Explaining History

In this urgent episode, we break down last night’s dramatic Israeli raid on Iran—Operation Rising Lion—which targeted Iran’s nuclear facilities and killed top Iranian military leaders in the largest attack since the Iran–Iraq War. We unpack what happened on the ground, the immediate fallout—including Iran’s launch of over 100 drones in retaliation—and the atmosphere of panic and unity now gripping Israel as the region braces for further escalation.But this isn’t just about one night. We dig deep into the historical context behind the Israel-Iran conflict: from their days as covert allies to bitter enemies, and how decades of nuclear brinkmanship, proxy wars, and shifting alliances have set the stage for today’s existential struggle. We’ll also examine the crucial role of the United States—locked in its own high-stakes negotiations with Iran—and what’s at stake for global security as nuclear ambitions, sanctions, and regional power plays collide.*****STOP PRESS*****I only ever talk about history on this podcast but I also have another life, yes, that of aspirant fantasy author and if that's your thing you can get a copy of my debut novel The Blood of Tharta, right here:Israel, Iran and the USA are locked in an existential struggle in the Middle East, this episode 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

What leads a nation into a civil war? In this podcast we examine the crises of power and contestation of authority that create wars within, not between nations.*****STOP PRESS*****I only ever talk about history on this podcast but I also have another life, yes, that of aspirant fantasy author and if that's your thing you can get a copy of my debut novel The Blood of Tharta, right here: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

Oral histories can be very revealing in understanding the beliefs and feelings that people had in particular historical moments. In Svetlana Alexeivich's amazing book Second Hand Time, hundreds of former Soviet citizens reflect on their hopes, fears and their anger at the fall of the nation and the society that they knew. This episode is particularly helpful in exploring the resentments that many Russians now feel towards their political and oligarchic class and to the west.*****STOP PRESS*****I only ever talk about history on this podcast but I also have another life, yes, that of aspirant fantasy author and if that's your thing you can get a copy of my debut novel The Blood of Tharta, right here: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

Question:What would have happened to Europe in the past two and a half centuries if it hadn't plundered the global south? What would have happened if Europeans had paid for the labour of Africans instead of stealing it? What would have happened if they had purchased cotton, tea, spices and other commodities at a price that reflected the labour used to produce it? Answer: Europe would be one of the poorer regions of the worldThomas Piketty, the world renowned economist and author of Capital in the 21st Century has produced a new study of the economic dynamics of 19th and 20th Century imperialism. You can access it here*****STOP PRESS*****I only ever talk about history on this podcast but I also have another life, yes, that of aspirant fantasy author and if that's your thing you can get a copy of my debut novel The Blood of Tharta, right here: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 post war neoliberals were divided over the European Economic Community, some viewing it as a protected enclave of the world economy that would hold back the global economic integration they hoped for. Others saw it as the beginnings of a borderless economic zone that would spread around the world, eventually subsuming all questions of politics and ideology to the logic of the market. It turned out to be neither of those things completely and instead became the target of those inheritors of Thatcherism that wanted to craft their version of neoliberalism in one country. *****STOP PRESS*****I only ever talk about history on this podcast but I also have another life, yes, that of aspirant fantasy author and if that's your thing you can get a copy of my debut novel The Blood of Tharta, right here: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

All American presidents since 1945 have been managers of the USA's global economic empire, Trump notionally fulfils the same role but has little or no understanding of the complexities, challenges and limitations that his predecessors have had to navigate. As with all narcissists, he sees America's crises through the prism of his own personal experience. The last 24 hours of White House reality TV shows us once again that the economic and ideological factors that have propelled Trump to the Oval Office twice have corroded the structures of American power probably beyond repair. Trump's predecessors had their dramas but the idea that they would have consciously created this manner of circus from them is inconceivable. As managers of empire they were far more discrete. Both the system of imperial management and the empire itself are in terminal decline. *****STOP PRESS*****I only ever talk about history on this podcast but I also have another life, yes, that of aspirant fantasy author and if that's your thing you can get a copy of my debut novel The Blood of Tharta, right here: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

During the Second World War the immense needs for labour and military manpower transformed American society and gave Black Americans an historic opportunity to advance themselves. This podcast explores the barriers they faced and the racial discrimination of segregated armies and workplaces, and the ironies of a military power based on racial discrimination conducting a moral crusade against Nazism. *****STOP PRESS*****I only ever talk about history on this podcast but I also have another life, yes, that of aspirant fantasy author and if that's your thing you can get a copy of my debut novel The Blood of Tharta, right here: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 the 1850s a medical revolution was beginning with the discovery of anaesthesia and a political and social revolution was still in its infancy in the guise of the embryonic suffrage movement that would emerge in earnest over a half a century later. In their latest novel together under the pen name Ambrose Parry, Christopher Brookmyre and Marisa Haetzman explore the world of prostitution, blackmail from the perspective of their medical heroes Sarah Fisher and Will Raven in the fifth Fisher and Raven novel The Death of Shame. Today we talked about Victorian morality, sexual repression, class, the treatment of young women in service and the development of medicine in the mid 19th Century.*****STOP PRESS*****I only ever talk about history on this podcast but I also have another life, yes, that of aspirant fantasy author and if that's your thing you can get a copy of my debut novel The Blood of Tharta, right here: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

What did Irish Americans make of Roosevelt's wartime pact with Churchill? What did Polish Americans make of his alliance with Stalin? In this podcast we explore the many complex, conflicted and often divided loyalties as a vast multi ethnic and global anti fascist coalition fought to defeat Nazism, Italian fascism and Japanese Imperialism. *****STOP PRESS*****I only ever talk about history on this podcast but I also have another life, yes, that of aspirant fantasy author and if that's your thing you can get a copy of my debut novel The Blood of Tharta, right here: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