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America's cold war cross roads 1946-7
By 1946 America's political class, it's intellectuals and opinion formers and the population as a whole was broadly anti Soviet but had not committed to any major confrontation with the USSR. It woul…
Published on 6 years, 7 months ago
Artillery and Intelligence: Breaking the deadlock 1918
After three years of fixed positions, trenches and deadlock, the First World War became a conflict of rapid movement again in 1918. This podcast explores how military innovation made this possible, f…
Published on 6 years, 7 months ago
Stalinist consumerism and advertising
Between 1928 and 1935, bread rationing in the USSR had been implemented due to the extraction of foodstuffs from the peasantry for export and Stalin's disastrous collectivisation policy. In 1935 Stal…
Published on 6 years, 8 months ago
Austria, Germany and the Armistice 1918
By October 1918, the resolve of the central powers to carry on the war was crumbling. The Austro Hungarian Empire fragmented following a manifesto by the new emperor Karl promising a federal future a…
Published on 6 years, 8 months ago
The Long Telegram and the Iron Curtain Speech: February - March 1946
In a two month period Truman's policy towards the Soviet Union became more entrenched in the face of Soviet advances in eastern Europe and Iran. Truman, with little foreign policy experience was sway…
Published on 6 years, 8 months ago
Lysenkoism, eugenics and the USSR
During the Stalin era, the science of genetics came under a sustained attack and was denounced as a bourgeois ideology. This podcast explores the changing thinking of British communist scientist J.B.…
Published on 6 years, 8 months ago
The British Empire and the Mandate system 1919
How did a combination of Wilsonian liberal internationalism and British colonial ideas about civilisation intersect with Britain's objectives in expanding its territories after the First World War? T…
Published on 6 years, 8 months ago
Criminal Prisoners in the Nazi Camps
In 1937 there was a dramatic increase in the numbers of petty criminals being arrested, re-arrested and taken into the Nazi camp system. There were deep seated economic reasons for this assault on Ge…
Published on 6 years, 8 months ago
John Lennon and Give Peace a Chance 1969
The recording of the anti war protest song Give Peace a Chance in 1969 was part of a complex and often contradictory period of political journeying by John Lennon as he abandoned the Beatles and embr…
Published on 6 years, 9 months ago
Hero Culture in Stalin's Russia 1928-41
In the mid 1930s a celebration of the achievements of workers, aviators, explorers and peasants accompanied Stalin's Five Year Plans. This championing of the 'everyday' hero was the product of Stalin…
Published on 6 years, 9 months ago