for students on Wednesday November 20th. You can access it here, subscribe to the channel to get your reminder.

Help the podcast to continue bringing you history each week

If you enjoy the Explaining History podcast and its many years of content and would like to help the show continue, please consider supporting it in the following ways:

If you want to go ad-free, you can take out amembership here

You can support the podcast viaPatreon here

Or you can just say some nice things about it here

Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share.

▸ Support the Show & Get Exclusive Content

Become a Patron: patreon.com/explaininghistory

▸ Join the Community & Continue the Conversation

Facebook Group: facebook.com/groups/ExplainingHistoryPodcast

Substack: theexplaininghistorypodcast.substack.com

▸ Read Articles & Go Deeper

Website: explaininghistory.org

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

1989: The year of global transformation Nov 02, 2024

Show notes

In 1989 the Cold War came to an unanticipated and unexpectedly peaceful end, the wars that both sides imagined would happen between the USSR and the west did not occur and a new world order rapidly formed in American and European interests in the long 1990s, only collapsing between 2008 and 2016. This exploration of the late 1980s and 1990s is told through the excellent book Post Wall, Post Square by Kristina Spohr.

I will be running a livestream Q&A for students on Wednesday November 20th. You can access it here, subscribe to the channel to get your reminder.

Help the podcast to continue bringing you history each week

If you enjoy the Explaining History podcast and its many years of content and would like to help the show continue, please consider supporting it in the following ways:

If you want to go ad-free, you can take out amembership here

You can support the podcast viaPatreon here

Or you can just say some nice things about it here

Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share.

▸ Support the Show & Get Exclusive Content

Become a Patron: patreon.com/explaininghistory

▸ Join the Community & Continue the Conversation

Facebook Group: facebook.com/groups/ExplainingHistoryPodcast

Substack: theexplaininghistorypodcast.substack.com

▸ Read Articles & Go Deeper

Website: explaininghistory.org

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