Explaining History

This is part nine of the Explaining History study course based on the AQA A level history module Revolution and Dictatorship: Russia 1917-53.In this episode we examine how the Russo-Polish War, the Treaty of Rapallo and the Zinoviev Letter impacted on Russia's post civil war foreign policy. 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 podcast via Patreon hereOr you can just say some nice things about it here

In 1947 US Secretary of State George Marshall announced that the US government would offer unprecedented assistance to the European countries devastated by war in a bid to prevent the expansion of communism and other extremist politics into western Europe. The fear that countries like France might even fall to the communists after the wave of new communist states emerging across eastern Europe was extremely concerning to US policy makers. The grants offered to Europe, of course, was not born of altruism but of hard headed geopolitical calculation, but it showed how Truman's overseas anti communism differed significantly in tone from the crack down happening at home in the USA. 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 podcast via Patreon hereOr you can just say some nice things about it here

In 1959 as the process of communalising agriculture and the forced industrialisation of the Great Leap Forward led to catastrophe on an unprecedented scale, Mao was challenged at the Lushan Conference by Peng Duhai, who denounced him in ways the few party members had ever dared. Mao was temporarily marginalised from leadership of the state but not the party and Deng Xiaoping and Lui Shaoqi were the beneficiaries. These events set up Mao's political comeback in the mid 1960s and his vengeance on the party with the Cultural Revolution.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 podcast via Patreon hereOr you can just say some nice things about it here

This is part four in our weekly exploration of the practices of historians - Approaches to history. We now examine the empiricist approach, based on pure archival research and a faith that the facts in their purest form can bring us the truth. 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 podcast via Patreon hereOr you can just say some nice things about it here

The western world as we understand it, is over. China's advances in key technologies has reached an inflection point that is historically without precedent, soon western countries will offer access to their markets in return for Chinese technology transfers. Listen to this special Friday analysis report on China and the west.This is part seven of the Explaining History study course based on the AQA A level history module Revolution and Dictatorship: Russia 1917-53.In this episode we explore the aftermath of the Russian Civil War and the challenges that the Bolshevik Regime faced from within the party, the peasantry and the Kronstadt sailors. We also explore how Lenin's changes to the party functioning enabled the rise of Stalin.Here is today's livestream on Stalin 1928-34https://www.youtube.com/live/1Tz4NgVtx3c?si=i2CjCfysdj3BP325Help 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 podcast via Patreon hereOr you can just say some nice things about it here

Drawing from the classic history of war reporting The First Casualty by Phillip Knightley, we explore the history of news, propaganda and misinformation from the Nanjing Massacre and the battle of Shanghai in 1937-8 to Pearl Harbour in 1941.This is part seven of the Explaining History study course based on the AQA A level history module Revolution and Dictatorship: Russia 1917-53.In this episode we explore the aftermath of the Russian Civil War and the challenges that the Bolshevik Regime faced from within the party, the peasantry and the Kronstadt sailors. We also explore how Lenin's changes to the party functioning enabled the rise of Stalin.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.com/live/knBuNLBD-bU?feature=share (in case the link doesn't work)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 podcast via Patreon hereOr you can just say some nice things about it here

This is part eight of the Explaining History study course based on the AQA A level history module Revolution and Dictatorship: Russia 1917-53.In this episode we explore the aftermath of the Russian Civil War and the challenges that the Bolshevik Regime faced from within the party, the peasantry and the Kronstadt sailors. We also explore how Lenin's changes to the party functioning enabled the rise of Stalin.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.com/live/knBuNLBD-bU?feature=share (in case the link doesn't work)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 podcast via Patreon hereOr you can just say some nice things about it here

Why do we remember the civil rights movement in the way that we do? Whilst there is rightly a focus on the post war struggle in the 1950s and 1960s, less is written about the darkest part of the 20th Century black American experience in the years between 1895 and 1915. This podcast explores the historiography of the period and particularly the legacy and reputation of Booker T Washington.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.com/live/knBuNLBD-bU?feature=share (in case the link doesn't work)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 podcast via Patreon hereOr you can just say some nice things about it here

Conservatives on both sides of the Atlantic have a specific ideological fixation on dismantling the state. In America tech fuelled accelerationism has pushed catastrophic idea into the mainstream and it may now become a meaningful reality with predictably catastrophic results. In the UK, it remains a Tory idea and there is little sign of it gaining traction in a population which has experienced 14 years of austerity. 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.com/live/knBuNLBD-bU?feature=share (in case the link doesn't work)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 podcast via Patreon hereOr you can just say some nice things about it here