Podcast Episodes

The Sino Soviet Split - In conversation with Larry Auton Leaf

In this episode of the Explaining History Podcast, we hear from history teacher and writer Larry Auton Leaf about Mao, Stalin, Khrushchev and Sino Soviet Split

Explaining History helps you understand…

Published on 5 years, 1 month ago

Lyndon Johnson and the legacy of JFK - 1963

Following the assassination of John F Kennedy, his vice president, Lyndon Johnson, was unexpectedly propelled into the White House, but faced a staff of Kennedy loyalists, including the president's b…

Published on 5 years, 1 month ago

The Battle of Guadalcanal: Part Two

The long battle of attrition by the Japanese Army against the resilient US Marine Corps on Guadalcanal began with serious miscalculations by Japan. Both sides saw the island as a linchpin in the Paci…

Published on 5 years, 2 months ago

Aspects of working class life in Britain during the 1930s

Working class life in Britain during the 1930s was shaped and reshaped by economic forces. In the first part of the decade, a devastating economic slump in the staple industries of coal, cotton, ship…

Published on 5 years, 2 months ago

Sachsenhausen, Soviet POWs and the origins of the Final Solution

In 1941 Sachsenhausen concentration camp became the first of the existing pre war concentration camps to become a site of mass killings as 9,000 Soviet POWs were murdered there by gas or shooting. He…

Published on 5 years, 3 months ago

The British Communist Party, Popular Fronts and Spain 1932-36

After the appointment of Adolf Hitler as chancellor in 1933, Stalin began to privately regret his decision to prevent a popular front of communist and social democratic forces emerge in Germany. Acro…

Published on 5 years, 3 months ago

Guadancanal and Ironbottom Sound

Following the victory over Japan at Midway, the US Navy was unprepared for a devastating defeat inflicted on its landing force at Guadalcanal. The Japanese sought to control islands close to the sea …

Published on 5 years, 3 months ago

Collaboration and Vengeance in Europe 1945

In the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, civilian governments struggled to establish law and order and in many cars failed to prevent a wave of vigilante violence against those suspected o…

Published on 5 years, 4 months ago

The Battle of Midway

The Battle of Midway was the first major victory of the US Navy in the Second World War, resulting in the loss of four out of Japan's six carriers. This devastating defeat was not the end of Japan's …

Published on 5 years, 4 months ago

Britain and the Central African Federation 1951-59

During the 1950s, as Britain attempted to hold on to its African colonies, it had to deal with the ambitions of white colonial settlers for domination of the black population on a more explicitly rac…

Published on 5 years, 4 months ago