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PODCAST

Explaining History

How do we make sense of the modern world? We find the answers in the history of the 20th Century.For over a decade, The Explaining History Podcast has been the guide for curious minds. Host Nick Shepley and expert guests break down the world wars, the Cold War, and the rise and fall of ideologies into concise, 25-minute episodes.This isn"t a dry lecture. It"s a critical, narrative-driven conversation that connects the past to your present.Perfect for students, history buffs, and anyone who wants to

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All Episodes

36:28

Britain's Broken Media

Explaining History ·

2025/05/21

In the past two decades successive scandals have revealed that Britain has some of the worst media institutions in the developed world. The ability of ordinary people to interpret the news, use accurate information to hold politicians to account or to gain a coherent sense of the world has arguably never been weaker. In his new book Breaking: Breaking: How the Media Works, When it Doesn't and Why it Matters, Mic Wright sets out a coherent explanation of this key democratic failing in the UK (as well

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35:11

Discussing Mark Twain's 'Jim'

Explaining History ·

2025/05/16

The character of Jim in the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain was written as a condemnation of the Jim Crow regimes that were springing up across the South as the Reconstruction Era slowly came to an end. Twain's Jim was the first Black character in popular American literature that can be thought of as being written in depth and without becoming another racist caricature. The story, set before the civil war, has been the subject of ongoing scholarship and contestation ever since. In this

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27:02

Britain, Germany and the Blitz

Explaining History ·

2025/05/09

By the start of the blitz Britain didn't have enough anti aircraft guns, despite half a decade anticipating mass bombing as a means of war. Germany was ill prepared for the bombing of British cities as well, with its slow, light bomber lacking the speed or the payload to be able to devastate Britain in the way allied airforces would later destroy Germany.*****STOP PRESS*****I only ever talk about history on this podcast but I also have another life, yes, that of aspirant fantasy author and if that's

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24:04

VE Day : London 1945

Explaining History ·

2025/05/08

What was it like to experience the end of the Second World War in London, 80 years ago today? We read David Kynaston's Austerity Britain to find out how housewives, politicians, writers and diarists experienced the end of six years of terrible conflict and what this meant to them.*****STOP PRESS*****I only ever talk about history on this podcast but I also have another life, yes, that of aspirant fantasy author and if that's your thing you can get a copy of my debut novel The Blood of Tharta, right

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25:49

Nazi wartime labour shortages

Explaining History ·

2025/05/07

At the height of the Third Reich's war production there were nearly five million additional German and foreign workers in the war economy. Despite the efforts made by Albert Speer to rationalise the war economy and make it more efficient, there was still too few workers to compete with the combined military production of the allied powers. Workers from Germany, from occupied western countries and from allied countries like Italy and Hungary were recruited though non German workers were paid less and

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25:21

The historiography of Malcolm X

Explaining History ·

2025/05/01

The way in which Malcolm X and the Black Power movement has been interpreted and understood over time has changed as academics grappled with his legacy and interrogated his autobiography, published posthumously. This podcast explores how the way we have come to understand him has changed over time. You can buy Kevern Verney's book - The debate on Black Civil Rights in America here*****STOP PRESS*****I only ever talk about history on this podcast but I also have another life, yes, that of aspirant

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31:42

America's post war rise and fall

Explaining History ·

2025/04/30

In the aftermath of the Second World War, America had half the world's wealth and a quarter of its GDP. By the 1970s its position as an economic powerhouse without competitor had slipped away and it faced stronger challenges from Europe and Japan. A decade of crisis in America saw the forces of neoliberal thinking take centre stage to eviscerate the New Deal in the 1980s.*****STOP PRESS*****I only ever talk about history on this podcast but I also have another life, yes, that of aspirant fantasy

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35:52

Hollywood, witch hunts and class struggle in LA

Explaining History ·

2025/04/23

In this episode of the Explaining History podcast we speak with the writer Dennis Broe whose new book The Dark Ages, explores the second Hollywood anti communist purge of 1951. We talk about Hollywood and Los Angeles as a site of ongoing class struggle, the role of the media and the LAPD in the development of modern Los Angeles and the role of dissenting writers and film makers in challenging the power of the studios.You can join Dennis for a zoom class on Darkest LA: Film Noir, Greed and Corporate

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29:03

The decline of US Liberal Internationalism

Explaining History ·

2025/03/08

Since the beginning of the 21st Century, American internationalism has been in crisis and Trump's recent verbal and economic threats towards allies has accelerated this trend. This podcast explores America's 20th and 21st Century internationalist moments and crises.Help the podcast to continue bringing you history each weekIf you enjoy the Explaining History podcast and its many years of content and would like to help the show continue, please consider supporting it in the following ways:If you want

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22:18

Hitler's resource war in Russia - 1941

Explaining History ·

2025/03/07

In June 1941 Nazi Germany and its allies invaded the USSR, they saw the conquest of the country, the eradication of its leadership and the starvation of tens of millions of its people as part of a wider goal at creating a zone of resource extraction for the Nazi state in order to enable it to withstand an allied blockade and to stand up to the industrial and agricultural might of the USA and the British Empire.Help the podcast to continue bringing you history each weekIf you enjoy the Explaining

