Making sense of this crazy world: Recent Episodes
historymadeeasier
I am a student of history, a teacher of history and a writer of history. You could say history is a passion of mine.
I have a website for students and I had been mulling around this idea of a podcast for some time. Would people be interested? Would I make it interesting? That’s essentially what was holding me back. But with a new year starting, the craziness still all around us, I thought what the hell – give it a go, John!
The primary purpose of the podcast is to use history to help us make a little more sense of this crazy world we are living in. I aim to do this by using history. It’s not the only tool to be used, but it is my chosen tool. Everything happens in a context and that context is recent history. But that recent history is almost always the result of older history. We have to go back into our past to understand today.
I could easily rattle off a hundred other aims but trust me, they will be introduced as we go along. But there are two other aims I must own up to straight away.
The first is that I really want to lay it on the line that history is always about people. I think it was the great historian, Eric Hobsbawm who said unemployment is an economic statistic but a human experience. And you can’t appear to be further away from people than with dry statistics – but you’re not.
And the second is that there is always more than one story to tell; more than one “truth”. History is an interpretation of the past, nothing more. There are always other interpretations. When we look at this crazy world of ours today and try to make sense of what is happening, it is so important to bear that in mind - someone else thinks differently. And if we don’t understand that other interpretation, if we don’t even know it exists, then we can’t reach an understanding of what is happening. And our truth is less secure! I hope that makes sense.
In my look at the political “isms”, I’m going to start with the philosophy that nudged us onto the path to democracy: liberalism.
This week, I’ll present a cautionary tale, that contains a message for us all, not just women: what we have can be taken away. And to do so, I’m going to take a look at what happened to women in Nazi Germany. So, much as I criticise democracy because it should be so much better, let’s work to improve it but let's also value what we’ve got.
Having spent weeks looking at the different roads to democracy in Britain, America and France, 50% of the populations of Britain, America and France – women - still haven't got their vote. And so, it’s to women that I focus our attention on in this episode.
In this episode I’m going to take us from British democracy in the nineteenth century right up to today: to votes for women, votes for eighteen-year-olds and other important landmarks.
So, having looked at the battle to get it passed, was the so-called Great Reform Act worth all the fuss? We'll take a look at that and we'll look at the Second Reform Act of 1867, what Benjamin Disraeli described as a "leap in the dark".
I spent last week looking at how the aristocratic elite were doing all they could to prevent any breech on their monopoly of power. Well, much as they tried to keep the door tightly closed. That bew breed of 'urban aristocracy' that Asa Briggs had talked about were banging against the door and they’re not going to go away.
Enough of the French, I say, and their crazy revolutions. Let’s look at how the English did things in the nineteenth century. “Reform in order to conserve” was the English way: give a little when you have to in order to keep what’s most important. You’ll see what I mean, in this episode, and as the next few episodes unfold.
Through the English, American and French revolutions and those of 1848, we have been looking at the history of what we call liberal representative democracy, by which today, all adult men and women, periodically have the opportunity to vote for people to represent us, make laws and govern over us. And, actually, we began this journey back in ancient Athens, with Athenian or direct democracy. Well, today, we are going to look at the first attempt at a worker’s democracy because we’re going to look at the Paris Commune of 1871.
I said last week that the French weren’t finished with their revolution but when things flared up again, the counter-revolution kicked in. It seemed that everything the workers of Paris had fought for, the democracy that they thought would usher in more social reform, was not going to happen. Instead, things were being taken away from them. And what happened in France, would happen across Europe.
Having spent a couple of weeks looking at the thoughts of Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill, interesting and relevant though they are, it’s time to get back to the stuff of revolutions because it's 1848 and the French, God bless ‘em, are far from done.
Having taken a look at the influence Jeremy Bentham has on our world today, I’m moving on to look at someone who had an even greater influence: John Stuart Mill.
Why? Because Mill, a man way, way ahead of his time, put liberty front and centre in his political work
I said last week that I’d look at how British liberals picked up the baton from the Enlightenment and developed liberal thinking. And I’m going to begin with Jeremy Bentham, the man who gave us utilitarianism and much more. And don’t worry about utilitarianism, I am not going to get too heavy (I can’t) but it is very important and pretty straightforward really.
Having looked at revolutions in England, America and France, the idea of liberty is what powers through most and it gave rise to a political ideology that we’ll be familiar with today: liberalism. So, this episode takes stock of where we are at in the wake of the French Revolution with liberal ideas.
This is the episode where I try to put the French Revolution in perspective. Just how significant was it?
I left things last week in France with the 18 Brumaire coup which had left France governed by three consuls: Abbé Sieyès, Napoleon and, just for the record, Roger Ducos. I called the last episode “Reaction”. Well, I’m calling this one “Delayed Reaction” because that’s what it seems like to me. There is not a counter-revolution going on but a reaction to what was seen as the excesses of the revolution, and the first reaction that brought in those three consuls wasn’t seen as going far enough, not by Napoleon anyway. So, what kind of government did Napoleon bring about?
We left things last week with the death of Robespierre and the end of the Terror. In Paris, people were literally hugging each other in the streets, such was the relief that it was over. Well, in politics as much as in chemistry and physics, actions nearly always result in a reaction, and that’s what happened in France. Things had gone too far, time to rein the runaway horse in.
Last week I ended things with the execution of Louis XVI. This week I move on to look at the ways in which the French Revolution radicalised and resorted to terror.
Last week I mentioned that most of France thought the Revolution was over as the Constituent Assembly settled down to write a constitution for France but I also said a few weeks ago that the genie had been let out of the bottle, well, the bourgeoisie were still struggling to get the lid back on that bottle with the genie safely inside. And they were to fail. To go back to how I ended things last week, what it all goes to show, again something we see so much today, is that as more people get politicised, they splinter into different factions and head in different directions and it’s so much harder to regain control.
This week we’ll look at how, having pushed the revolution forward only to lose control, the bourgeoisie, men of property lest we forget, tried to haul the reigns in on the runaway horse and regain control.
