Dan Snow's History Hit

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What is a Fascist?

This is everything you ever wanted to know about fascism. Are the British government's new proposals to stop refugee boats arriving fascistic? Were the 2021 insurrectionists at the Capitol building fascists? Is Muslim persecution in India today fascism in action? They're certainly attacks on democracy but can they accurately be described as fascism?


Dan puts that question to a world-leading expert in today's episode, Roger Griffin, Emeritus Professor in Modern History at Oxford Brookes University. They get into the deep history of fascism's origins, and the true definitions of terms like 'authoritarian' and 'populism' and look to distinguish the difference between the technical meaning of fascism and the colloquial term we tend to invoke in daily conversation.


Produced by James Hickmann and edited Dougal Patmore


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More Episodes

3/28/2023

Scott's Last Days in the Antarctic

In the last week of March 1912, Captain Robert Falcon Scott died in his tent in Antarctica, in his failed effort to become the first person to reach the South Pole. He'd just missed out to the Norwegians under explorer Roald Amundsen. You might think the British had no chance from the beginning- Amundsen's crew were wearing sealskins and using dogs, sledding 50 miles a day while Scott's team were outfitted in kit from Bond Street, covering just 10 miles a day. The motorised vehicles they took lasted only a couple of days; one sank through the ice the moment they took it off the ship. But, Tim Maltin's new research suggests there was something more unusual else at play that led to their failure and ultimately Scott's death: thermal inversion. The same meteorological phenomenon that caused the Titanic to hit the iceberg just two weeks later.Tim joins Dan on the podcast to discuss the rivalry between two great explorers, the similarities and differences between their expeditions and he takes Dan through the gruelling last months of Scott's expedition, what happened the night of Scott's death and the discovery of their bodies, months later.Produced by James Hickmann and mixed by Dougal PatmoreIf you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe to History Hit today!Download the History Hit app from the Google Play store.Download the History Hit app from the Apple Store.
3/27/2023

HMS Victory

During the Battle of Trafalgar, the men on the gun decks of HMS Victory felt the heat of fire from above and from below; they dodged enemy cannon balls shot from just 2 metres away. HMS Victory was the flagship of Nelson's fleet during that historic clash with the French and Spanish on the 21st of October 1805. She is a mighty vessel to behold; at over 70m long, 6000 oaks were felled for her planking and 27 miles of rope used for her rigging. She was and still is a feat of engineering with impressive firepower-104 state-of-the-art guns and manned by a crew of over 800.Dan walks the gun decks with Andrew Baines, Deputy Executive Director of Museum Operations National Museum of the Royal Navy, who knows everything there is to know about Victory. They talk about life on board the ship, from punishment to surgery to using the bathroom and tell the story of Nelson's dramatic demise on the very spot where he was shot in battle.The reason Dan is visiting Portsmouth's historic dockyard is that there is a huge restoration project going on to save Victory and preserve it for future generations. As a wooden ship, she is inherently biodegradable so Andrew and his team are working around the clock for the next decade to restore the ship as she was at the Battle of Trafalgar. Today the ship's greatest foe is not the French but the deathwatch beetle that Burroughs into the wood ship's timbre, destroying it from the inside. Dan meets with Diana Davis, Deputy Director of the Victory Conservation Project, to talk about this nemesis and the vital, and costly, work they are doing. Now is a great time to experience HMS Victory as you've never seen her before while archaeologists and conservators work on the ship in front of your eyes. You can find out more information here: https://www.nmrn.org.uk/visit-us/portsmouth-historic-dockyard/hms-victoryProduced by Mariana Des Forges and mixed by Dougal Patmore.If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe to History Hit today!Download the History Hit app from the Google Play store.Download the History Hit app from the Apple Store.