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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
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What is soft power? It was a term conceptualised by Joseph Nye at the end of the Cold War to encapsulate America’s moral and cultural appeal to the world. The current decline in the use of soft power by Trump administration was first accelerated by the neocons under George W. Bush, who accepted explicitly that the War on Terror would mean the abandonment of the pretence of moral leadership and this was encapsulated by torture at Abu Ghraib prison, rendition flights and Guantanamo Bay. This podca
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It’s been less than two weeks since Donald Trump returned to the White House. What can we make of the flurry of edicts and presidential decrees signed, the actions of Elon Musk and how do we look beyond the noise to explore what Trumpist strategy in 2025 is? Hopefully this episode can shed a bit of light.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 help the show continue, please consider sup
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It’s Trump’s second inauguration and here are some thoughts about him, about political organisation in the years ahead and why we absolutely cannot depend on centrist sensibles any longer. 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 help the show continue, please consider supporting it in the following ways:If you want to go ad-free, you can take out a membership hereOrYou can support the p
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Donald Trump is about to introduce the largest concentration of billionaires in history into his cabinet, but this is simply the continuation of a long established oligarchic trend in the White House. 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 help the show continue, please consider supporting it in the following ways:If you want to go ad-free, you can take out a membership hereOrYou can s
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American conservatism fundamentally changed in 2016, its old nostrums were destroyed by the Trump movement and replaced with a mixture of MAGA nationalism and anarchocapitalism. This episode explores the different strands of thought in Trump’s coalition.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 help the show continue, please consider supporting it in the following ways:If you want to go a
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Economists, journalists and commentators are currently producing vast amounts of content predicting what they believe lies in store for America and the world in 2025 and what the consequences of Trump’s second term will be. In this podcast we explore Grace Blakeley’s Substack article: The Economic Consequences of Donald TrumpHelp 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 help the show continue
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The fear of decline and the widespread belief in its inevitability is nothing new, but part of the explanation as to Trump’s recent success is an overall pessimism about the future after five decades of neoliberal economic crises. This podcast explores the relationship between crisis, declinism, neoliberalism and the rise of Trumpism.I will be running a livestream Q&A for students on Wednesday November 20th. You can access it here, subscribe to the channel to get your reminder.https://youtube.co
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In a new article for the London Review of Books, economic historian Adam Tooze argues that the era of globalisation that existed up to the great financial crisis of 2008 has finally died and instead an era of great power politics has returned. This existed under Biden equally as it did under Trump’s first and now second administration.You can read the article here.UPDATEI will be now be running a livestream Q&A for students on Friday November 22nd. You can access it here, subscribe to the channe
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The British political class has clung on to a fantasy of its own relevance in Washington DC for decades. The special relationship that British Prime Ministers like to refer to (a bond that perhaps existed for Roosevelt and Churchill) has been an article of faith in Downing Street for decades but not in the White House. During the second Trump presidency, it will be exposed as the fiction it is.In 1948, the British finally ended their mandate government over Palestine. As they withdrew a vicious