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In 1920 the sale, import and manufacture of alcohol in America was banned and for the next thirteen years the government waged an increasingly fruitless war against smugglers and gangsters to keep America dry. How did a society that cherished libertarian principals and the limited role of the state come to enact such far reaching laws? Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy th
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In 1963 John Profumo, Harold Macmillan’s Minister for War was forced to resign following an affair with a young call girl Christine Keeler. Even though the scandal was relatively trivial it came to dominate the headlines and defined the modern sex scandal. It revealed far more about the anxieties of Britain in a time of growing prosperity than it did about the private life of a junior minister. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert int
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Why did Stalin and Hitler, mortal enemies, sign a non aggression pact in 1939 on the eve of the Second World War? This podcast explores the origins and the consequences of the pact. If you’d like to know more you can check out my ebook Hitler, Stalin and the Destruction of Poland: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hitler-Stalin-Destruction-Poland-Shepley-ebook/dp/B00E0KVDFW Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to
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In 1921 Britain, America and Japan were among ten powers that met in Washington DC for the world’s first ever disarmament conference. The declining power of the British and the rising confidence of Japan in Asia created the conditions for possible future conflict and all three nations positioned themselves to safeguard their interests. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy th
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In 1956 Britain suffered her greatest post war humiliation with following Colonel Nasser’s decision to nationalise the Suez Canal and reclaim it from Britain and France for Egypt. This videocast explores the long term reasons behind this and the foreign policy disaster that cost Anthony Eden his Prime Ministership.(Note: this first appeared on the Explaining History YouTube Channel) Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We
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Throughout the 19th Century Britain felt constantly threatened by and suspicious of Russia. Russian expansionism in the Balkans threatened Britain’s ability to access the routes to her Indian Empire and the British were committed to supporting the weakening Ottoman Empire against Russian expansionism. 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.
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Between 1924 and 1929 Germany’s economy and politics seemed to stabilise and recover from the violence, unrest and revolution of the previous four years. A vibrant avante garde culture flourished in Berlin, and the fortunes of the Nazi Party and the Communists slumped as Germans enjoyed prosperity. The recovery proved to be an illusion and politics once again polarised to the extremes of left and right after 1929 and the Wall Street Crash. For more on Germany, you can download my two ebooks here
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In 1932 Oswald Mosley formed the British Union of Fascists, basing his new party firstly on Italian Fascism and later German Nazism. Within four years the movement had been broken, partly by anti fascist activism but mainly because it was rejected by the British public, fearful of its association with Nazism. 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 an
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There are few economists in the 20th Century who have had the effect on politics and economics in the western world that Friedrich Hayek achieved. His central thesis on the size of the state and the threat of dictatorship influenced politicians from the 190s onwards and has shaped the world we inhabit today. 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
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Between 1918 and 1921 the Russian Civil War claimed 14 million civilian and military lives. The conflict between the new Bolshevik government and the White counter revolutionaries also saw the fragmentation of the empire, famine and the intervention of Britain, France, America and Japan. 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