Dan Snow's History Hit

The Great Exhibition of 1851 was something to behold for the 6 million Victorian patrons who travelled to London's Hyde Park to see it. It was a triumphant showcase of the most extraordinary achievements of the Victorian age from industry, culture and engineering - gathered from all four corners of the globe. As visitors walked the 8 miles of exhibitions, they would have seen everything from the sublime to the absurd: the world’s largest diamond, a contraption to predict the weather using leeches, the world's first public flushing toilets and a two-person piano.The enormous glass and iron building that housed the exhibition was big enough to house four St Pauls Cathedrals and its construction involved some of the most famous engineers of the Victorian age - Brunel, Faraday, Stephenson and Paxton.To tell Dan the story of the Crystal Palace is historian and conservationist Steven Brindle.Produced by Mariana Des Forges and edited by Tim Arstall.You can now find Dan Snow's History Hit on YouTube! Watch episodes every Friday here.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.We'd love to hear your feedback - you can take part in our podcast survey here: https://insights.historyhit.com/history-hit-podcast-always-on.You can also email the podcast directly at ds.hh@historyhit.com.

In this episode, we hear about one of Europe’s most devastating conflicts - the Thirty Years’ War. From 1618 to 1648, the continent was torn apart by religious strife, shifting alliances, and ruthless ambition. What began as a Bohemian rebellion exploded into a brutal struggle that reshaped borders, broke empires, and left millions dead.We're joined by Peter Wilson, a professor of history at the University of Oxford and author of ‘The Thirty Years War: Europe’s Tragedy’. He takes us from the war’s early years to its bitter end, and explains how the conflict changed Europe forever.Produced by James Hickmann and edited by Dougal Patmore.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.We'd love to hear your feedback - you can take part in our podcast survey here: https://insights.historyhit.com/history-hit-podcast-always-on.You can also email the podcast directly at ds.hh@historyhit.com.

This episode explores the visionary industrialist Robert Owen, a pioneer of the cooperative movement in the 19th century. From his progressive mills at New Lanark to his bold - if unsuccessful - attempt to build a utopian community in New Harmony, Indiana, Owen championed workers’ rights, education, and cooperative living.We're joined by Luke Blaxill, a historian of modern British political history at the University of Oxford, who unpacks the life and legacy of the man who tried to marry industry with equality - and change the world in the process.Produced by James Hickmann and edited by Dougal Patmore.We'd love to hear your feedback - you can take part in our podcast survey here: https://insights.historyhit.com/history-hit-podcast-always-on.You can also email the podcast directly at ds.hh@historyhit.com.

In the heart of the Pacific Ocean, over 2,000 miles from the nearest continent, lies one of the world’s most iconic archaeological treasure troves - Rapa Nui, known to the outside world as Easter Island. Famed for the towering stone faces of the moai, the island has undergone extraordinary transformations since it was first settled.Joining us to explain the island's fascinating history is James Grant-Peterkin, a cultural historian and someone who has lived and worked on the island for over 20 years.Produced by James Hickmann and edited by Tim Arstall.You can now find Dan Snow's History Hit on YouTube! Watch episodes every Friday (including this one) here.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.We'd love to hear your feedback - you can take part in our podcast survey here: https://insights.historyhit.com/history-hit-podcast-always-on.You can also email the podcast directly at ds.hh@historyhit.com.

Dan is joined by his dad, veteran broadcaster Peter Snow, to tell the incredible story of the clash between Napoleon Bonaparte and the Duke of Wellington on June 18, 1815. This showdown - packed with heroic last stands, strategic genius, and catastrophic missteps - shattered Napoleon’s dreams of empire. This episode marks exactly 10 years of Dan Snow's History Hit, and in it, Dan and Peter reflect on the very first episode of the podcast they did together and everything that has come since.Produced by Mariana Des Forges and edited by Dougal PatmoreYou can now find Dan Snow's History Hit on YouTube! Watch episodes every Friday here.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.We'd love to hear your feedback - you can take part in our podcast survey here: https://insights.historyhit.com/history-hit-podcast-always-on.You can also email the podcast directly at ds.hh@historyhit.com.

Tensions between Iran and Israel have escalated with a recent Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facilities and retaliation from Iran. The two countries openly carried out attacks on each other for the first time last year, in April and October, after a years long shadow war. But have Iran and Israel always been at odds? Dan is revisiting this episode from April 2024 with Maziar Bahari, an Iranian-Canadian journalist and filmmaker who founded the news website IranWire; Bahari explains how these two nations went from partners in the Middle East to implacable enemies.Produced by James Hickmann and edited by Dougal Patmore.You can now find Dan Snow's History Hit on YouTube! Watch episodes every Friday here.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.We'd love to hear your feedback - you can take part in our podcast survey here: https://insights.historyhit.com/history-hit-podcast-always-on.You can also email the podcast directly at ds.hh@historyhit.com.

Humans are everywhere. How did we get from the savannahs of Africa across to the most northern reaches of Alaska and Greenland, to the outbacks of Australia and the islands of the Pacific millennia ago? How did we master fire, figure out how to craft tools and survive the Ice Ages?In this episode Dan is joined by Professor Chris Stringer, Research Leader in Human Evolution at London's Natural History Museum, to talk about how Homo Sapiens managed to outlive other human cousins like Neanderthals and Denisovans and cross oceans s hape landscapes and one day, build cities and space shuttles.Produced by James Hickmann, Mariana Des Forges and edited by Tim Arstall.You can now find Dan Snow's History Hit on YouTube! Watch episodes every Friday (including this one) here.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.We'd love to hear your feedback - you can take part in our podcast survey here: https://insights.historyhit.com/history-hit-podcast-always-on.You can also email the podcast directly at ds.hh@historyhit.com.

For thousands of years, ancient cuneiform - the script of the ancient Mesopotamians was lost to time, until being dramatically rediscovered in the 19th century by an adventurous group of unlikely Victorians. A dashing archaeologist, an officer turned diplomat and a reclusive clergyman raced to decipher it and unlock the secrets of long-lost empires. Joining us is Joshua Hammer, a former war correspondent and author of 'The Mesopotamian Riddle'. Produced by Mariana Des Forges and James Hickmann, and edited by Tim Arstall.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.We'd love to hear your feedback - you can take part in our podcast survey here: https://insights.historyhit.com/history-hit-podcast-always-on.You can also email the podcast directly at ds.hh@historyhit.com.

Following the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945 some of its most egregious war criminals sought to escape justice by fleeing Europe, most famously to South America. The escape routes they used, established by Nazi sympathisers, came to be known as 'ratlines'. The escaping Nazis had helped from an unexpected source; senior figures within the Catholic Church.The story of SS officer Walter Rauff exemplifies how these networks operated and the subsequent lives of the escapees. Rauff was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people during the Second World War and was a key perpetrator of the Holocaust. After escaping to Chile, he would eventually come to work for the brutal Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. There he would go on to inflict further miseries on the Chilean people. Rauff was never put on trial, but is it possible to obtain a different kind of justice for his numerous crimes?Philippe Sands, a renowned British-French lawyer and author, joins Dan to provide insights from his book '38 Londres Street: On Impunity, Pinochet in England and a Nazi in Patagonia', which explores Rauff's life and actions and the involvement of the Catholic Church.Produced & edited by Dougal Patmore.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.We'd love to hear your feedback - you can take part in our podcast survey here: https://insights.historyhit.com/history-hit-podcast-always-on.You can also email the podcast directly at ds.hh@historyhit.com.