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By the late 1960s there were huge opportunities for Richard Nixon to capitalise on the growing discontent across America towards the counter culture. Millions of Americans looked on with disdain at a generation of anti war protesters and young men and women who actively rejected the lifestyles of their parents generation. Nixon, and every Republican president and presidential candidate since has tried to tap into the social conservatism of small town and rural America. In the late 1960s Woodstoc
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By 1937 the Soviet newspaper Pravda (its editorial board pictured above), was a key part of the mechanisms of denunciation and terror. It presented lurid tales of corruption and embezzlement that most Soviet citizens knew happened in the party constantly, weaponising their anger against those accused in the show trials. The purpose was to build a mass popular base for Stalin’s attacks against the party itself. This podcast explores how the paper operated as part of the wider culture of denunciat
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Throughout the 1930s the forces that led to a year of terror in 1937 had been gradually developing, from the trials of bourgeois specialists in the1920s to the murder of Sergei Kirov. The regime initially looked to the population at large to show their anger and rage at figures such as Iuri Piatikov, who as a former ally of Trotsky, was cast as a saboteur and wrecker. Others were characterised as corrupt embezzlers as well as foreign agents. In a time of constant setbacks in industry and society
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Margaret Thatcher was deposed by her party in 1990, but the legacy of her ideas in some form lingers on. The Tory Party itself has abandoned any pretence of interest the operating of free markets and is led my the antithesis of her views on social conservatism. Instead of the offspring of a lower middle class shop keeper who values financial prudence and views the economy like a household budget, the party is led by an Etonian with an almost complusive dishonesty who has frittered more money on
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In the mid 1930s, successive waves of state terror devastated not only Soviet society, but also coopted Soviet citizens into the processes of state violence. A deep fatalism was commonplace throughout much of the country, as Soviet citizens struggled to avoid becoming victims, and many became the denouncers and informants of the state. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy t
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In the 1970s and 1980s two political figures came to define the polarisation of British politics and society and the end of political consensus between the Conservative and Labour Parties. This podcast explores the ideological worlds of Thatcher and Benn and their impact on the trajectory of both parties. 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 sh
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In the late 1970s, as Britain, America and other wealthy countries were developing free market solutions to the problems of inflation and low growth, China selected aspects of capitalism to incorporate into its economy, while maintaining the fiction that it was a communist society. This podcast explores how China transformed the world economy in the 1980s as a result. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the pas
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During the Stalin era, those accused of counter revolutionary crimes and their family members were desperate to be relieved of the stigma of being a class enemy and the punishments that accompanied it. One approach to dealing with the threat of being disenfranchised was to renounce ones class origins, even if this meant renouncing ones family, community, spouse or religion. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect t
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During the interwar years Britain became a dramatically more democratic society, following the extension of the franchise in 1918 and 1928. British society began to change gradually with the challenges of modernity and mass democracy, but many traditional deferential values endured. 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
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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