History Extra podcast
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History Extra podcast
The HistoryExtra podcast brings you gripping stories from the past and fascinating historical conversations with the world's leading historical experts. HistoryExtra is a free history podcast, with episodes released six times a week. Subscribe now for the real stories behind your favourite films,...
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Elizabeth I: a woman in a man’s world
By 1559, Elizabeth I had secured the crown – but holding on to power would prove far more challenging. In this second episode of our four-part Sunday...
Life on the mean streets of 19th-century London
What can Charlie Chaplin's life tell us about the experiences of poor working-class people in 19th- and early 20th-century London? Quite a lot, it tur...
Trailblazers and troublemakers: women who made French history
Have women been relegated to the footnotes of French history? Katherine Pangonis – whose latest book is A History of France in 21 Women – tells Charlo...
Vladimir Lenin: life of the week
Few people had as much impact on the course of the 20th century as Vladimir Lenin – from his years as an émigré across the capitals of western Europe,...
Why Britons rejected fascism in the 1930s
The 1920s and 30s were golden decades for extremism. Across Europe, dictators including Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini goose-stepped their way into powe...
Young Elizabeth I: the making of a queen
Elizabeth I is one of history's most iconic monarchs, but her path to the throne was anything but secure. In this first episode of our four-part Sunda...
A poetic history of England
How can you do justice to the story of 1,300 years of English history? Through verse, according to cultural historian Catherine Clarke – whose latest...
The hidden history behind Mount Rushmore
Mount Rushmore is one of the most iconic images in US history – but its story is far more complex and controversial than that of a simple sculpture. I...
Juana Inés de la Cruz: life of the week
She led “a life that really, in many ways, shouldn't have been possible”. So says historian Paul Gillingham of Juana Inés de la Cruz. This 17th-centur...
The forgotten wars that redefined Europe
While the crusades raged across the Holy Land in the southern Levant, the kingdoms of central and northern Europe were engaged in their own battle to...
Does Magna Carta matter today?
Politicians invoke it, activists wield it, and legal thinkers debate what it can offer the modern world. But what does Magna Carta really mean today?...
Slavery in the Islamic world
Slavery in the Islamic world has a diverse and controversial history. Speaking to Emily Briffett, historian and journalist Justin Marozzi explores som...
The real women behind Europe's greatest legends
National icons aren’t born – they’re engineered. But how were historical figures such as Joan of Arc and Isabella of Castile transformed into politica...
Thomas Edison: life of the week
Widely remembered as the ultimate American inventor, Edison’s greatest talent may have been for self-promotion. In this episode, historian Iwan Morus...
Following the footsteps of a WW2 prisoner of war
Captured in Libya, imprisoned in Italy, and twice an escapee: historian Malcolm Gaskill's great-uncle Ralph's experiences of the Second World War were...
Magna Carta: why didn't King John keep his word?
As King John was poised to press his seal into the wax of a document whose impact would reverberate for centuries, did he understand the ramifications...
How to be a Victorian
The Victorian period was a time of great economic, cultural and technological change. But what was it like to actually live through it? Speaking to Is...
"The streets will run with blood!": the uprising that shook Victorian Britain
In 1838, a 6ft Cornishman going by the name of Sir William Courtenay led an insurrection in rural Kent. Courtenay claimed he was Jesus Christ – and a...
Pocahontas: life of the week
Pocahontas's life is shrouded in myth – but how much of that lore is true? Speaking to Emily Briffett, historian Camilla Townsend brings us face to fa...
The ruthless revolution that made Britain great
The spinning jenny and steam power may be the textbook markers of the Industrial Revolution – but Edmond Smith argues the story starts earlier, and ru...
The Magna Carta myth
Magna Carta may be associated today with power, liberty and freedom – but those weren’t quite the concerns back in 1215. So what did the barons really...
Terrible puns and filthy limericks: the Victorian sense of humour
Queen Victoria was – so legend has it – famously 'not amused'. But, as Dr Bob Nicholson reveals in this episode of the HistoryExtra podcast, the long-...
What your hands say about you – according to history
What do your hands reveal about you? Historian Alison Bashford joins Elinor Evans to explore the extraordinary history of how people have interpreted...
Thomas More: life of the week
Thomas More is best remembered as a martyr and a saint, but the circumstances of his death were just one facet of his controversial life. Historian an...
Going on strike in ancient Rome
Strikes and unions may seem like modern inventions, but they’ve existed for much longer than many of us realise. Historian Sarah E Bond talks to Jon B...
Magna Carta: king v barons
In the early 13th century, England was a kingdom under pressure, as the challenges posed by King John’s reign had left the realm restless. By 1215, te...
Untold LGBTQ stories of the National Trust
In 1895, when the National Trust was founded, homosexual acts of ‘gross indecency’ were still illegal in Britain. And yet, as Michael Hall reveals in...
Why Greenwich is the home of time
Why is a small observatory in south east London so important to the story of how we tell the time? Speaking to Elinor Evans, Emily Akkermans, Curator...
James Gillray: life of the week
James Gillray was one of Georgian Britain’s most ruthless satirists, using his prints to mock kings, politicians and generals, turning politics into p...
Churchill and de Gaulle: a strange relationship
After France fell in 1940, it was Charles de Gaulle who led the Free French forces against Nazi Germany and Vichy France. From the moment he assumed t...
Why Pompeii's tragedy still captivates us today
When the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum were buried by ash spewed out of Vesuvius in AD 79, so too were their inhabitants, frozen in the moment of...
The United States and Latin America: a turbulent history
Has the United States always seen Latin America as its ‘backyard’? And when did influence tip into intervention? In this episode, Danny Bird is joined...
History's most mysterious manuscripts
What do exploding bats and amphibious galleons have in common? They're both fascinating features of some of the world's most mysterious manuscripts, a...
Francisco Franco: life of the week
Emerging in the early 20th century as Europe's youngest general since Napoleon Bonaparte, Francisco Franco was destined to make waves. But how did thi...
How grim was life on Hitler's U-boats?
"Statistically, they were on a suicide mission." That's Roger Moorhouse's assessment of the odds facing Hitler's U-boat crews in the final years of th...
How ancient Pompeii was rediscovered
The buried Roman city of Pompeii was ‘discovered’ in the 16th century, but was it ever lost? In this penultimate episode of our four-part series, Kev...
Why Belgian agents risked their lives spying for Britain
In the chaotic opening months of the First World War, Britain's intelligence services were desperate to learn where the Germans would attack next. Ent...
How tanks redefined warfare
From the mud-churned battlefields of the First World War to the high-stakes clashes of the Cold War, the tank has shaped the course of conflict like n...
Robert McNamara: life of the week
Robert McNamara is best remembered as a key architect of the Vietnam War, a man who pushed for military escalation as thousands died on all sides of t...
The road to the Holocaust
In his latest book, The Hitler Years: Holocaust 1933–1945, Frank McDonough offers a heart-rending year-by-year narrative of the Nazis' escalating pers...