Channel History Hit

Sam Willis and James Daybell take on the UNEXPECTED history of CLOTHING! It's all about social control, death, recycling and mending, nationalism, Venice, knights and maidens, the Crown Jewels, ostriches, Thomas Wolsey, and the rediscovery of a long lost dress that once belonged to Queen Elizabeth I of England!  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Austerlitz is one of Napoleon's greatest victories. Late in the season, at the end of a long and vulnerable supply line, deep into eastern Europe, Napoleon tempted the allied armies of Austria and Russia to attack his forces, on ground of his choosing, and inflicted on them a crushing defeat. Dan visited the battlefield for this podcast and accompanying History Hit TV tour, and he tells the story of the battle with help from historian Ian Castle author of Austerlitz: Napoleon and The Eagles of Europe.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Professor Frank McDonough has just written a monumental history of the Third Reich. He is a world leading expert on the domestic side of Hitler's Germany. In this podcast Dan asks Frank why and how Hitler was able to establish and sustain his rule within Germany.On 30 January 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed the German Chancellor of a coalition government by President Hindenburg. Within a few months he had installed a dictatorship, jailing and killing his leftwing opponents, terrorising the rest of the population and driving Jews out of public life.He embarked on a crash programme on militaristic Keynesianism, reviving the economy and achieving full employment through massive public works, vast armaments spending and the cancellations of foreign debts. After the grim years of the Great Depression, Germany seemed to have been reborn as a brutal and determined European power.Over the course of the years from 1933 to 1939, Hitler won over most of the population to his vision of a renewed Reich. In these years of

2019 marks 100 years since Nancy Astor, the first female MP in Britain, took her seat in the House of Commons. Rachel Reeves, long-serving Labour politician and author, speaks to Dan about the remarkable achievements of pioneering women of Westminster and how the challenges faced by today's cohort of female MPs differ from those faced by their predecessors.For ad free versions of our entire podcast archive and hundreds of hours of history documentaries, interviews and films, signup to History Hit TV. Use code 'pod3' at checkout.For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacy  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Award winning broadcaster, journalist and author Gaia Vince talks to Dan about why humans evolved. Not just biologically but in terms of our language, culture and relationships. This is a big, wide ranging conversation about how we came to be who we are over hundreds of thousands of years.For ad free versions of our entire podcast archive and hundreds of hours of history documentaries, interviews and films, signup to History Hit TV. Use code 'pod3' at checkout.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Lord Jonathan Sumption is coming to the end of his magisterial multi-volume history of the Hundred Year's War. He believes it was essentially a French civil war into which the English and other external powers jumped into. In this podcast Jonathan talks Dan through the entire conflict, its causes, its course and its decisive conclusion.For ad free versions of our entire podcast archive and hundreds of hours of history documentaries, interviews and films, signup to History Hit TV. Use code 'pod3' at checkout.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

November 2019 marks the 500th anniversary of the meeting of Hernan Cortes and Aztec ruler Montezuma at the gates of the magnificent Aztec capital at Tenochitlan, now Mexico City. Caroline Dodds Pennock is a specialist in the Aztecs. She takes Dan on a whirlwind tour through the events of that extraordinary year and the gigantic impact of the Spanish conquest that followed.For ad free versions of our entire podcast archive and hundreds of hours of history documentaries, interviews and films, signup to History Hit TV. Use code 'pod3' at checkout.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Ben Monro-Davies is a journalist who has interviewed all the surviving participants of the cabinet meeting in which Margaret Thatcher announced her decision to resign. He and Dan listen to the recordings, and chat about their significance, and the way Mrs Thatcher and others responded to her fall from power. For ad free versions of our entire podcast archive and hundreds of hours of history documentaries, interviews and films, signup to History Hit TV. Use code 'pod3' at checkout.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

