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PODCAST

Making sense of this crazy world

historymadeeasier

I am a student of history, a teacher of history and a writer of history. You could say history is a passion of mine. I have a website for students and I had been mulling around this idea of a podcast for some time. Would people be interested? Would I make it interesting? That’s essentially what was holding me back. But with a new year starting, the craziness still all around us, I thought what the hell – give it a go, John! The primary purpose of the podcast is to use history to help us make a

history documentary

All Episodes

25:32

Lessons from Hitler - the dangers to putting Trump on...

Making sense of this crazy world ·

2023/09/24

I’m starting a little series that I call “Lessons from Hitler”, comparing what Hitler did with what Trump and Putin have been up to. In this first episode I go back to Hitler's trial in 1924 that followed his failed coup in the previous year. It serves as a stark warning - not that Trump shouldn't face justice. Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream: https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad

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24:53

The Hijab

Making sense of this crazy world ·

2023/09/17

On September 16th, one year ago, Mahsa Amini died in a Tehran hospital three days after being arrested by the Iranian moral police for not wearing her headscarf properly. This episode looks at issues behind the hijab, not just in Iran but in France too. Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream: https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad

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19:52

Walls

Making sense of this crazy world ·

2023/09/10

Ray Lamontagne, a great song writer and a great musician, wrote a song called Be Here Now that includes a such a profound line: ‘Don’t put your trust in walls cos walls will only crush you when they fall’. The first time I heard it I thought wow, that’s a great lyric, and it’s the same every time I listen to the song. If you don’t know him, you really should check him out. More recently, I came across Anais Mitchell and her song, Why We Build the Wall: We build the wall to keep us free The wall

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28:13

The impact of the Cultural Revolution

Making sense of this crazy world ·

2023/09/03

It is so important to step back and take stock of the impact of the Cultural Revolution, as well as to try and make sense of it. And China itself had to do this. With Mao’s death in 1976 and Deng Xiaoping effectively in control by the end of 1978, soon to be made ‘paramount leader’ (what a survivor!), China needed to put the whole affair in the rear-view mirror and move on. But it had some explaining to do before it could do that! Intro and outro music curtesy of

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22:20

The Cultural Revolution - seizing back control

Making sense of this crazy world ·

2023/08/27

We left things last week at the beginning of 1967 with the Cultural Revolution out of control and turning on the Chinese Communist Party itself. Even Mao now thought that “trusting the masses” had gone too far. Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream: https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad

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17:34

The Cultural Revolution spirals out of control

Making sense of this crazy world ·

2023/08/20

This week we are continuing our examination of Mao in power by looking at what must be the most chaotic, crazy period in any country’s history as the Cultural Revolution spiralled out of control. Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream: https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad

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23:09

China’s Cultural Revolution

Making sense of this crazy world ·

2023/08/13

The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, to give its full grand title, lasted from early 1966 to Mao’s death in 1976, though its fiery phase ended in 1969. But what was the Cultural Revolution? The answer - surprise, surprise - is not straightforward. Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream: https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad

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20:49

The Great Leap Forward: Farce and Famine

Making sense of this crazy world ·

2023/08/06

Thgis second episode looking at China’s Great Leap Forward in the 1950s will show just how crazy and tragic the whole thing was, and why I call this episode ‘Farce and Famine’. It also serves as an example of just how one person can destroy the lives of millions. Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream: https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad

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19:46

China and the Great Leap Forward

Making sense of this crazy world ·

2023/07/30

This week I’m going to take a look at the first of two disasters that were the end product of Mao policies. This first, the Great Leap Forward, was ideological and economic in nature but its cost was measured in human terms: millions of human lives. Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream: https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad

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18:42

Mao and The Long March

Making sense of this crazy world ·

2023/07/23

Having looked at China before the Chinese Communist Party came to power, I want to take a few episodes to look at the man who dominated Chinese history from the end of the ‘century of humiliation’ to his death in 1976. The man whose body still sits in a mausoleum in the middle of Tiananmen Square in the heart of Beijing: Mao. This episode looks at some of the reasons why he gained power. Intro and outro music curtesy of

