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At the start of the First World War the threat of civil war in Ireland between home rule nationalists and protestant unionists in the north began to recede. Two years later, however, a revolt in Dublin on Easter Monday 1916 against the British was crushed and fifteen of the rebels executed. This podcast explores the causes and consequences of the Easter Rising. 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 Content…
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In 1922, during the turbulent early years of the Weimar Republic a social research institute was established in Frankfurt. It was set up by Marxist intellectuals and the alumni of the school had a massive impact on 20th Century thought, examining the workings of mass society, consumerism, culture, totalitarianism and the unconscious. 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 Content Become a Patron: patreon.com/explaininghistory ▸ Join the Community & Continue…
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The Camp System He Built Rudolf Hoess did not invent the concentration camp, but he perfected it as an instrument of mass killing. When he arrived at Auschwitz in May 1940, he inherited a site of former Polish army barracks and a set of SS procedures developed at Dachau under his mentor Theodor Eicke. What he built over the following years was something qualitatively different: a hybrid installation combining forced labour, medical experimentation, and industrialised extermination on a scale that had no precedent in human history. The key innovation at Auschwitz was not ideological but logistical. The problem the SS…
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In the immediate aftermath of the Chinese Civil War and the seizure of power by the Chinese Communist Party, Mao ZedongMao Zedong mao-zedong The founder and supreme leader of the People’s Republic of China from its establishment in 1949 until his death in 1976. A revolutionary strategist, Marxist theorist, and political poet, he led the Communist Party to victory in the civil war, transformed China through collectivisation and industrialisation, and unleashed the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution with catastrophic consequences. Mao Zedong rose to leadership of the Chinese Communist Party through the Long March and Yan’an years, developing a…
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When Leonid Brezhnev came to power in 1964 he was determined to undo many of the liberalising reforms of his predecessor Nikita Khrushchev. However, his appointment of Alexei Kosygin gave joint control of the economy to a moderniser who attempted to introduce more market based reforms. 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 Content Become a Patron: patreon.com/explaininghistory ▸ Join the Community & Continue the Conversation Facebook Group: facebook.com/groups/ExplainingHistoryPodcast Substack:…
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In 1955 one of the most important international conferences of the 20th Century took place in Bandung, Indonesia. The leaders of the recently decolonised nations of Africa and Asia met to forge new economic and diplomatic ties. The conference was the first of a series of meetings of African and Asian nations resistant to colonialism and determined to avoid taking sides in the Cold WarCold War The geopolitical and ideological confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union that dominated global politics from 1947 to 1991. It was fought not through direct military conflict between the superpowers but through…
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In the mid 1930s the Polish government contemplated the mass deportation of its large Jewish population to the British Mandate of PalestineBritish Mandate of Palestine Full Description:The system of colonial administration authorized by the League of Nations, granting Britain governance over the territory of Palestine following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. It was during this period that the infrastructure for the future conflict was laid. The British Mandate was a “trusteeship” that governed the region for three decades. The British administration was tasked with a “dual obligation”: to facilitate the establishment of a “Jewish national home” (as promised in the…
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In January 1945 the city of Budapest was surrounded by the Red Army and Hitler’s occupying forces made a desperate and futile last stand. The siege of the city by the Red Army is often overshadowed by the subsequent downfall of Berlin, but the consequences for the inhabitants were no less savage. 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 Content Become a Patron: patreon.com/explaininghistory ▸ Join the Community & Continue…
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In 1945, at the end of the Second World War, the Labour Party swept to power on a mandate of social reform. Six years later, despite the creation of an almost universally popular National Health Service, the party was defeated in the 1951 election and spent 13 years in opposition. What explains their success and failure in one term in office? 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 Content Become…
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In 1961, the city of Berlin, divided between East and West since 1945 saw a more permanent division erected. A wall that cut the city in two prevented East Germans from crossing from East to West enticed by the promise of a better life. * Support Explaining History here: please take a moment to look at my project https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/explaining-history and pledge whatever you can – there are some great rewards on offer!) 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…