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The Battle of the Atlantic was a key conflict during World War II, lasting from 1939 to 1945. It was a struggle for control of the Atlantic Ocean between the Allied powers (primarily the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada) and the Axis powers (led by Germany).
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Hi there everyone, I had the great pleasure to be interviewed on the East Marshian Chronicles podcast recently about the writer JB Priestley and the historical context of his work. You can hear the show here: https://eastmarshianchronicles.buzzsprout.com/1764181/9442034-historian-nick-shepley-on-the-background-and-context-of-an-inspector-calls
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Reading Everyday Stalinism by Sheila Fitzpatrick (one of my favourite social histories of the USSR, as regular listeners will know), one thing becomes abundantly clear about the Soviet view of time and history itself. The historical and social state that the party would describe as communism was always something to be eventually reached and never actually experienced. In the 1920s and 1930s, party members and leaders would make pronouncements about how far of, chronologically, communism was, and give reasons as to why it was not yet attained. Often those explanations were that saboteurs, enemy spies and enemy classes were holding…
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British Prime Ministers in the 1920s and 1930s inherited a world created for them by David Lloyd George between 1919 and 1923, and were unable to cope with its challenges, complexities and risks. In the case of Stanley Baldwin, who ruled for most of the period as leader of a Conservative or National Government, the strain of dealing with a rapidly worsening international situation led to his resignation in 1937 and his replacement with Neville Chamberlain. The British public was steadfastly against war and rearmament, the memories of the First World War, which broke out to the shock and horror…
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This article was originally posted on the Explaining History Patreon in April. Neoliberalism is a term so over used as it is fast approaching redundancy. Marxists like David Harvey see it as a tool for class retrenchment and the erasing of the modest social democratic gains seen during the post war era in much of the wealthy world (Europe, America, South East Asia). Certain models of neoliberalism such as that of Pinochet’s Chile were achieved through the overthrow of democracy and the introduction of a police state based on murder and torture. In Britain and America democratic instiutions endured and…
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I originally posted this article on an older blog, but as Britain rarely learns from its crises, it’s pretty much evergreen: In a way, Britain has had but once crisis since the end of the Second World War, it has emerged in different guises at different times, but it has essentially been the same problem. Britain, as Dean Acheson said, has lost an empire but not yet found a role. In 1945 Britain did not accept that her empire was gone and more significantly, that the centre of world finance had shifted from London to New York. In 1945 Britain…
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Hi everyone, as I might have mentioned on the podcast, I’ve now got the time and the long covid recovery to start blogging again. Here’s a rundown of everything I’ve podcasted this week: Poverty, Caste and recruitment to the Indian Army during the Second World War: https://play.acast.com/s/explaininghistory/poverty-casteandrecruitmenttotheindianarmyduringworldwartwo France, Britain and the Road to Suez 1952-56: https://play.acast.com/s/explaininghistory/france-britainandtheroadtosuez1952-56 The ethnic cleansing of German civilians in Eastern Europe after 1945: https://play.acast.com/s/explaininghistory/theethniccleansingofgermanciviliansineasterneurope-1945 Anti Communism in Europe 1917-21: https://play.acast.com/s/explaininghistory/anticommunismineurope1917-21
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British song writers in the 1960s rarely ventured into the realm of politics and protest, unlike their American counterparts. The Who’s My Generation had little to say about politics and was simply a statement about the aspirations and interests of the baby boomers. John Lennon had gravitated towards politics from 1968’s Revolution onwards and in 1969, following his marriage to Yoko Ono, staged a ‘Bed-In’ in Amsterdam and then Montreal. It was during the latter that he recorded Give Peace A Chance, with LSD proponent Timothy Leary, a local group of Hare Krishnas and at least one Rabbi. John Lennon’s…