We should, in so many ways, see the French Revolution as the model for future revolutions. Last week, I talked about “letting the genie out of the bottle” and that’s what happened, and it proved so difficult to put the cork back into the bottle. So, what we’ll look at today is the way in which the bourgeoisie, at least temporarily, lost control of events. Just as so often. those that start things today lose control.
This episode looks at the meeting of the Estates-General that, it was hoped, would decide the future of France and it was here that the bourgeoisie seized control of events from both the King and the aristocracy, and demanded a constitution.
It has to be one of the greatest ironies of history that the revolution that would ultimately remove the heads of many an aristocrat was actually started by the aristocracy, and by their selfishness at that. And that's what we'll look at in this episode and you will see its links to issues we face today.
I’m still back in the world of books and clever people. And this week its Jean-Jaques Rousseau, the man who saw democracy as a contract. And a thinker that still has a big influence on our world today.
With the French Revolution, I really have to make another diversion and consider the influence of the philosophes. Not only did they have an influence on the revolution but they have a profound influence on our world today. So, I’m back in the world of books and clever people. And I begin with the work of one Charles Louis de Secondat, baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu.
We’ve looked at the English Revolution in the seventeenth and the American Revolution that rid itself forever of the English monarchy but replaced it with an oligarchy of the wealthy. So now I’m going to turn our attention to the French Revolution, the one that gave us Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité. Well, we’ll see about that.
This episode wraps up our look at the American constitution, so-called American democracy by looking at the ratification process and making a final assessment of just what had been achieved.
This episode will focus squarely on the American Constitution, a constitution that Americans at least, still seem to think is fit for purpose. I say this because there have only been 27 amendments with the first ten making up the Bill of Rights, so really, they were always part of the constitution, and the 21st amendment was repealing the 18th amendment (prohibition) so, in effect, there have only been 15 amendments.
I left things last week with the American colonies at war with Britain. But also, at war with themselves. And this is going to continue. And this episode will look at the America that was created out of the Revolution and I’m going to suggest that what was in fact created was an oligarchy.
In this episode, I’m turning my attention squarely on the American Revolution, the revolution against British rule, because it led to an independent American state and to the Constitution that largely still operates today. And I'm going to suggest that for the people of America, it was a decidedly limited revolution.
This week I’m going to look at someone who, along with Karl Marx, was perhaps the most important thinker in shaping our world today. He was a pamphleteer, a journalist, a propagandist, a polemicist, and something of a philosopher. His name is Thomas Paine and he’s important because he had a remarkable influence on both the American and French revolutions.
Having looked at the English Revolution, the civil war and its aftermath, this week I’m going to look at the political thinking that came in its aftermath. It shows the depth at which people were thinking about the business of governing in the seventeenth century and, in line with the purpose of this humble podcast, its had a profound impact on our world today. So, it's going to worth our time.
In a nutshell, England had been governed for eleven years, from 1629 to 1640, without a Parliament; for another eleven years, from 1649 to 1660, it would be governed without a monarchy. England, and by default, Britain had sorted out a democratic future for itself slap bang in the middle of the seventeenth century. Only to regret what it had done and bring the monarchy back. But of course, there was more to it than that, and that’s what we’re about to have a look at.
Last week I looked at what led England to civil war. This week I’m going to focus on how things on the Parliamentary side of that civil war really radicalised.
The English Revolution, that took place in England in the seventeenth century, is often overlooked. But it’s important in establishing the principle of parliamentary democracy and so, it’s certainly worth our time taking a look at it. And it was a revolution, even if that’s something we English are not famous for: not only did a king lose his head but the monarchy itself was overthrown and with it the established Church and the House of Lords. And not only was Parliament pitted against absolutism, but some incredibly radical ideas emerged in the wake of this initial shock, radical even in today’s terms, like the levelling of society.
Covering more than a thousand years of history, my focus will be on power and how it set up the conditions that led to the English and French revolutions as well as influencing the American revolution too. I
If we look carefully at it, ancient Rome stands in contrast to Greece because whereas we can say that Greece, for a period of time, was indeed a democracy, Rome wrapped a democratic cloak around itself, but in fact was an oligarchy of the wealthy. And for us today, we need to be aware that it is the Roman republic that has had a greater influence on the democracies of the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and their constitutions, than Athens had.
George Bernard Shaw said that democracy is the form of government that gives its citizens what they deserve. And that's where I want to turn my attention to: the way in which we are governed in democracies (probably with diversions to alternative ways of governing). Where has democracy come from? What lessons does the past have for us today? What do we mean by democracy? Should we be satisfied with what we’ve got? If democracy is important to us, it seems worth the journey.
Having taken us from America in the 1920s to America today, last week I looked at the state of the capitalist system and the state of the richest 0.1%, 1%, 10%. Well, today, I’m going to end our look at America by focussing on the 90%, right up to Trump's current administration.
Having made the link between the Great Depression of the early 1930s and the Great Recession of 2009, in other words between the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the Financial Crisis or Subprime Crisis of 2008, let’s take a look at how the capitalist system works in America today.
In this episode I’m going to make the worrying link between the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the Financial Crisis or Subprime Crisis of 2008, between the Great Depression of the early 1930s and the Great Recession of 2009.
There were those who criticised Roosevelt for not doing more, but it is the criticisms from the capitalists who complained he was doing too much, interfering in the economy too much, that I want to focus on. We’ve touched on it from time to time in the last two episodes, but I want to shine a spotlight on it because their determination to undo what he had achieved would, eventually, lead to the financial crash of 2008.
Roosevelt's Second New Deal was different in character. Its emphasis was on reform: reforming the capitalist system that had failed Americans; indeed, had failed itself. And providing for a fairer society with protection for workers and better pay and work conditions, and welfare support for the wider population.
Roosevelt's package of new laws and initiatives that together constituted his New Deal for America, offered three things: Relief, Recovery and Reform. It set out to save Americans from the Great Depression and to save capitalism from itself.
I think it’s important to focus on 1932 in the Great Depression because it shows the depth of the impact the depression had on people’s lives, it shows how choices are important in history as they are in life, and it shows how democracy can work to stabilise a state that’s in deep trouble.
