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Hi folks, here’s a quick video I’ve put together for students on the long term causes of the Russian Revolution and the revolutionary period that began in 1861 with the emancipation of the serfs.
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It’s worth reflecting that in the past 2-3 months the following things have happened: It can be tempting to ascribe meaning to clusters of events, and it’s in the nature of human beings to do so. Our understanding of the world is shaped into narratives which by their very nature include some facts and exclude others. Are there some object lessons we can learn from the disparate events of the last few months without making generalisations that are to broad and too sweeping? Perhaps. Let’s look at the failings of the global right by examining Britain, America and Brazil. There…
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Traditionally, Britain has managed to avoid appearing to be a corrupt country, because so much of what any rational onlooker might call graft is actually legal. The rewarding of party donors with the ear of cooperative ministers, peerages and other honours enables British politicians to be easily and cheaply bought. This process acts as a short circuit on the democratic process, rendering votes meaningless and leaving the public with a deep and resentful belief that no matter who one votes for, nothing changes. For five decades, Britain’s newspaper proprietors, now just four oligarchs (Murdoch, Rothermere, Barclay, Lebedev) have exerted a…
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In this week’s podcast I referred to the author Stephen Dorril as former MP. This is not the case, and in fact the Stephen Dorril in question is an author and academic who specialises in intelligence work. So there you go, bad me, I am not infallible and get it wrong from time to time. I will repeat this clarification on next week’s podcast. Mr Dorril, if you happen to listen to the podcast, I do apologise.
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Hey everyone, podcast is delayed by a few days. Tonight I have to move my entire library of history books to allow the plumber access to change the boiler. Normal service will resume later this week.
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In 2002, the British public decided by a considerable margin, in a BBC poll, that Sir Winston Spencer Leonard Churchill, Prime Minister from 1940-45 was the greatest Briton of all time. This, culturally, was a watershed moment in many ways. Firstly, it was the culmination of a war fetishism that had been developing for decades (at least since the 1950s), and which found its deepest expression in the two decades that would follow the BBC poll. Secondly, it came at a time of immense fragility for the British national psyche. A country that had been fighting wars, both hot and…
Explaining History Podcast
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