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The British government had a long standing suspicion of the powers of broadcasting when the BBC was established in 1922. The experience of the General Strike, however, established the BBC as the most effective means of disseminating hegemonic ideas in Britain. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share. ▸ Support the Show & Get Exclusive Content Become a Patron: patreon.com/explaininghistory ▸ Join the Community & Continue the Conversation Facebook Group: facebook.com/groups/ExplainingHistoryPodcast Substack: theexplaininghistorypodcast.substack.com ▸ Read Articles &…
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How did Australia adapt to the decline of the British Empire and the challenges of the Cold WarCold War The geopolitical and ideological confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union that dominated global politics from 1947 to 1991. It was fought not through direct military conflict between the superpowers but through proxy wars, arms races, espionage, and ideological competition across the developing world. The Cold War began before the Second World War had fully ended: American and Soviet disagreements over the post-war order in Europe were visible at Yalta in February 1945 and had hardened into open confrontation…
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In 1968 a new wave of political purges began, following two years of anarchy in the Cultural RevolutionCultural Revolution Mao Zedong’s decade-long campaign of radical political and social transformation launched in China in 1966, in which Red Guards attacked ‘capitalist roaders’ and ‘counter-revolutionaries’, destroying cultural heritage, paralysing the education system, and killing an estimated half million to two million people. The Cultural Revolution was Mao’s response to his political marginalisation following the catastrophic Great Leap Forward. In 1966, bypassing the party apparatus that had constrained him, Mao appealed directly to youth — mobilising millions of students as Red Guards to…
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In the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, a skeptical Harry Truman abolished America’s only spy agency the OSS, without a replacement. Within two years, as British military and intelligence power declined, Truman discovered the need for a new organisation was paramount. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share. ▸ Support the Show & Get Exclusive Content Become a Patron: patreon.com/explaininghistory ▸ Join the Community & Continue the Conversation Facebook Group: facebook.com/groups/ExplainingHistoryPodcast Substack: theexplaininghistorypodcast.substack.com ▸ Read…
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Hitler’s war industries experienced critical manpower shortages throughout the war and the solution was to import millions of foreign workers from allied and conquered territories. However, this profoundly altered German society during the conflict. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share. ▸ Support the Show & Get Exclusive Content Become a Patron: patreon.com/explaininghistory ▸ Join the Community & Continue the Conversation Facebook Group: facebook.com/groups/ExplainingHistoryPodcast Substack: theexplaininghistorypodcast.substack.com ▸ Read Articles & Go Deeper Website: explaininghistory.org Hosted on Acast.…
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The horrors of the HolocaustHolocaust holocaust The systematic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators between 1933 and 1945. It was the culmination of a programme of escalating persecution, exclusion, and ultimately industrialised genocide without precedent in human history. The Holocaust — the Hebrew term is Shoah, meaning catastrophe — unfolded in stages. The Nazi seizure of power in 1933 brought immediately a regime committed to removing Jews from German public life: civil service dismissals, boycotts, the Nuremberg Laws of 1935 which stripped Jews of citizenship, Kristallnacht in 1938 which destroyed synagogues…
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The outbreak of war in the Korean peninsula in 1950 was preceded by half a decade of careful consideration by StalinStalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (18 December 1878 – 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician, dictator and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. Read More and an desire by Mao to take on the capitalist world. Prior to this, Korea had been an afterthought for the Soviet dictator, who was more interested in affairs in Europe. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the…
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In Phillip Knightley’s seminal account of war reporting ‘The First Casualty’, the British came to excel in distorting war reporting and influencing public thinking, presenting the war as the ‘Great struggle for civilisation’ Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share. ▸ Support the Show & Get Exclusive Content Become a Patron: patreon.com/explaininghistory ▸ Join the Community & Continue the Conversation Facebook Group: facebook.com/groups/ExplainingHistoryPodcast Substack: theexplaininghistorypodcast.substack.com ▸ Read Articles & Go Deeper Website: explaininghistory.org Hosted on Acast. See…
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After eight years of devastating war with Japan, China found an uncertain peace in the summer of 1945, which would soon come crashing down. The civil war between the Nationalists and Communists was temporarily suspended, but intervention from the USA and the USSR gave both sides the resources to resume the conflict. Please support Explaining History via Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=763386&utm_campaign=creatorshare2&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share. ▸ Support the Show & Get Exclusive Content Become a Patron:…
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In 1939 American diplomats were certain that Britain and France faced defeat and Roosevelt would have to play the role of peace broker. A new prime minister in 1940, Winston Churchill, spoke the language of defiance and struggle that impressed the US president and was key in securing American aid. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share. ▸ Support the Show & Get Exclusive Content Become a Patron: patreon.com/explaininghistory ▸ Join the Community & Continue the Conversation…