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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 interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share. ▸ Support…
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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 the show, please subscribe and share. ▸ Support the Show & Get Exclusive Content Become a Patron: patreon.com/explaininghistory ▸ Join…
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Artist and Propagandist Leni Riefenstahl is the most contested figure in the history of cinema. Her two major documentary films — Triumph of the Will (1935), recording the 1934 Nuremberg Rally, and Olympia (1938), documenting the Berlin Olympics — are technically extraordinary works that transformed the language of documentary filmmaking. They are also among the most effective propaganda films ever made, produced in service of a regime engaged in the systematic persecution of Jews and the preparation of a war of conquest. The question of how to hold these two facts simultaneously — and what the relationship between them tells…
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Harold Wilson was Britain’s Prime Minister from 1964-1970, a period in which optimistic visions of a new country faltered and faded. By the end of the decade the modern, meritocratic and scientific country that he promised in 1964 had not materialised. This podcast explores Wilson and the challenges he and Britain faced. 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…
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The Potsdam Conference was the last major meeting of the allied powers and took place after the surrender of Germany. The conference was a key event in the development 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…
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Benito Mussolini dominated Italy for two decades and was able to rule partly because of the relationship he had with the Italian people. To many ordinary Italians he was an immensely popular figure and many viewed him as down to earth and in touch with the lives of Italy’s working poor. This podcast explores his cult of personalityCult of Personality Full Description: The Cult of Personality manifested in the omnipresence of the leader’s image and words. The “Little Red Book” became a sacred text, expected to be carried, studied, and recited by all citizens. Loyalty dances, badges, and the attribution of all…
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During the First World War, nearly a hundred thousand poor Chinese labourers dug British trenches on the western front. Their government hoped that the war would provide opportunities to revise crippling treaties imposed on her by Britain and France and claim back territory lost to Germany and Japan. When Chinese hopes were dashed at the Paris Peace Conference, the long term political consequences in China were immense and dominated the next three decades. 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…
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In 1919 America experienced a post war explosion of racial violence. Black communities in over 30 cities across the USA were attacked by mobs, angry at the new economic opportunities that had opened up to black people as a result of the First World War. 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…
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In the first two years of the First World War, British Prime Minister Herbert Asquith was a distant and detached character, leaving major decisions to the War Office, Winston Churchill and Horatio Kitchener. By 1915 two crises, munitions shortages and Gallipoli had resulted in his subordinates political demise and the creation of a coalition government. 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…
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In the second half of the 19th Century, the development of a new and diverse range of magazines, leaflets and books written by educated and wealthy Victorian women for a female audience had a radicalising effect on the women’s movement. The desire for equality before the law led to a pressure for female suffrage and a minor publishing revolution developed in support of these goals. 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 &…