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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

18:01

The Soviet Union takes control of eastern Europe and...

Making sense of this crazy world ·

2024/09/22

In 1947 and 1948, the Soviet Union moved to fulfil Churchill’s prediction and gain control of eastern Europe. It created a bloc of countries with governments loyal to them, even if their people weren’t. And America responded.

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13:05

Explaining the Cold War: Allies Fall Out

Making sense of this crazy world ·

2024/09/15

Mistrust is an interesting word and its worth reflecting on just what it might mean. It could be seen as entirely rational. Based on reason and looking at the Cold War, it would focus on the ideological divide, a divide that appeared to allow for no compromise. Democracy and self-determination versus dictatorship and empire-building. Free trade versus protectionism too. As it might also look to past deeds, for example appeasement of Hitler or the Nazi-Soviet Pact. But it might also be based on

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18:23

Explaining the Cold War: The Context

Making sense of this crazy world ·

2024/09/08

Though there was a clear ideological divide, this hadn’t prevented the Soviet Union and the West uniting to defeat Hitler. So how was it that allies became enemies, and so quickly? How did Europe come to be divided by, in Churchill’s famous phrase, an ‘iron curtain’? Can we attach blame? Or was it mostly a terrible misunderstanding from both sides? This episode provides the context to this epoch-making momemt in history.

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13:55

Two Incredible Women

Making sense of this crazy world ·

2024/09/01

I'm breaking away from my history of the Middle East though not entirely. Because it just so happens that while reading a book by a super, super historian Margaret MacMillan; the book: History’s People, I came across two incredible women, one kicking around in the Middle East, the other in the Balkans, around the time of WW1 and I really wanted to share what I learned about them with you. So, a slight diversion to take a look at Gertrude Bell and Edith Durham, two truly incredible women.

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21:18

The End Game for the French in Syria and Lebanon

Making sense of this crazy world ·

2024/08/25

In this episode we look at the end of the French mandates and take a brief look at what, having been given their independence, Syria and Lebanon were able to do with it.

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20:55

The Middle East and WW2: Victory only muddies the waters

Making sense of this crazy world ·

2024/08/18

In 1943, we come to a point where the story of the French and British mandates intertwines again, or at least more visibly intertwines for wasn’t it always so. And with victory in Europe looking increasingly likely, the waters, far from becoming clearer, only get more muddied as France and Britain lose control of events.

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24:53

The Middle East and WW2: France divided and Britain...

Making sense of this crazy world ·

2024/08/11

So far, the history of the Middle East has been a complicated story of Britain and France trying to out-manoeuvre each other whilst at the same time out-manoeuvring the Arabs and, in Britain’s case, the Jews too. Couldn’t get more complicated? Of course it could. In WW2, the same complications are there to be seen but now Britain is dealing with two Frances: Vichy France, the third of France that had some autonomy from the Germans so long as they collaborated with them; and Free France led by

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18:28

Palestine and Jordan post WW1: from bad to worse

Making sense of this crazy world ·

2024/08/04

Everything goes from bad to worse for Britain in Palestine: the Arab Revolt and Zionist terrorism as Hitler's attacks on the Jewish community in Nazi Germany worsens and a second world war looks increasingly likely.

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16:28

The British mandates in Palestine and Jordan after WW1

Making sense of this crazy world ·

2024/07/28

This episode looks at the dilemma that immediately faced the British in Palestine: how to satisfy Jews and Arabs. What led to the Arab revolt and to Zionist terrorism with Nazi Germany the menacing backdrop. And, too, how Transjordan transformed itself into the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

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24:05

Mesopotamia, Persia and Kuwait in-between the wars

Making sense of this crazy world ·

2024/07/21

Before WW1, what was to become Iraq was administered as three provinces of the Ottoman or Turkish Empire, none of which identified strongly with the others: Mosul, Baghdad and Basra, collectively known as Mesopotamia. Persia (today’s Iran), had been a British protectorate since 1899, as was Kuwait. All three states have become important in recent history. So what was British rule like in those inter-war years?

