Podcast Episodes

British working class identity, tv and affluence 1954 -1964

The dramatic increase in standards of living for British working class people from the mid 1950s onwards was accompanied by anxieties that an entire way of life and working class culture would be los…

Published on 7 years, 4 months ago

Creating the SS Death's Head Division

Comprised mainly of teenagers in the late 1930s, the Death's Head Division guarded the camps and brutalised prisoners, but many believed they had been recruited for more active military service in th…

Published on 7 years, 5 months ago

Defending Afghanistan 1937-1940

For a century Afghanistan had been a theatre for the 'great game' of espionage between the British and Russian empires, but on the eve of the Second World War the country was in an unenviable situati…

Published on 7 years, 5 months ago

Roosevelt, Stalin and the Creation of the Grand Alliance

When Hitler invaded the USSR in June 1941, the changing strategic picture presented Britain and America with opportunities and hazards. A deal with Stalin was in the minds of both Roosevelt and Churc…

Published on 7 years, 5 months ago

Truman's anti communist policy 1945-47

The mid term elections in 1946 were a disaster for the Democratic Party, which faced fraudulent accusations of communist sympathies from their Republican rivals. Both Democrats and Republicans learne…

Published on 7 years, 5 months ago

Japan's Strategic Failures 1940-41

By the winter of 1941 the Japanese public, military planners and government were in broad agreement about the necessity of war against America, Britain, France and the Netherlands. However, the war w…

Published on 7 years, 5 months ago

Italy and the Paris Peace Conference Part Two

Second in the series of discussions on Italy's departure from the Paris Peace Conference.

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Published on 7 years, 5 months ago

French Internment of Spanish Refugees 1939-45

When half a million supporters of the Spanish Republic fled from Franco's murderous nationalist armies in 1939 to France, they faced hostility and imprisonment, first at the hands of the French and l…

Published on 7 years, 5 months ago

Himmler's orders and the SS Camp System 1933-39

In the hidden world of the Nazi camps, Himmler's desire for order presented the sadists who worked as camp guards with strict regulations on prisoner treatment. Himmler desired order above all things…

Published on 7 years, 5 months ago

Italy and the Paris Peace Conference

When Italy attended the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, Prime Minister Vittorio Orlando had immense ambitions to acquire new territories. The disappointments Italy endured would speed fascism's path …

Published on 7 years, 5 months ago