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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

17:48

Britain knocked off its perch

Making sense of this crazy world ·

2025/06/29

This episode looks a little deeper at the period in which the industrialising world catches up and overtakes Britain.*Do note that since researching and recording this episode, India has overtaken Japan to become the world's 4th biggest economy. How fast this world of ours is changing!

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16:46

The Industrial Revolution Goes Global

Making sense of this crazy world ·

2025/06/22

I’m continuing my look at the industrialising world by focusing on the globalisation of the industrial revolution, well at least its spread to Europe and America!

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14:38

The Second Phase of Industrialisation: The Railway Age

Making sense of this crazy world ·

2025/06/15

I’m looking at the first industrial revolution in Britain that did so much to shape the world we live in today and in this second episode I want to highlight the key motivating factor: the profit motive, as well as the importance of the railways.

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17:42

The First Industrial Revolution

Making sense of this crazy world ·

2025/06/08

I’m changing tack completely in this little series to look at some of the truly big events that shaped the world we live in today. And I’m beginning with the industrial revolution in Britain. Hugely significant because not only did the British economy rapidly grow, and eventually the world economy, but it did so because of a technological revolution, simple though that may have been at first, and because of, and through, a social revolution that utterly transformed society.

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20:45

The UN in trouble in the Congo

Making sense of this crazy world ·

2025/06/01

This week we are going to look at the UN embroiled in a civil war in the Congo at the beginning of the 1960s. A sorry tale that also serves to illustrate just what imperialism had done to Africa.

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18:01

The UN in trouble in KOrea

Making sense of this crazy world ·

2025/05/25

The way the United Nations is being ignored by the Soviet Union with regard to Ukraine, ignored and attacked by Israel in Gaza (more than 280 UNWRA and other UN Humanitarian personnel killed by the Israeli Defence Force), it seems as if we are witnessing the end of the UNs usefulness. But this isn’t the first time the United Nations has faced huge controversy, has seemed to be finished as an international peace-keeping body, as a force for good. There are two truly massive crises that I’m aware of

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21:42

The Kurds in Iraq and Iran

Making sense of this crazy world ·

2025/05/18

This is my second episode looking at the Kurds, the largest ethnic group in the world without a home to call its own. Having looked at the Kurds in Turkey and in Syria, today we’ll look at the Kurds in Iraq and Iran.

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16:04

The Kurds in Turkey and Syria

Making sense of this crazy world ·

2025/05/11

I’m looking at the Kurds today, the largest ethnic group in the world without a home to call its own. That fact alone makes it necessary for us to know something about their history, I think. Well, this is the first of two episodes doing that.

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16:16

Sunnis and Shi'ites

Making sense of this crazy world ·

2025/05/04

This episode sets out to explain the reasons behind the schism in the Islamic world between Sunnis and Shi'ites or Shias, as well as the consequences of the schism.

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18:25

The Consequences of the Syrian Civil War

Making sense of this crazy world ·

2025/04/27

A final episode on Syria taking a look at the consequences of the civil war, most importantly on people but also on the politics of the region.

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21:08

The Nature of the Syrian Civil War

Making sense of this crazy world ·

2025/04/20

I don’t want to plot the path of the war so much (though there will inevitably be a bit of that), rather I want to focus on the nature of it, its characteristics, so that we can better understand its significance today.

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21:22

Bashar's Rule and Reasons for the Civil War in Syria

Making sense of this crazy world ·

2025/04/13

For a very brief period, Bashar seemed to offer a liberal regime but he soon revived the authoritarian tactics of his late father’s administration. It would eventually lead to protests, that became an uprising or a revolution, and eventually a civil war; and that’s what our focus is for this episode.

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22:42

Hafez Assad and the Arab (and wider) World

Making sense of this crazy world ·

2025/04/06

Hafez Assad moved Syria ever closer to the Soviet Union (and then lost it). And he set out to position Syria as a regional power and himself as the leader of the Arab world, filling the vacuum left by Nasser, and that meant taking on Israel (or at least at first it did), it also meant rivalry with Saddam Hussein, and, as we have seen, it meant interfering in the Lebanon Civil War and, indeed, its occupation of Lebanon (so I won’t revisit that). But all this also meant that, one way or another,

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20:39

Syria Under Hafez Assad

Making sense of this crazy world ·

2025/03/30

The good, the bad and the downright ugly side of Hafez Assad's rule.

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25:33

The Ba'ath Party in Syria

Making sense of this crazy world ·

2025/03/23

The fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime took us all by surprise. The armed coalition, led by the Islamist militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA), put an end to over fifty years of the Assad family’s rule of Syria. And I want to explore how first Hafez al-Assad, and then Bashar al-Assad, got to power and what they did in power. In other words, how did we get to where we are today?

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22:52

The Cedar Revolution of 2005 and the Israeli Invasion...

Making sense of this crazy world ·

2025/03/16

A peaceful, people-led, revolution against Syrian occupation, Hezbollah attacks on Israel and another Israeli invasion of Lebanon.

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26:56

The Lebanon war or Israel's Second Invasion

Making sense of this crazy world ·

2025/03/09

With the Israeli’s and the Christian Maronites both eager to cement their relationship and control Syria, and with Syria determined that they should be the leading player in Lebanon and so be the leading player in the Arab world’s settlement with Israel, and with the root of the problem – the question of a Palestinian state – unresolved – nothing was settled in Lebanon. Far from it.

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23:34

The Lebanese Civil War: the first stage up to 1978

Making sense of this crazy world ·

2025/03/02

Civil war broke out in Lebanon for a second time in 1975, partly as a result of the communal divisions in Lebanon but partly as a result of communal relationships with Syria and Israel, and because of the Arab world's conflict with Israel. But the consequences of the civil war would do nothing to ease the situation with regard to Israel.

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24:10

Afghanistan enters the mix and the Soviet Union...

Making sense of this crazy world ·

2025/02/23

In this, my last episode looking at the impact of the Cold War on the Middle East, I’m going to take us to the end of the Cold War and the part Afghanistan played in the Soviet Union's collapse.

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24:30

The Cold War and the Middle East with a focus on Iran...

Making sense of this crazy world ·

2025/02/16

Both America and the Soviet Union continued to build links with the region at every opportunity. But Iran and Iraq made it an unsettling, uncertain experience.

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147 results

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