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23:53

The French in Syria and Lebanon post-WW1

Making sense of this crazy world ·

2024/07/14

WW1 had been shattering for Europe: at least ten million dead, a lost generation of young men; WW1 had turned Britain from being the world’s largest creditor to being its largest debtor, whilst France’s economy was simply in ruins. European standing might have been dealt a mighty blow, its arrogance not so much. As you will see in this episode, both Britain and France still held unrealistic imperial ambitions.

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22:27

OIl and International Relations

Making sense of this crazy world ·

2024/07/07

This week I’m going to focus on an issue that seems to dominate so much of international relations today, and which, right back at the beginning of the twentieth century, came to dominate Britain’s thinking more and more as WW1 was still being fought out: oil.

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25:35

German Reactions to the Treaty of Versailles

Making sense of this crazy world ·

2024/06/30

You would be hard pushed to find a single German who didn’t hate the Treaty of Versailles and those who had forced it on their nation; and for many, those who had accepted it: the November Criminals as they were labelled. And that’s what this episode is going to look at, and in doing so, help explain why we had a second world war.

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22:28

Dealing with Germany and Reshaping Europe

Making sense of this crazy world ·

2024/06/23

As a break from the Middle East, I thought it would be interesting to look at how the allies in Paris dealt with Germany and take in briefly how Europe was reshaped. It seems to me that you would find it interesting as there is no doubt that the Treaty of Versailles, the treaty that dealt with Germany, is a major factor in any explanation of the second world war and all that entailed, whilst the other treaties went a long way to reshape Europe. So, the first of two episodes looking at how Germany

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13:42

Enter Ataturk

Making sense of this crazy world ·

2024/06/16

I said you would meet Mustafa Kemal or Ataturk properly, well, now’s the time. I’ve given hints of his place in Turkish history and now it’s time to do that properly too. Because you can’t understand modern Turkey and what Erdogan has done with Ataturk’s Turkey unless we go back to what Ataturk established.

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18:04

Dealing with the Turks

Making sense of this crazy world ·

2024/06/09

This episode is going to take a look at how the peacemakers dealt with Turkey as we shouldn’t underestimate the significance of Turkey today. It has a different relationship to the countries of the Middle East, and Russia too, than do western European countries and America; while it is a member of NATO, and has been since 1952. And that alone makes it very important.

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15:59

Manoeuvrings in Paris

Making sense of this crazy world ·

2024/06/02

This episode continues our look at the Paris Peace Conference that followed WW1 as it gets down to the nitty gritty of the negotiations that did so much to shape the way the Middle East looks, and feels, today.

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20:52

Manoeuvrings before the Paris Peace Conference

Making sense of this crazy world ·

2024/05/26

This episode begins a considered look at the manoeuvrings both immediately before and during the Paris Peace Conference, the conference that shaped the world after WW1. Its really important because this conference set in motion the grievances that the Arab world and the Muslim world hold against the West today, and that includes, not only the fact that there is an Israeli state, and the situation in Gaza and the West Bank today, but it also goes a long way to explaining the sorry state of Lebanon

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18:45

British and French manoeuvrings during WW1

Making sense of this crazy world ·

2024/05/19

The themes of this history so farAllies (that is Britain and France) that didn’t trust each other; indeed, allies that shouldn’t trust each other How British and French imperialism was paying little regard to the needs of those who had lived for generation after generation in the Middle East And the hole Britain was digging itself saying different things to the French, the Arabs and the Zionists

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21:21

How the Middle East was shaped: A line in the sand

Making sense of this crazy world ·

2024/05/12

In this series I’m going to go back to the Middle East and the roots of the Middle East as we know it today; with all its worrying problems. And to do that, I have to go back to WW1, even before the war, at least a little bit.

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147 results

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