Explaining History — modern history for students, teachers and curious minds

Explaining History Podcast

Best Podcasts on Modern British History

May 24, 2026

Reading time:

2–3 minutes

From the crisis years of the 1930s to the collapse of the post-war consensus, from Windrush to Wapping, from the Blitz to Brexit — Explaining History has spent over a decade documenting the political, social and cultural history of modern Britain. This collection brings together the most essential episodes organised by era and theme.

Episodes on Thatcherism and neoliberal economics are collected separately on the Neoliberalism and Thatcherism page. For Britain’s experience of the Second World War specifically, see the World War Two collection.

Britain Between the Wars: 1919–1939

Interwar Britain was a society navigating profound economic anxiety, the looming threat of European fascism, and the first stirrings of organised anti-fascist resistance. These three episodes examine the social landscape, the political divisions, and the arguments about how Britain should respond to the rise of Hitler.

British Society During the 1930s

British Anti-Fascism 1929–36

Pacifism and British Politics 1933–39

Britain at War: 1939–1945

Three episodes on Britain’s home front experience — the inadequate preparations for the Blitz, the reality of the bombing campaign, and the long Battle of the Atlantic that nearly starved Britain into submission. For the full range of World War Two episodes across all theatres, see the World War Two collection.

British Air Raid Precautions 1938–1940

Britain, Germany and the Blitz

Britain’s Convoys, Germany’s U-Boats

Post-War Britain: The Welfare State and the Working Class (1945–1970s)

The post-war settlement created the NHS, nationalised key industries, and built the welfare state — transforming what it meant to be working class in Britain. These episodes examine that transformation and the long unmaking that followed it.

Post-War British Society 1945–1990

The British Working Class 1945–2024

Race, Immigration and Black Britain

Post-war Britain was shaped by the arrival of Caribbean and South Asian communities whose contributions were met with systemic racism and exclusion. These episodes examine the experience of Black Britain from the Windrush era through the political and cultural awakening of the 1970s and 1980s.

Racism, Whiteness and Black Britain

Black Britain and Roots

The Crisis of British Identity: 1970s to the Present

From punk and anti-racist pop to the collapse of the Conservative Party, from austerity’s death toll to the emergence of a new left — these episodes examine the long crisis of British political identity that began in the 1970s and accelerated dramatically after 2010.