I’m going to begin this week with a song. But don’t worry – I’m not going to sing it! The song depicts how men who had contributed to America’s economic well-being and who had fought for their country were now left begging for small change. Because this week, we’re looking at the impact of the Wall Street Crash and the Great Depression that followed in its wake.
If radicals and newer immigrants faced American intolerance, so too did a group of people who had been in America much longer, had not asked to be there but who, as a consequence, had already suffered in ways no human being should have had to endure: African Americans.
Last week we were looking at divisions in American society, well America was not only divided, it was a remarkably prejudiced, intolerant society. Examples are many but I will focus this week on immigrants and the ‘Red Scare’, and particularly on the trial of two Italian-born immigrants: Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti.
We can see divisions in American society on a number of fronts: politically, racially, between the poor and the rich, but America was no more split than it was between the city and the countryside. Rural America was ill at ease with the apparent self-indulgence, materialism and the looser morals that they saw in city life. They were concerned that Christian values seemed to be breaking down, and with them, the traditional country values of clean living, hard work and thrift. I’m going to look at two cases that highlighted that split. Hopefully, this episode will give you an insight to the way America is split today.
I’ve been looking at industrial revolutions and the development of capitalism. First, in Britain, the world’s first industrial revolution, and then moving across the Atlantic to America and this week I want to dig a little deeper into the kind of society that developed in America in the 1920s.
Last week I gave you the positive spin on the way capitalism developed in America in the 1920s. Well, this week we’ll be looking at the worrying side, the dark side even. It shows that there are always, or nearly always, two ways to look at things, and it also shows the shortcomings, even the danger, of capitalism
Herbert Hoover, in accepting the Republican nomination to run for president in 1928, said ‘One of the oldest and perhaps the noblest of human activities has been the abolition of poverty … we in America today are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of our land.’ And that’s what were setting off to look at next: capitalism in America.
Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream:
https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad
This week, I'm going to take a deeper look at capitalism and present a sweeping history of it from the first industrial revolution in nineteenth-century Britain to today. And I'll leave you with a question: should capitalism be controlled by government?
The focus for this, and the next episode will be the economic and political system that formed the basis for the first industrial revolution in Britain and looks ahead to the development of Western economies: capitalism and the profit motive.
The industrial revolution created a new class: the working class, with its own experiences, its own culture and its own needs. It is a class that has come a long, long way since that first industrial revolution in Britain and this episode sets out to sketch that journey.
As well as bringing about the rise of the city, the industrial revolution brought about a social revolution that utterly transformed society. It developed a middle class and created a working class, giving shape to the society we live in today. In this episode I will focus on the development of the middle class.
In 1801 25% of British people lived in towns, 75% in the countryside; by the middle of the century, it was roughly 50-50; by the end the century those first figures were reversed with 75% of the population living in towns and cities and only 25% in the countryside. But what was life like in those towns and cities.
Having tried to explain why Britain was the first industrial nation and how an industrialised world began to take shape, in this episode I want to go further into what changed and not just describe what it was like for those who lived through it but show how the miserable lives of the foot soldiers of industrialisation, focusing particularly on agricultural workers, factory workers, coal miners, with a spotlight on children, was a result of the profit motive.
This episode looks a little deeper at the period in which the industrialising world catches up and overtakes Britain.
*Do note that since researching and recording this episode, India has overtaken Japan to become the world's 4th biggest economy. How fast this world of ours is changing!
I’m continuing my look at the industrialising world by focusing on the globalisation of the industrial revolution, well at least its spread to Europe and America!
I’m looking at the first industrial revolution in Britain that did so much to shape the world we live in today and in this second episode I want to highlight the key motivating factor: the profit motive, as well as the importance of the railways.
I’m changing tack completely in this little series to look at some of the truly big events that shaped the world we live in today. And I’m beginning with the industrial revolution in Britain. Hugely significant because not only did the British economy rapidly grow, and eventually the world economy, but it did so because of a technological revolution, simple though that may have been at first, and because of, and through, a social revolution that utterly transformed society.
This week we are going to look at the UN embroiled in a civil war in the Congo at the beginning of the 1960s. A sorry tale that also serves to illustrate just what imperialism had done to Africa.
The way the United Nations is being ignored by the Soviet Union with regard to Ukraine, ignored and attacked by Israel in Gaza (more than 280 UNWRA and other UN Humanitarian personnel killed by the Israeli Defence Force), it seems as if we are witnessing the end of the UNs usefulness. But this isn’t the first time the United Nations has faced huge controversy, has seemed to be finished as an international peace-keeping body, as a force for good. There are two truly massive crises that I’m aware of that I thought would be useful to share with you.
This is my second episode looking at the Kurds, the largest ethnic group in the world without a home to call its own. Having looked at the Kurds in Turkey and in Syria, today we’ll look at the Kurds in Iraq and Iran.
I’m looking at the Kurds today, the largest ethnic group in the world without a home to call its own. That fact alone makes it necessary for us to know something about their history, I think. Well, this is the first of two episodes doing that.
This episode sets out to explain the reasons behind the schism in the Islamic world between Sunnis and Shi'ites or Shias, as well as the consequences of the schism.
A final episode on Syria taking a look at the consequences of the civil war, most importantly on people but also on the politics of the region.
I don’t want to plot the path of the war so much (though there will inevitably be a bit of that), rather I want to focus on the nature of it, its characteristics, so that we can better understand its significance today.
For a very brief period, Bashar seemed to offer a liberal regime but he soon revived the authoritarian tactics of his late father’s administration. It would eventually lead to protests, that became an uprising or a revolution, and eventually a civil war; and that’s what our focus is for this episode.
Hafez Assad moved Syria ever closer to the Soviet Union (and then lost it). And he set out to position Syria as a regional power and himself as the leader of the Arab world, filling the vacuum left by Nasser, and that meant taking on Israel (or at least at first it did), it also meant rivalry with Saddam Hussein, and, as we have seen, it meant interfering in the Lebanon Civil War and, indeed, its occupation of Lebanon (so I won’t revisit that). But all this also meant that, one way or another, whether he wanted it or not, there would be a relationship with America.
The fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime took us all by surprise. The armed coalition, led by the Islamist militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA), put an end to over fifty years of the Assad family’s rule of Syria. And I want to explore how first Hafez al-Assad, and then Bashar al-Assad, got to power and what they did in power. In other words, how did we get to where we are today?
A peaceful, people-led, revolution against Syrian occupation, Hezbollah attacks on Israel and another Israeli invasion of Lebanon.
With the Israeli’s and the Christian Maronites both eager to cement their relationship and control Syria, and with Syria determined that they should be the leading player in Lebanon and so be the leading player in the Arab world’s settlement with Israel, and with the root of the problem – the question of a Palestinian state – unresolved – nothing was settled in Lebanon. Far from it.
Civil war broke out in Lebanon for a second time in 1975, partly as a result of the communal divisions in Lebanon but partly as a result of communal relationships with Syria and Israel, and because of the Arab world's conflict with Israel. But the consequences of the civil war would do nothing to ease the situation with regard to Israel.
In this, my last episode looking at the impact of the Cold War on the Middle East, I’m going to take us to the end of the Cold War and the part Afghanistan played in the Soviet Union's collapse.
Both America and the Soviet Union continued to build links with the region at every opportunity. But Iran and Iraq made it an unsettling, uncertain experience.
I thought it important in this long series looking at the Middle East and how we got to where we are today, to include a look at how the Cold War affected what unfolded. And this episode will begin that look in the 1950s.
From the prison massacres in 1988 to the Mahsa Amini protests that started in 2022, this episode takes a look at just what it is that so many Iranians oppose and how the Iranian theocracy has dealt with that opposition.
If you could sum up the impact of the Iranian Islamic Revolution in a sentence, it would be something like, ‘At one and the same time, Iran has dangerously widened the Sunni-Shia split that divides Muslims whilst becoming the rallying point for the Islamic anti-imperialist, anti-American and anti-Israeli movement.’ I'm going to add a little to this sentence!
We’ve been looking at really serious things with regard to Iran; and very worrying too. But the thing that has worried the West the most is undoubtedly Iran’s nuclear programme, and that's the focus of this episode.
I’m continuing my focus on the impact of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, moving away from the two superpowers of America and the Soviet Union, to consider the broader international impact, selecting examples of Iran’s presence across the world – some I think will tweak your memory but I think you’ll also be in for a few surprises.
This second episode on the impact of the Islamic Revolution in Iran will focus on its impact on America and the Soviet Union. The Middle East with its oil, was always going to be an important region for the two superpowers, but the Islamic Revolution in Iran would unsettle the plans of both of them.
In this episode I’m going to return to 1979 and the event that triggered a process of geopolitical realignment that is up there with the collapse of the Soviet Union in its significance on our world today. America had put a lot of time and dollars into supporting the Shah in Iran, and in 1979 that blew up in America’s face, and gave us President Bush’s “Axis of Evil” and later what Iran called an “Axis of Resistance”. So, 1979 is extremely important.
Turkey straddles many worlds: Europe and Asia, a Christian world and the Islamic world, the West and the Russian Federation. In the aftermath of WW1, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the creator of modern Turkey, created a secular Turkey out of the old Ottoman Empire. Today, Erdogan's Turkey has placed Islam back at the centre of Turkish life. So, this episode tries to explain how we got from Ataturk to Erdogan. And just how how that journey has changed Turkey. With all that's going on in Ukraine and the Middle East, its an important episode.
This week we come to our last episode on Egypt, focusing on Sadat and Mubarak, both, like Nasser, members of the Free Officers group that had overthrown King Farouq in the coup of 1952. They would both reject Nasser’s Arab socialism but would follow his lead in continuing to enforce an authoritarian government on the Egyptian people, and while Sadat would take-on Israel again, both reached an accommodation with the Israelis. But it wouldn't end well for either of them.
This week we are going to consider Nasser's legacy. The scourge of Britain, they (along with the French) saw him as something of a Hitler or a Mussolini, but to this day he is still seen by many Egyptians, maybe most, as a hero; and he was, for a time, the leader of the Arab world and a big figure in the Third World and the non-aligned movement. But did that much change for Egyptians? And was his overriding legacy that of authoritarian government?
The Suez Crisis left Britain humiliated and as far as the Middle East as a whole was concerned, the spectacular failure of British power meant that, in fact, Britain was no longer seen as a major player. America had made it clear that oil and the Cold War came way up their list of priorities before the so-called “special relationship”. And the Soviet Union was emboldened. But we shouldn't forget - Nasser was very much still in power.
What we are going to look at this week really did shake everything up. It is a remarkable story showing the arrogant and downright immoral side of British imperialism. And it ends in humiliation.
In this episode, I’m turning to Egypt because something really, really important happens in 1956. Something that changes the whole game in the Middle East and beyond, and we need to understand it.
We have reached the point in the Middle East at which British rivalry with France is largely superseded by British rivalry with America. BIG SPOLIER – America is going to win this one. Britain’s days as a major power were numbered, they just didn’t see it just yet.
Before Britain (and France) had relinquished their mandates in the Middle East, Britain and America were already manoeuvring to put one over one another and ensure predominance in the region. Before it was even over, the Anglo-French rivalry was being replaced by an Anglo-American rivalry, again whilst the two countries were allies fighting the Axis powers.
This episode looks at the very bitter end of the British mandate and the immediate Arab response to the Israeli state. And it ends with some revelations that will probably surprise you, even shock you, but that are actually understandable.
We are now in 1946 and a combination of diplomatic pressure from the Jewish Agency and continued paramilitary activity, as well as propaganda applied in America which led to increased American pressure, and French manoeuvrings too as they sought revenge, all combined to bring about an end to the British mandate in Palestine. In truth, Britain didn’t stand a chance of maintaining its mandate.
I’m returning to the Middle East and to the last years of the British mandate in Palestine. With the defeat of Germany, the full revelations of the Holocaust and the refugee crisis in Europe (there were a quarter of a million refugees of whom more than half were Jewish survivors of the Holocaust; and they were living in awful conditions with winter on its way), the momentum was with the Zionist cause.