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22:45

24 How history is taught in schools

Making sense of this crazy world ·

2023/07/16

History is important to countries because it shapes the collective memory of the next generation, the way they see their own country and its place in the world. Pride, patriotism, knowing your friends and your enemies, knowing who you think you can trust and who you can’t trust, are all influenced by how history is taught. This episode will consider how history is taught in schools. Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream: https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad

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13:05

What the ’century of humiliation’ means to China today

Making sense of this crazy world ·

2023/07/09

I really like a phrase I came across in preparing this episode. It comes from in an article produced by the European Foundation for South Asian Studies called Assessing the ‘Century of Humiliation’. It says how ‘Contextualising history means contextualising behaviour’. To put it the other way round, to understand a country’s behaviour today, we have to look at it in the context of its history. For its historical experiences play a major part in how it sees the world today. And this episode looks at

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21:38

The Chinese Century of Humiliation

Making sense of this crazy world ·

2023/07/02

This was in fact a long century, lasting 110 years. For it began with the First Opium War with Britain which began in 1839. And it didn’t end until the end of WW2 and the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. It was a century in which China and the Chinese people suffered at the hands of imperial powers, mostly from Europe and Japan, but a little bit from America too. Every Chinese leader over the last century has regarded it to be his historic task to overcome that ‘century of

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19:53

The Chinese and their history

Making sense of this crazy world ·

2023/06/25

If China is to become a dominant player, if not the dominant player, in the 21st century and beyond, then it is important that the rest of the world reaches an understanding of just what it is we are dealing with. We see the world very much from the perspective we have been taught: the British perspective, the European perspective, the American perspective. Well, China’s culture, its values and its history is very different, and so too is their view of the world we share. Intro and outro music

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21:19

Understanding Chinese culture

Making sense of this crazy world ·

2023/06/18

With this episode I’m going to give you a few insights to China – its history and its culture. I think it’s important because I think the world is going to change radically in the not-too distant future. The Western perception of how things should be done – free markets, democratic norms, the rule of law, human rights – are going to be challenged by different civilisations, notably China’s. Intro and outro music curtesy of

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25:09

The significance of Chinese History

Making sense of this crazy world ·

2023/06/11

The leaders of the G7 met recently and China was high on the agenda for their discussions. Rishi Sunak, the British Prime Minister, said that China posed 'the greatest challenge of our age.' He's not wrong, but how well does he know China? This episode begins a little series on China by giving some illustrations of the significance of the awakening giant. Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream: https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad

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10:45

The consequences of the Iran-Iraq War

Making sense of this crazy world ·

2023/06/04

This episode looks at the consequences of the Iran-Iraq War as they rippled out across time from Iran and Iraq and their people, to the region as a whole and to the wider world. Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream: https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad

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18:50

The Iran-Iraq War

Making sense of this crazy world ·

2023/05/28

We’ve been looking at the impact of Saddam Hussein and Ayatollah Khomeini on their people, and I’m going to end this mini-series by taking a look at the Iran-Iraq War. Lasting eight years, from 1980 through to 1988, the Iran-Iraq War was one of the longest wars since WW2, and it was one of the most bloody. Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream: https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad

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19:25

The impact of Saddam and Ayatollah Khomeini on...

Making sense of this crazy world ·

2023/05/21

We are looking at the impact of Saddam Hussein and Ayatollah Khomeini on history and on people’s lives, and in this episode, it is the effect on the Iraqi and Iranian people that I will focus on. Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream: https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad

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21:31

The nature of rule in Saddam’s Iraq and Ayaltollah...

Making sense of this crazy world ·

2023/05/14

We are looking at the impact of Saddam Hussein and Ayatollah Khomeini on history and on people’s lives, and in this episode, I’m going to look at the nature of their rule. Saddam is often described as a dictator, enforcing his vision of how a society should be, the policies that will make that vision a reality, and destroying anyone who thought differently. Whereas In sharp contrast, Ayatollah Khomeini's regime was a theocracy. Intro and outro music curtesy of

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155 results

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