There is no more misunderstood doctrine than anarchism. Dan sets off to tackle his own lack of understanding by talking to Ruth Kinna, a Professor of Political Theory at Loughborough University, about what anarchism's goals are, and why its so hard to characterise it.For ad free versions of our entire podcast archive and hundreds of hours of history documentaries, interviews and films, signup to History Hit TV. Use code 'pod3' at checkout.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sam Willis and James Daybell are inspired by the new film Judy and Punch to explore the fascinating history of puppets! They're all about noses, propaganda, domestic violence, totalitarian rule, mischief, squeaking, industrialisation and disease. Who knew?!!!  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Professor Mary Fulbrook's book Reckonings won the 2019 Wolfson History Prize for its unique approach to the Holocaust, and in particular, those who perpetrated the atrocities. Fulbrook claims that the West German justice process was far too lenient on many ex-Nazis, who had condemned thousands or even hundreds of thousands to their death. She talks to Dan about the justice process, and what drove people to commit war crimes, and what stopped people from resisting them. For ad free versions of our entire podcast archive and hundreds of hours of history documentaries, interviews and films, signup to History Hit TV. Use code 'pod3' at checkout.Producer: Peter Curry  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Tutankhamun's tomb was discovered by Howard Carter almost 100 years ago, and a major new exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery takes a look at some of the treasures taken from his tomb, many of which are on tour for the first time. Dan gets Dr Tarek Al Awady to take him around the exhibition, discussing Tutankhamun's life and his legacy. For ad free versions of our entire podcast archive and hundreds of hours of history documentaries, interviews and films, signup to History Hit TV. Use code 'pod3' at checkout.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Allies seized the German fleet at the end of WW1 and it was held at Scapa Flow, in Orkney, until the terms of the Treaty of Versailles were announced. At least, that was the plan.The German navy covertly scuttled their own boats under the noses of their captors, rendering the fleet useless, until one firm set out on a massive salvage operation to recover usable material from the boats. Ian Murray Taylor's grandfather was at the top of the operation, and he talks to Dan about the story of Scapa Flow.For ad free versions of our entire podcast archive and hundreds of hours of history documentaries, interviews and films, signup to History Hit TV. Use code 'pod3' at checkout.Producer: Kathrin BenöhrAssistant Producer & Audio: Peter Curry  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Inspired by Bonfire Night, Sam Willis and James Daybell explore the unexpected history of fire. It's all about communicating with fire, propaganda, speeches, hunting, exploring, Captain Cook, arrows, burning barrels, heresy, greed, Zoroastrianism, the rise of Islam, eternal flames, paisley, Dante's Inferno, treachery and Julius Caesar!  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Gary Lineker's grandfather was one of the 'D-Day Dodgers': men who fought in the Italian campaign, who were accused of missing the supposedly harder fighting in Normandy. Of course, this wasn't true. The Italian campaign was one of the hardest military campaigns of WW2, and Dan talks to Gary about his grandfather who fought in Italy. They also, unsurprisingly, talk about football. For ad free versions of our entire podcast archive and hundreds of hours of history documentaries, interviews and films, signup to History Hit TV. Use code 'pod3' at checkout.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Dan talks to Richard van Emden about his new book - Missing: The Need for Closure After the Great War.The backbone of the book is based on the best single story of WW1 that he has found in 35 years. It is the story of one woman’s relentless search for her missing son’s body. A story with incredible twists and turns.Against the odds she finds him in 1923. Richard also looks at the bigger picture, ie how long should the nation search for its dead and the mistakes made identifying the dead when exhumation parties were under such intolerable pressure.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The 9th November 1989 was one of the most significant dates in 20th century history. The Berlin Wall fell, changing the entire geopolitical situation and marking the start of the decline of Russia's world standing. Author Rory MacLean was present when the Wall fell, and he talks about the jubilation of the East Berliners, as well as what the fall of the Wall meant for Russians like Vladimir Putin.For ad free versions of our entire podcast archive and hundreds of hours of history documentaries, interviews and films, signup to History Hit TV. Use code 'pod3' at checkout.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Dan chats to Tim Mohr, a Club DJ turned writer, who has a very different story of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Tim talks about East German punks, who opposed the oppressive DDR government with their music and their actions, and describes how many of them were arrested because what they stood for was totally antithetical to the government regime.For ad free versions of our entire podcast archive and hundreds of hours of history documentaries, interviews and films, signup to History Hit TV. Use code 'pod3' at checkout. Producer: Peter Curry  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Inspired by Halloween and Bonfire Night, Sam and James discuss the unexpected history of blood and bones: it's all about prehistoric axes, mass graves, Viking armies, Tudor surgery, bear baiting, blood sports, how much it costs to make a human being, Ottomans, Italy, and eating human bone powder. So that's cannibalism too...  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

British military historian Mark Simner tackles the Opium Wars, rarely taught in English schools, but taught ubiquitously in China. He explains the provenance of both conflicts, and explores some of the reasons why resentment still lingers to this day. The Opium Wars are a critical part of Chinese history, and vital to understanding the first half of the 20th century in China, and to some extent, modern-day China.For ad free versions of our entire podcast archive and hundreds of hours of history documentaries, interviews and films, signup to History Hit TV. Use code 'pod3' at checkout.   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.