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In the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, the new Labour government nationalised Britain’s utilities, rail but most importantly its vast coal industry, creating more state employees of a national industry than anywhere else in the industrialised world. The decision to own the once mighty coal industry was part based in Labour’s founding traditions but also in a shift towards economic and industrial nationalism that was emerging across the post war world. Explaining History helps you u
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Strategic bombing of the enemy’s home front began in earnest in the second half of the First World War, with London facing a near collapse of its air defences in early 1918. This podcast focuses on the development of German strategic bombing and the British and French anti aircraft responses. 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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During the 1920s and 1930s, communist parties across Europe and beyond fell under the control, often voluntarily, of Comintern, the Soviet body dedicated to foreign subversion. This podcast explores the prominence that Comintern agents rose to in Eastern Europe after the Second World War how non ‘Moscow Communists’ were viewed with suspicion by Moscow. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present
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At the end of the Second World War, Czech prime minister in exile Eduard Benes petitioned both western allies and the USSR to expel all ethnic Germans from Czechoslovakia. This permission was granted and the result was the ethnic cleansing of the Sudetenland. 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 ContentB
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Following the surprise attack on Pearl Harbour on December 7th 1941, the strategic decision making of America, Japan, Germany and Britain shaped the eventual outcome of the war itself. Japanese military planners realised they had begun a war they had no chance of winning and while Churchill rejoiced in this fact, he was also aware that a ‘Japan first’ strategy might divert badly needed American aid away from Britain. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conv
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This podcast continues the examination of Britain’s social, economic and political circumstances on the eve 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 ContentBecome a Patron: patreon.com/explaininghistory▸ Join the Community & Continue the ConversationFacebook Group: facebook.com/group
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In the aftermath of the Chinese Civil War, the beginnings of dramatic and brutal social change in China were evident in Mao’s attitudes towards the urban poor. Those deemed socially unproductive, beggars, rickshaw pullers, hawkers and prostitutes were sent to re-education camps. The ultimate goal of the regime was to socially re-order urban life and to eliminate politically unwanted and seemingly socially useless or deviant labour. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through
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The origins of Stalin’s imitators, admirers and henchmen in Eastern Europe is explored in this podcast. Walter Ulbricht of East Germany, Boleslaw Beirut of Poland and Matyas Rakosi of Hungary respectively were the first generation of post war Stalinists to rule Eastern Europe, but their long association with Soviet communism from 1919 onwards through Comintern made them trusted and loyal candidates for power. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations
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By the eve of the Second World War, Great Britain had been economically eclipsed by the USA, but it was still the most industrialised and urbanised nation in the world and experienced a transition away from heavy to light industry. In the fields of aviation, mass media and scientific discovery, Britain continued to be a world leader. 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
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Seizing political power was just the beginning of the Nazi programme, creating a profound and lasting cultural change among Germans to undo the perceived corruption of Germanic culture by the Weimar Republic was the longer struggle. Hitler’s war on liberal democracy and socialism was in his view a bid to reclaim the essence of German identity from false and foreign ideas. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the