In this episode I'm going to take a little look at the Special Relationship the British and Americans like to talk about and that has worried the French and other Europeans in the post-war world. It was Churchill who actually coined the phrase, referring to a “fraternal association of the English-speaking peoples …. a special relationship between the British Commonwealth and Empire and the United States.”
What happened in Berlin in 1948 and 1949 can be seen in a number of ways. It is the last factor in explaining the cause of the Cold War; and at the same time, it is the first act of the Cold War, the first clash between the two superpowers. It also demonstrates just how Berlin was at the centre of those rings I described in the introduction to this little series.
In 1947 and 1948, the Soviet Union moved to fulfil Churchill’s prediction and gain control of eastern Europe. It created a bloc of countries with governments loyal to them, even if their people weren’t. And America responded.
Mistrust is an interesting word and its worth reflecting on just what it might mean. It could be seen as entirely rational. Based on reason and looking at the Cold War, it would focus on the ideological divide, a divide that appeared to allow for no compromise. Democracy and self-determination versus dictatorship and empire-building. Free trade versus protectionism too. As it might also look to past deeds, for example appeasement of Hitler or the Nazi-Soviet Pact. But it might also be based on emotion, on prejudice amongst the leaders, in a nutshell, on personal dislike.
Though there was a clear ideological divide, this hadn’t prevented the Soviet Union and the West uniting to defeat Hitler. So how was it that allies became enemies, and so quickly? How did Europe come to be divided by, in Churchill’s famous phrase, an ‘iron curtain’? Can we attach blame? Or was it mostly a terrible misunderstanding from both sides? This episode provides the context to this epoch-making momemt in history.
I'm breaking away from my history of the Middle East though not entirely. Because it just so happens that while reading a book by a super, super historian Margaret MacMillan; the book: History’s People, I came across two incredible women, one kicking around in the Middle East, the other in the Balkans, around the time of WW1 and I really wanted to share what I learned about them with you. So, a slight diversion to take a look at Gertrude Bell and Edith Durham, two truly incredible women.
In this episode we look at the end of the French mandates and take a brief look at what, having been given their independence, Syria and Lebanon were able to do with it.
In 1943, we come to a point where the story of the French and British mandates intertwines again, or at least more visibly intertwines for wasn’t it always so. And with victory in Europe looking increasingly likely, the waters, far from becoming clearer, only get more muddied as France and Britain lose control of events.
So far, the history of the Middle East has been a complicated story of Britain and France trying to out-manoeuvre each other whilst at the same time out-manoeuvring the Arabs and, in Britain’s case, the Jews too. Couldn’t get more complicated? Of course it could. In WW2, the same complications are there to be seen but now Britain is dealing with two Frances: Vichy France, the third of France that had some autonomy from the Germans so long as they collaborated with them; and Free France led by General Charles de Gaulle, from London mostly. And Free France, desperate though its position was, was as much at odds with the British as pre-war France had been. And the war, the need for oil, what Germany might or might not do and what a post-war world would look like needs to be added to the mix. A complicated story is going to get much more complicated.
Everything goes from bad to worse for Britain in Palestine: the Arab Revolt and Zionist terrorism as Hitler's attacks on the Jewish community in Nazi Germany worsens and a second world war looks increasingly likely.
This episode looks at the dilemma that immediately faced the British in Palestine: how to satisfy Jews and Arabs. What led to the Arab revolt and to Zionist terrorism with Nazi Germany the menacing backdrop. And, too, how Transjordan transformed itself into the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan
Before WW1, what was to become Iraq was administered as three provinces of the Ottoman or Turkish Empire, none of which identified strongly with the others: Mosul, Baghdad and Basra, collectively known as Mesopotamia. Persia (today’s Iran), had been a British protectorate since 1899, as was Kuwait. All three states have become important in recent history. So what was British rule like in those inter-war years?
WW1 had been shattering for Europe: at least ten million dead, a lost generation of young men; WW1 had turned Britain from being the world’s largest creditor to being its largest debtor, whilst France’s economy was simply in ruins. European standing might have been dealt a mighty blow, its arrogance not so much. As you will see in this episode, both Britain and France still held unrealistic imperial ambitions.
This week I’m going to focus on an issue that seems to dominate so much of international relations today, and which, right back at the beginning of the twentieth century, came to dominate Britain’s thinking more and more as WW1 was still being fought out: oil.
You would be hard pushed to find a single German who didn’t hate the Treaty of Versailles and those who had forced it on their nation; and for many, those who had accepted it: the November Criminals as they were labelled. And that’s what this episode is going to look at, and in doing so, help explain why we had a second world war.
As a break from the Middle East, I thought it would be interesting to look at how the allies in Paris dealt with Germany and take in briefly how Europe was reshaped. It seems to me that you would find it interesting as there is no doubt that the Treaty of Versailles, the treaty that dealt with Germany, is a major factor in any explanation of the second world war and all that entailed, whilst the other treaties went a long way to reshape Europe. So, the first of two episodes looking at how Germany was dealt with and, with this episode at least, how Europe was reshaped.
I said you would meet Mustafa Kemal or Ataturk properly, well, now’s the time. I’ve given hints of his place in Turkish history and now it’s time to do that properly too. Because you can’t understand modern Turkey and what Erdogan has done with Ataturk’s Turkey unless we go back to what Ataturk established.
This episode is going to take a look at how the peacemakers dealt with Turkey as we shouldn’t underestimate the significance of Turkey today. It has a different relationship to the countries of the Middle East, and Russia too, than do western European countries and America; while it is a member of NATO, and has been since 1952. And that alone makes it very important.
This episode continues our look at the Paris Peace Conference that followed WW1 as it gets down to the nitty gritty of the negotiations that did so much to shape the way the Middle East looks, and feels, today.
This episode begins a considered look at the manoeuvrings both immediately before and during the Paris Peace Conference, the conference that shaped the world after WW1. Its really important because this conference set in motion the grievances that the Arab world and the Muslim world hold against the West today, and that includes, not only the fact that there is an Israeli state, and the situation in Gaza and the West Bank today, but it also goes a long way to explaining the sorry state of Lebanon too, and also any proper explanation of the Iranian Islamic Revolution, the regime of Saddam Hussein and the tragic civil war in Syria.
