Podcast Episodes

Asia after the atomic bomb

In August 1945 two atomic bombs were dropped on Japan ending the Second World War in Asia. However the bombs did not end conflict across the region, instead they ended Japan's involvement as an imper…

Published on 10 years, 1 month ago

America in 1945

At the end of the Second World War, the USA was the wealthiest society in history and experienced an economic boom that was to last for nearly three decades. This boom had a profound transformational…

Published on 10 years, 1 month ago

British and American Journalists and the Russian Revolution

During the chaos of the First World War a generation of British and American correspondents in Russia astutely predicted the failure of the Provisional Government and came to see the Bolsheviks as a …

Published on 10 years, 1 month ago

Romania, Communism and the Holocaust

Throughout the 20th Century Romania has endured the twin catastrophes of fascism and communism. During the Second World War Romania was deeply involved in the holocaust and the development of an aggr…

Published on 10 years, 2 months ago

Thatcher, AIDS and sexual politics in the 1980s

Margaret Thatcher was a politician convinced that a return to 'family values' after two decades of seeming moral decline in the 60s and 70s was part of the key to restoring British fortunes. Througho…

Published on 10 years, 2 months ago

Goebbels and Total War

In February 1943, after one of the longest coldest winters of the war, the news that the German 6th Army had been lost at Stalingrad shocked the nation. In response Joseph Goebbels, the public face o…

Published on 10 years, 2 months ago

The Ku Klux Klan 1915-24

During the First World War the racist terrorist organisation the Ku Klux Klan reformed and by 1924 boasted four million members. However five years later it was once more a political irrelevance.

Exp…

Published on 10 years, 2 months ago

The Berlin Wall 1961

In August 1961 East German and Soviet forces created a wall around West Berlin, preventing East Germans from fleeing to the west. The failures of Soviet Communism and the attractions of a prosperous …

Published on 10 years, 3 months ago

John Lennon in America: 1970-73

In the early 1970s John Lennon embarked on a brief and rather inglorious career as a political activist while based in America. His activism was an indication of the wider radicalisation of the decad…

Published on 10 years, 3 months ago

The Origins of Mao's Cultural Revolution

In 1966 after four years of existing at the margins of the Chinese Communist Party following the disasters of the Great Leap Forward, Mao Zedong returned. He claimed that revisionist and right deviat…

Published on 10 years, 4 months ago