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Following the death of US president Franklin Roosevelt, his successor, Harry Truman entered the Oval Office in the last days of World War Two. The inexperienced and untested president charted a new course in US diplomacy, ending his predecessor’s accommodation of Soviet demands. One of the key moments in the development of the Cold War began in April 1945 with Truman’s presidency. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We co
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By the end of the 1960s the Cold War was in deadlock and America was mired in war in Vietnam. Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger attempted to address these crises but in a secretive and controlling fashion. The results were a major shift in Cold War relations but also terrible devastation and destruction in Asia. 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
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At the end of the Second World War, the USA was the wealthiest society in history and experienced an economic boom that was to last for nearly three decades. This boom had a profound transformational effect on American society and was the dawning of the USA that dominated the world in the second half of the 20th Century. 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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During the chaos of the First World War a generation of British and American correspondents in Russia astutely predicted the failure of the Provisional Government and came to see the Bolsheviks as a viable alternative. Some, like Arthur Ransome and John Reed went further and became passionate advocates for the new regime led by Vladimir Lenin. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you
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In the early 1970s John Lennon embarked on a brief and rather inglorious career as a political activist while based in America. His activism was an indication of the wider radicalisation of the decade and can help us to examine the prevalence of the counter culture in 1970s America. 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
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When the Nazis’ occupation of Greece ended and a gradual withdrawal turned into a desperate retreat from the Red Army, a civil war in Greece began. The British occupied Athens in a bid to restore King George II and prevent a communist takeover, but it proved to be one of Churchill’s most controversial initiatives of the war and the beginning of a conflict that would last until 1949. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We
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During Stalin’s First Five Year Plan (1928-1932), the Russian population experienced greater material hardship and shortages than at any time since the Russian Civil War. Mass industrialisation led to food and housing shortages, resulting in misery and protest among the urban population. 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
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Lyndon Johnson had an antagonistic relationship with the Kennedy brothers but was indispensable to John F Kennedy as a political fixer. Following Kennedy’s death he became President of the USA and won a landslide victory a year later. This podcast explores the career, ambitions, struggles and crises of Lyndon Johnson. 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 sub
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In the second half of the 1970s Americans developed a profound disillusionment with politics and a skepticism towards the office of president. The impact of Watergate and the apparent weakness of Nixon’s two successors combined with an overall economic gloom and American humiliation in Vietnam and the Middle East. 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 subscri
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In the immediate aftermath of the Chinese Civil War and the seizure of power by the Chinese Communist Party, Mao Zedong began a violent struggle for control of China’s countryside. In a bid to develop a rural powerbase for himself and his party, Mao encouraged communities to tear themselves apart in cycles of denunciation and revenge. 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