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A century ago, America was the literary and intellectual powerhouse of the world. Black writers defined the black experience in the Harlem Renaissance, F. Scott Fitzgerald captured the glamour and hypocrisy of the jazz age in The Great Gatsby and thousands of detective, western and sci fi pulp novels were published, creating the foundations of modern genre fiction. Today we hear from Tom Lutz, founding editor of the LA Review of Books and author of 1925: A Literary Encyclopaedia and explore this
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The character of Jim in the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain was written as a condemnation of the Jim Crow regimes that were springing up across the South as the Reconstruction Era slowly came to an end. Twain’s Jim was the first Black character in popular American literature that can be thought of as being written in depth and without becoming another racist caricature. The story, set before the civil war, has been the subject of ongoing scholarship and contestation ever since. In t
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What did the good life look like in 1945? Or more to the point, what did the good life look like to white working and middle class inner city families? The answer for many was suburbia, new out-of-town developments accessed by America’s millions of new car owners who longed for space and who could be assured that people of their social, racial and often religious backgrounds would be their neighbours. Suburbia was initially intended by New Dealers to be a post war egalitarian dream for all, but
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The way in which Malcolm X and the Black Power movement has been interpreted and understood over time has changed as academics grappled with his legacy and interrogated his autobiography, published posthumously. This podcast explores how the way we have come to understand him has changed over time. You can buy Kevern Verney’s book – The debate on Black Civil Rights in America here*****STOP PRESS*****I only ever talk about history on this podcast but I also have another life, yes, that of aspiran
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In the aftermath of the Second World War, America had half the world’s wealth and a quarter of its GDP. By the 1970s its position as an economic powerhouse without competitor had slipped away and it faced stronger challenges from Europe and Japan. A decade of crisis in America saw the forces of neoliberal thinking take centre stage to eviscerate the New Deal in the 1980s.*****STOP PRESS*****I only ever talk about history on this podcast but I also have another life, yes, that of aspirant fantasy
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America’s de-industrialisation, offshoring, its battle to maintain dollar supremacy whilst also restoring itself to being a net exporter have led to historic crises from which there appear to be no exit. President Trump’s recent and clearly failing tariffs against China and the rest of the world are merely an indication of America’s relative economic decline. This podcast explores the factors that have powered rising Chinese living standards, economic and diplomatic power and the factors that ha
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In this episode of the Explaining History podcast we speak with the writer Dennis Broe whose new book The Dark Ages, explores the second Hollywood anti communist purge of 1951. We talk about Hollywood and Los Angeles as a site of ongoing class struggle, the role of the media and the LAPD in the development of modern Los Angeles and the role of dissenting writers and film makers in challenging the power of the studios.You can join Dennis for a zoom class on Darkest LA: Film Noir, Greed and Corpor
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Fifty years ago, the longest imperial war of the 20th Century ended with the fall of Saigon and the victory of the North Vietnamese in the reunification of Vietnam. Miki Nguyen’s account of his family’s desperate flight from Saigon is covered in his father’s story, Last Flight Out, and his father’s bravery escaping the retribution of the communist forces. You can read his book here, based on his father, Ba Van Nguyen’s memoirs.Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through cri
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Donald Trump has signalled a great strategic alignment away from the principles of Pax Americana, the post war unofficial imperium that America has operated since 1945 towards something that resembles the concert of great powers before the First World War. One of the powers thrown into diplomatic and strategic crisis as a result of this is Britain.Help the podcast to continue bringing you history each weekIf you enjoy the Explaining History podcast and its many years of content and would like to
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America is withdrawing strategically and diplomatically from Europe and leaving Ukraine to its fate. The history of Atlanticism from 1941 to the present day has been a complex relationship often relying on figures like Roosevelt and Churchill whose interests aligned and on America seeing its strategic interests aligning with Europe. This podcast explores the negotiations between Churchill and Roosevelt during the Arcadia Conference and the current decline of relations (including the fabled Briti