Podcast Episodes

American air doctrine and the B-17a bomber

The development of air power in the USA from 1938 onwards in the shape of the B-17a four engine bomber was not matched by an official air doctrine, but a belief in the importance of mass bombing of i…

Published on 6 years, 5 months ago

The militarisation of the SS 1933-39

By 1939 the Camp SS, normally responsible for controlling prisons such as Dachau was equipped and trained to fight at the front line. This podcast explores the evolution of its role.

Explaining Histo…

Published on 6 years, 6 months ago

Mao's Famine and Szechuan Province 1958-62

In four years between 1958-62 a catastrophic famine in China killed 40 million people and a quarter of those died in Szechuan, a food rich province. This podcast explores the wilful blindness of Mao …

Published on 6 years, 6 months ago

Indian soldiers and the defence of Egypt in 1914-15

At the start of the First World War, Egypt and the Suez Canal were vital to the functioning of the British Empire and were under huge pressure from an Ottoman offensive. However, it was Muslim, Seikh…

Published on 6 years, 6 months ago

Social conflict in Spain 1933

After two short years of social reform under the socialist PSOE party in Spain a new right wing government came to power led by the conservative party CEDA. In the following two years poverty, hunger…

Published on 6 years, 6 months ago

The escalation of the French Vietnamese War 1946-9

By the end of 1946 a guerrilla war was being waged by the new Democratic Republic of Vietnam against the colonial French in the south, but developments over the next three years would radically expan…

Published on 6 years, 6 months ago

Creating a new podcast for Explaining History - an appeal to listeners

Hi everyone, I'm sending out this podcast today to invite you all to collaborate in the creation of a new podcast focusing on contemporary political, social, environmental and other crises, challenge…

Published on 6 years, 6 months ago

The Truman Doctrine 1947

In 1947 US President Harry Truman was forced to commit to the defence of Greece and Turkey against the possibility of communist victories in the Greek civil war and the threat of Soviet pressure on T…

Published on 6 years, 6 months ago

The Fall of Singapore 1942

The island fortress of Singapore was meant to be an unassailable bastion of British imperial power in Asia. Its fall in February 1942 was the biggest humiliation for the British of the entire war and…

Published on 6 years, 6 months ago

Ernest Bevin and Britain's World Role 1945-48

In 1945 a Labour Government swept to power at the end of the Second World War, it had an agenda of domestic social reform but considerable foreign policy commitments. Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin w…

Published on 6 years, 6 months ago