The themes of this history so far
- Allies (that is Britain and France) that didn’t trust each other; indeed, allies that shouldn’t trust each other
- How British and French imperialism was paying little regard to the needs of those who had lived for generation after generation in the Middle East
- And the hole Britain was digging itself saying different things to the French, the Arabs and the Zionists
In this series I’m going to go back to the Middle East and the roots of the Middle East as we know it today; with all its worrying problems. And to do that, I have to go back to WW1, even before the war, at least a little bit.
I’m going to end this mini-series on history trumping geography with a look at Taiwan because, along with the Korean peninsula, the situation with Israel and the Palestinians and Ukraine, it is one of the spots most likely to cause a major conflict. And it is another part of our world where History has trumped geography.
I’m returning to Asia to end this mini-series on history trumping geography with two episodes that look at parts of the world that could threaten world peace. This week its the Korean peninsula.
This episode will take us from where we left things in Ireland in 1691 by jumping to the nineteenth century, to the Home Rule Bills and to 1922 and the division of the island of Ireland.
This episode is going to explain how the north-east corner of the island of Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom and not Ireland. I’m not going to give anything like a full history of Ireland, that would be interesting but would take many, many episodes, but I must give some key points in Ireland’s history for anything to make sense.
How is the most north-easterly tip of the North America continent an American state and not a Canadian province or territory? And sitting as it does on a Caribbean Island, somewhere that could have been the subject of songs, the destination for beach lovers, honeymooners. How did Guantánamo Bay, instead, become one of history’s most notorious detention camps.
Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream:
https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad
I’m going to take a look at the rival claims to the Falkland Islands or Las Malvinas. I’m not going to look at the war of 1982, but rather how a group of islands off the southern tip of South America, 800 miles or 1300 kilometres from Britain, is deemed as British.
Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream:
https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad
There’s often a bit of banter in schools between historians and geographers. I remember I had a running “battle” with one colleague, each of us playing tricks on the other, each trying to make fun of the other’s subject whenever we got the chance. One of the things I did was to put a poster up above my classroom door that read “In geography, they colour in maps. In history, we change them.” I dedicate this little series to geographers, and as I do, let me say it’s a great subject, really interesting – but they do colour in the odd map or two!
Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream:
https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad
To end this little series looking at Brazil (with lessons to learn for us all), something good, something not good, and something beautiful.
Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream:
https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad
In this episode I’ll look at how the Brazilian military got itself out of the hole it had dug, and got itself out of its political role.
Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream:
https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad
With America at war in Vietnam, the civil rights movement making some headway (I wouldn’t exaggerate how much), with hippies flocking to San Francisco, and British culture taken over by the Beatles, the Stones, the Who and co; Brazil was taken over by the military. This episode looks at Brazil under the military regime.
Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream:
https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad
I’m continuing my look at Brazil and in this episode I’m looking at Getulio Vargas’ Estado Novo or New State.
Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream:
https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad
I’m continuing my look at Brazil and in this episode I’m going to look at Brazil post-empire, tracing the country’s path to dictatorship. We need to appreciate that democracy is not the only means of governing and if we value it, we need to nurture and protect it.
This episode continues our little soap opera looking at the royals of Brazil by looking at the reign of the much-loved (at least in this part of the world) Pedro II. A pity, then, that it didn't end too well for him.
I’m continuing my look at Brazil and in this episode I’m going to look at something that I think is unique, or if it isn’t then it is very, very unusual. For Brazil was a colony that came to be home for its emperor.
Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream:
https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad
I’m continuing my look at Brazil and my look at the lives of Afro-Brazilians, moving on from the end of slavery to today.
Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream:
https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad
I’m hitting my first birthday for this podcast and to celebrate, I’m going to turn my focus on my adopted home: Brazil. And I'll begin this little series of episodes with a look at slavery in Brazil. Not a happy subject to start off my birthday celebrations but what can I do: this is history!
Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream:
https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad
Before we really get started with 2024, before we break our resolutions, I thought let’s put out an episode with a positive spin. And I’ve been inspired by a song by Iris Dement called “Workin’ On A World as well as the lives of two extraordinary women.
Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream:
https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad
This final episode looking at the BRICS group considers its significance. BRICS countries account for just about 30% of the world’s land surface, 40% of the world’s population – that’s 3.2 billion people, and growing. Their economies have more than 25% of the world’s GDP. And between 2003 and 2007, the growth of the four initial members accounted for 65% of the expansion of world GDP. Looking ahead, it’s thought that when the new countries formally join the group, their share of the world’s population will rise to 47% and its share of GDP will rise to 36%, whilst it’s projected that they will have more than 50% by 2030bAnd its also worth comparing this to the G7s share of GDP which currently stands at 30%.
Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream:
https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad
In 1973, fifty years ago so it seems even more fitting that we should be looking at this, the first oil crisis plunged most of the world’s economies, certainly those in the developed West, into stagflation – economic stagnation coupled with high inflation. This episode looks at that impact and considers the changed relations between the developed nations, particularly those in the West, and the developing nations.
Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream:
https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad
At the same time as the world was polarising between the West and the Communist bloc, what came to be called the ‘Third World’, essentially the world emerging from the European empires, was struggling to assert itself. Some of this ‘Third World’ morphed into a non-alignment group, asserting independence and ensuring neutrality in the Cold War. But it was also a declaration that there were more important issues to address, notably the imbalance of power – economic, cultural and political power.
Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream:
https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad
This little series will trace the history that led to the formation of BRICS bloc of countries. And it will begin by looking at the impact of a conference that took place before WW2 had ended in Bretton Woods in America. For the decisions made there, and they were driven by America, would have a profound impact on the post-war world.
Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream:
https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad
While not forgetting the sorry plight of Palestinians since 1948, this episode goes back to Nazi Germany and traces the path that led to the death camps and the Holocaust in an attemt to understand the Jewish, Israeli position.
Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream:
https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad
Since the Six Day War and the Yom Kippur War the biggest threat to Israeli’s, though not Israel itself, has come from various militant groups supporting the Palestinian cause, not from Arab states, though a Persian state, Iran lurks ominously in the background of what the likes of Hezbollah and Hamas do. Whilst Israel has done its cause no good whatsoever in the court of world opinion as it set out on a policy to build more and more settlements on the West Bank, while at the same time treating the Palestinians both in the West Bank and in Gaza with little regard for their human rights. So, this week were going to look at how the dimensions changed in the conundrum that is two peoples and one patch of land.
Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream:
https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad
This week were going to look at the impact of two brave leaders, or at least I think they were brave, their deaths, and the end of a chance for peace for two peoples in one patch of land.
Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream:
https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad
Three wars that literally shaped the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as we see it today: the first resulting from the Suez Crisis in 1956; the second, the Six Day War in 1967; the third, the Yom Kippur War in 1973. Three wars that we must know about in order to understand today's conflict.
Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream:
https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad
This episode examines what led to the creation of the Israeli state and the immediate reaction from Israel's neighbouring Arab countries.
Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream:
https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad
Bob Dylan repeatedly asks the question “How many”? How many times, how many roads, How many seas….. “How many”? How many times must we make the same mistake, go through repeated tragedies, how many years before we learn? Clearly, he was hoping that things would change – but this was sixty years ago. This episode considers what's happened since 1963.
Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream:
https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad
I have talked about Hitler having lived in Vienna, the capital of Austria-Hungary as it was pre-WW1, and where both his anti-democratic views and his anti-Semitism took root. Well, by a freak of history, it so happens, for a short period in 1913, Hitler had some interesting neighbours when he was in Vienna. This episode is going to take a look at them and consider what might have been as well as what was.
Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream:
https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad
In this final episode in my little series called “Lessons from Hitler”, a second episode looking at fascism and comparing Hitler’s Nazi Germany to Putin’s Russia and to Trumpism. The focus this time is on fascisms contempt for democracy and its violent nature.
Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream:
https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad
In this episode we come to Hitler’s lesson for Putin in my little series on “Lessons from Hitler”. We take a look at how Hitler dealt with opposition and then a look at how Putin does so. It's not that Putin really learnt from Hitler but that we should learn from both of them.
Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream:
https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad
Last week I looked at the dangers of putting Trump on trial, this week I’m going to consider the argument for stopping someone like Hitler, someone with utter disregard for the values of liberal democracy, someone such as a Trump or a Putin by focusing on how Hitler so easily destroyed democracy in Germany.
Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream:
https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad
I’m starting a little series that I call “Lessons from Hitler”, comparing what Hitler did with what Trump and Putin have been up to. In this first episode I go back to Hitler's trial in 1924 that followed his failed coup in the previous year. It serves as a stark warning - not that Trump shouldn't face justice.
Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream:
https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad
On September 16th, one year ago, Mahsa Amini died in a Tehran hospital three days after being arrested by the Iranian moral police for not wearing her headscarf properly. This episode looks at issues behind the hijab, not just in Iran but in France too.
Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream:
https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad
Ray Lamontagne, a great song writer and a great musician, wrote a song called Be Here Now that includes a such a profound line: ‘Don’t put your trust in walls cos walls will only crush you when they fall’. The first time I heard it I thought wow, that’s a great lyric, and it’s the same every time I listen to the song. If you don’t know him, you really should check him out. More recently, I came across Anais Mitchell and her song, Why We Build the Wall:
We build the wall to keep us free
The wall keeps out the enemy
Because we have and they have not
Because they want what we have got
The enemy is poverty and the wall keeps out the enemy
And we build the wall to keep us free
Again, do check her out, you won’t be disappointed.
Where am I going with all this? Well, we’ve been looking at China for a good few episodes. China has a wall and so I thought an episode on walls in history was in order.
Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream:
https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad
It is so important to step back and take stock of the impact of the Cultural Revolution, as well as to try and make sense of it. And China itself had to do this. With Mao’s death in 1976 and Deng Xiaoping effectively in control by the end of 1978, soon to be made ‘paramount leader’ (what a survivor!), China needed to put the whole affair in the rear-view mirror and move on. But it had some explaining to do before it could do that!
Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream:
https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad
We left things last week at the beginning of 1967 with the Cultural Revolution out of control and turning on the Chinese Communist Party itself. Even Mao now thought that “trusting the masses” had gone too far.
Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream:
https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad
This week we are continuing our examination of Mao in power by looking at what must be the most chaotic, crazy period in any country’s history as the Cultural Revolution spiralled out of control.
Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream:
https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, to give its full grand title, lasted from early 1966 to Mao’s death in 1976, though its fiery phase ended in 1969. But what was the Cultural Revolution? The answer - surprise, surprise - is not straightforward.
Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream:
https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad
Thgis second episode looking at China’s Great Leap Forward in the 1950s will show just how crazy and tragic the whole thing was, and why I call this episode ‘Farce and Famine’. It also serves as an example of just how one person can destroy the lives of millions.
Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream:
https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad
This week I’m going to take a look at the first of two disasters that were the end product of Mao policies. This first, the Great Leap Forward, was ideological and economic in nature but its cost was measured in human terms: millions of human lives.
Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream:
https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad
Having looked at China before the Chinese Communist Party came to power, I want to take a few episodes to look at the man who dominated Chinese history from the end of the ‘century of humiliation’ to his death in 1976. The man whose body still sits in a mausoleum in the middle of Tiananmen Square in the heart of Beijing: Mao. This episode looks at some of the reasons why he gained power.
Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream:
https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad
History is important to countries because it shapes the collective memory of the next generation, the way they see their own country and its place in the world. Pride, patriotism, knowing your friends and your enemies, knowing who you think you can trust and who you can’t trust, are all influenced by how history is taught. This episode will consider how history is taught in schools.
Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream:
https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad
I really like a phrase I came across in preparing this episode. It comes from in an article produced by the European Foundation for South Asian Studies called Assessing the ‘Century of Humiliation’. It says how ‘Contextualising history means contextualising behaviour’. To put it the other way round, to understand a country’s behaviour today, we have to look at it in the context of its history. For its historical experiences play a major part in how it sees the world today. And this episode looks at just what China’s ‘century of humiliation’ means to China today and what influence it has on China’s relationships with other nations.
Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream:
https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad
This was in fact a long century, lasting 110 years. For it began with the First Opium War with Britain which began in 1839. And it didn’t end until the end of WW2 and the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. It was a century in which China and the Chinese people suffered at the hands of imperial powers, mostly from Europe and Japan, but a little bit from America too. Every Chinese leader over the last century has regarded it to be his historic task to overcome that ‘century of humiliation’ and restore China to its rightful position in the world order: at the top. So, its important!
Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream:
https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad
If China is to become a dominant player, if not the dominant player, in the 21st century and beyond, then it is important that the rest of the world reaches an understanding of just what it is we are dealing with. We see the world very much from the perspective we have been taught: the British perspective, the European perspective, the American perspective. Well, China’s culture, its values and its history is very different, and so too is their view of the world we share.
Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream:
https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad
With this episode I’m going to give you a few insights to China – its history and its culture. I think it’s important because I think the world is going to change radically in the not-too distant future. The Western perception of how things should be done – free markets, democratic norms, the rule of law, human rights – are going to be challenged by different civilisations, notably China’s.
Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream:
https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad
The leaders of the G7 met recently and China was high on the agenda for their discussions. Rishi Sunak, the British Prime Minister, said that China posed 'the greatest challenge of our age.' He's not wrong, but how well does he know China? This episode begins a little series on China by giving some illustrations of the significance of the awakening giant.
Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream:
https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad
This episode looks at the consequences of the Iran-Iraq War as they rippled out across time from Iran and Iraq and their people, to the region as a whole and to the wider world.
Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream:
https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad
We’ve been looking at the impact of Saddam Hussein and Ayatollah Khomeini on their people, and I’m going to end this mini-series by taking a look at the Iran-Iraq War. Lasting eight years, from 1980 through to 1988, the Iran-Iraq War was one of the longest wars since WW2, and it was one of the most bloody.
Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream:
https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad
We are looking at the impact of Saddam Hussein and Ayatollah Khomeini on history and on people’s lives, and in this episode, it is the effect on the Iraqi and Iranian people that I will focus on.
Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream:
https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad
We are looking at the impact of Saddam Hussein and Ayatollah Khomeini on history and on people’s lives, and in this episode, I’m going to look at the nature of their rule. Saddam is often described as a dictator, enforcing his vision of how a society should be, the policies that will make that vision a reality, and destroying anyone who thought differently. Whereas In sharp contrast, Ayatollah Khomeini's regime was a theocracy.
Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream:
https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad
“History is always about people” and this episode will look at the rise to power of two individuals who had a profound effect on history and not just in their own countries but in the Gulf states as a whole and, indeed, on the world. These two men were going to shake things up and the world is today a very, very different place, far less stable, than before they came to power.
Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream:
https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad
In the light of the coronation of Charles III, this episode considers the role of the British monarchy in a class system that prevents a meritocracy and leaves Britain still looking as it did in the nineteenth century.
Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream:
https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad
This is the second of two episodes that look at the accusations of war crimes made against Putin and Russia, and attempts to strike a sense of balance by looking at similar war crimes.
Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream:
https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad
This is the first of two episodes that look at the accusations of war crimes made against Putin and Russia, and attempts to strike a sense of balance by looking at similar war crimes.
Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream:
https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad
I'm interrupting my schedule with this one-off episode, to consider the dangers of putting political leaders on trial. Clearly, I’m responding to Trumps arraignment this week in New York. There are dangers attached and we’ve all been listening to very clever political commentators telling us about the dangers in Trump’s case. I'm sharing an historical precedent with you and I make some controversial comparisons!
This is the final episode in my mini-series that sets out to explain the war in Ukraine. We began this series by considering Putin’s mindset, and that’s where I want to return to in order to wrap things up.
Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream:
https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad
In this penultimate episode in my mini-series that sets out to explain the war in Ukraine, we go to Putin’s Russia and the seizure of Crimea.
Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream:
https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad
In this episode in my mini-series that sets out to explain the war in Ukraine, I’m going to jump forward from Stalin’s Russia to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. This was something that was remarkable in a number of ways: its apparent suddenness, its unexpectedness, and, of course, its game-changing, epoch-changing nature.
Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream:
https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad
In this episode in my mini-series that sets out to explain the war in Ukraine, my main focus is going to be on the period in which Stalin’s will held sway in Russia, so from 1924 to his death in 1953. And it aint gonna be too pretty.
Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream:
https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad
Lenin had blamed WW1 on imperialism’s greed and in this episode in my mini-series explaining the war in Ukraine, I’m going to look at Lenin and the Bolshevik’s stance on imperialism when a number of the republics, with Ukraine to the fore, sought to assert their independence from the Bolsheviks, and what that might mean to the situation today.
Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream:
https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad
In this episode in my mini-series that aims to explain the war in Ukraine, I’m going to take a look at the state of things at the outbreak of WW1.
Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream:
https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad
In this third episode explaining the war in Ukraine, I am going to go back to the origins of both Russia and Ukraine: to a land known as Kievan Rus and, in 15-20 minutes take us through around a thousand years of history!
Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream:
https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad
This episode looks at Ukraine's Orange Revolution of 2004 which should be seen as a watershed, setting the stage for the new Cold War climate that defines today's relations between Russia and the West.
Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream:
https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad
This episode is the first in a mini series that sets out to explain the war in Ukraine. And we begin by examining the relationship between Vladimir Putin and the West. I think you will see why it is so important.
Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream:
https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad
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This is an introduction to my new podcast: Making Sense of this Crazy World. In which I use history to help explain what's going on in the world today.
Intro and outro music curtesy of slip.stream:
https://slip.stream/tracks/58fb6726-c035-4d10-a8e8-eba70e5164ad