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Why has Donald Trump won an enormous victory not just amongst the electoral college votes but the popular vote too? For decades both parties have pursued economic policies that were developed in the Nixon and Reagan eras, which have benefitted finance capital over American society. The Democrats have simply offered more of the same, whilst Trump has presented a racist, nativist solution. Here the rest of my analysis in this special post election recording. I will be running a livestream Q&A for
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What are we doing when we write or think about history? What is it that historians do and when did they start doing it? We’re taking a new direction on the podcast here and exploring the origins of historical thinking, a type of writing that the Greeks thought to be the inferior cousin to philosophy. Each Saturday we’ll explore the practices and theories of history, and approaches to understanding the past or exploring it from classical antiquity to postmodernism. Help the podcast to continue br
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What happened when news of the Russian Revolution reached the empire’s rural areas? How did the largely non literate peasantry interact with this change? How did the Russian Orthodox Church carry the message of the revolution? What did the empire’s non Russian and non Christian peoples make of it? This episode explores the chaotic and fragmented way in which Russian society encountered revolutionary change. Help the podcast to continue bringing you history each weekIf you enjoy the Explaining Hi
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The Conservative Party is one of British history’s great survivors, it morphs and mutates when it needs to into new incarnations that help to preserve it and its mission to protect the interests of Britain’s elites, institutions against the threat of change from below. This was always true until now. The party that many British people see as the natural party of government is changing into a fringe far right conspiracy theorists club, with politicians like Kemi Badenoch, Robert Jenrick and Liz T
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In this week’s episode we hear from writer Toby Manning whose new book, Mixing Pop and Politics explores a Marxist history of popular music and examines the economic and social forces that make the phenomenon that is popular music and culture. In a wide ranging conversation that explores everything from Beyonce’s country album, John Lennon’s Working Class Hero, the intersection with queer culture and representation, Queen’s commercial suicide in USA following the video for I want to break free,
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Open up your Twitter feed or Facebook page and you’re one or two clicks away from a nostalgia meme, they grow like historically illiterate fungi, but nostalgia itself is a more complex and even sometimes problematic phenomenon. In this episode of the Explaining History podcast we hear from Dr Agnes Arnold-Forster, the author of a new history of Nostalgia itself. We explore the first recorded instances of nostalgia in the 17th Century through to its current usage and weaponisation in culture war
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In this wide ranging interview with Ewan Gibbs, lecturer in social and economic history at the University of Glasgow, we explore the themes in his forthcoming book, The Unmaking of the British Working Class, in which Ewan explores the changes in post war class consciousness, identity and culture. We discuss key transitional moments from post war affluence in the 1950s and 1960s, the assault on organised labour in the 1970s and the social transformations brought about by Margaret Thatcher in the
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In this gripping episode of *Explaining History*, we delve into the shadowy world of espionage, conflict, and moral ambiguity with intelligence writer Henry Hemming, author of the explosive new book on one of the most controversial figures of The Troubles, the IRA double agent known as Stakeknife.Henry Hemming takes us behind the veil of secrecy to reveal the complex life of Stakeknife, who, while deeply embedded within the IRA, passed critical intelligence to British security forces. This cland
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In this gripping episode of *Explaining History*, we delve into the shadowy world of espionage, conflict, and moral ambiguity with intelligence writer Henry Hemming, author of the explosive new book on one of the most controversial figures of The Troubles, the IRA double agent known as Stakeknife.Henry Hemming takes us behind the veil of secrecy to reveal the complex life of Stakeknife, who, while deeply embedded within the IRA, passed critical intelligence to British security forces. This cland
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In this episode of Explaining History, we sit down with the acclaimed writer Bruce Tapping, author of, “Bruce’s Complete Timeline of the World.” Join us as we embark on a fascinating journey through the timeline, unravelling the complexities of our past, from the agricultural revolutions that reshaped society to the intellectual awakening of the Renaissance.Bruce offers his unique insights into some of the most pivotal events in history, including the theories surrounding 9/11 and the transforma