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24:01

Romania in 1918

Explaining History ·

2025/03/04

Romania was, in territorial terms, one of the unlikely beneficiaries of the Paris Peace Conference. It acquired land from the disintegrated Austro Hungarian and Russian Empires and from new states like Hungary itself. the core Romanian lands, the Regat, found it challenging to absorb new territories, even when they were majority ethnically Romanian, and the strong desire for a more federalist state was resisted by those elites and power structures who had chiefly benefitted from a strong,

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24:26

Nazi economic plunder of western Europe PT2

Explaining History ·

2025/03/03

When Europe was rapidly subjugated by the Nazi regime, unprecedented economic opportunities arose and these were exploited by Germany's great industrial conglomerates and cartels such as chemicals giant IG Farben. This podcast explores how the Nazi regime imposed a new economic order on conquered states in western Europe.Help the podcast to continue bringing you history each weekIf you enjoy the Explaining History podcast and its many years of content and would like to help the show continue, please

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28:05

Zelenskyy and the US Empire

Explaining History ·

2025/03/01

In the past 24 hours there has been further indication that an immense transition in international relations is under way, far more significant that the retreat into isolation at the end of the First World War. Trump and Vance have signalled their intent to shift the US away from its traditional post war role of being the centre of Pax Americana, the metropole of an unofficial empire, to the first amongst great power equals. The consequences for Europe in this realignment will be dire, but there is

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23:24

The decline of the Ottoman Empire Part 1

Explaining History ·

2025/02/20

Between 1876 and 1920 the Ottoman Empire experienced its final crises, and despite delivering several shock defeats to allied powers during the First World War it was overcome by 1918 and subject to humiliating terms in 1920 - the consequences of which have reverberated across the 20th Century. This is the first of several podcasts on this huge historical transition that is still playing out across the Middle East and beyond. Help the podcast to continue bringing you history each weekIf you enjoy

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24:34

AQA Revolution and Dictatorship: Russia 1917-53 part 15

Explaining History ·

2025/02/19

This episode is part of our study series AQA - Revolution and Dictatorship - Russia 1917-53. In this episode we look at Stalin's Terror.Help the podcast to continue bringing you history each weekIf you enjoy the Explaining History podcast and its many years of content and would like to help the show continue, please consider supporting it in the following ways:If you want to go ad-free, you can take out a membership hereOrYou can support the podcast via Patreon hereOr you can just say some nice

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32:20

The Atlantic alliance from Roosevelt to Trump

Explaining History ·

2025/02/17

America is withdrawing strategically and diplomatically from Europe and leaving Ukraine to its fate. The history of Atlanticism from 1941 to the present day has been a complex relationship often relying on figures like Roosevelt and Churchill whose interests aligned and on America seeing its strategic interests aligning with Europe. This podcast explores the negotiations between Churchill and Roosevelt during the Arcadia Conference and the current decline of relations (including the fabled British

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27:04

Anarchism: A beginners guide Part Four

Explaining History ·

2025/02/15

This episode is the forth in our isms and ologies series on Anarchism and gives an explanation of anarchist thought on managerialism and state bureaucracyHelp the podcast to continue bringing you history each weekIf you enjoy the Explaining History podcast and its many years of content and would like to help the show continue, please consider supporting it in the following ways:If you want to go ad-free, you can take out a membership hereOrYou can support the podcast via Patreon hereOr you can just

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31:58

The rise and fall of American soft power

Explaining History ·

2025/02/12

What is soft power? It was a term conceptualised by Joseph Nye at the end of the Cold War to encapsulate America's moral and cultural appeal to the world. The current decline in the use of soft power by Trump administration was first accelerated by the neocons under George W. Bush, who accepted explicitly that the War on Terror would mean the abandonment of the pretence of moral leadership and this was encapsulated by torture at Abu Ghraib prison, rendition flights and Guantanamo Bay. This podcast

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31:23

Globalisation since the 1990s

Explaining History ·

2025/02/03

What is globalisation? In its current incarnation, it is the now collapsing system of quasi free markets established by the US and its allies after the Second World War that ensured a degree of stability in trade for wealthy countries and the plunder of poorer ones emerging from control by European empires. This podcast explores the functioning of this high point of globalisation and the crises within it. Help the podcast to continue bringing you history each weekIf you enjoy the Explaining History

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26:02

AQA Revolution and Dictatorship: Russia 1917-53 part 14

Explaining History ·

2025/01/29

This episode is part of our study series AQA - Revolution and Dictatorship - Russia 1917-53. In this episode we look at the first part of Stalin's foreign policy, relating to China and Germany.Help the podcast to continue bringing you history each weekIf you enjoy the Explaining History podcast and its many years of content and would like to help the show continue, please consider supporting it in the following ways:If you want to go ad-free, you can take out a membership hereOrYou can support the

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