History Extra Podcast

A century ago, in 1924, the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley opened its doors, receiving as many as 27 million visits over two years. It was a grand declaration of an empire at its territorial height. But behind the spectacle was a superpower grappling with its position on the world stage, seeking to recalibrate its own sense of influence and importance. Speaking to Elinor Evans, Matthew Parker takes listeners inside the exhibition, which featured huge sporting events and battle reenactments, glamorous pavilions showcasing new technology and science – and even a replica of Tutankhamun’s tomb. To listen to Matthew Parker discussing events that occurred across the British empire on one specific day in 1923, click here: https://link.chtbl.com/lsjrz1z8 The HistoryExtra podcast is produced by the team behind BBC History Magazine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Across the 65 years of his life, writer John Milton packed a lot in: poet, polemicist, political operator – engaging with ideas that often challenged the status quo. In today's Life of the Week episode, Professor Islam Issa speaks to Matt Elton about the life and legacy of this 17th-century polymath. The HistoryExtra podcast is produced by the team behind BBC History Magazine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Why were so many Germans prepared to participate in the crimes of the Third Reich? It's a question that has exercised historians and the wider public for decades, and now, in his new book, Hitler's People, Professor Richard J Evans seeks to provide an answer. In this episode, he speaks to Rob Attar about what drove people – from lowly functionaries to Hitler himself – to engage in acts of mass murder. (Ad) Richard J Evans is the author of Hitler's People: The Faces of the Third Reich (Allen Lane, 2024). Buy it now from Waterstones: https://go.skimresources.com?id=71026X1535947&xcust=historyextra-social-histboty&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.waterstones.com%2Fbook%2Fhitlers-people%2Frichard-j-evans%2F9780241471500. Listen to Mary Fulbrook explore why so many people went along with the Nazi regime here: https://link.chtbl.com/T3TDEbo8. The HistoryExtra podcast is produced by the team behind BBC History Magazine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Denounced as heretics by the Catholic church, the Cathars were a offshoot Christian movement which emerged in southern Europe during the 12th century. But what was it about their beliefs that was so outrageous to the orthodox medieval church? And why was their existence quickly snuffed out? Speaking to Emily Briffett, historian Claire Taylor reveals more about the Cathars' way of life and the efforts made to suppress them. Hear Giles Tremlett answer listener questions on the Spanish Inquisition here: https://link.chtbl.com/lwH4DDc7 The HistoryExtra podcast is produced by the team behind BBC History Magazine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

October is Black History Month here in the UK. But how far back does the story of black people in Britain stretch - and what evidence do we have about their experiences? Speaking to Charlotte Hodgman in this episode from 2022, historian Hannah Cusworth answers your top questions about black British history. The HistoryExtra podcast is produced by the team behind BBC History Magazine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Daring department store stunts. Warming cups of cocoa. Argumentative bartering with butchers. What can revisiting high streets gone by reveal about British social history? Historian Annie Gray takes listeners on a shopping trip through the centuries, telling Ellie Cawthorne more about the goods, refreshments and entertainment on offer. (Ad) Annie Gray is the author of The Bookshop, The Draper, The Candlestick Maker: A History of the High Street (Profile Books, 2024). Buy it now from Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bookshop-Draper-Candlestick-Maker-History/dp/1800812248/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=&tag=bbchistory045-21&ascsubtag=historyextra-social-histboty. Annie Gray revisits the life of Churchill's cook during the Second World War here: https://link.chtbl.com/kzJZF5Gk. The HistoryExtra podcast is produced by the team behind BBC History Magazine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The year 1066 is the most famous in English history. It was marked by not just one, but three major battles, and saw three different men ruling as king of England. Marc Morris, in conversation with David Musgrove, outlines how the tumultuous year played out and charts the fates of the key contenders in the fight for England's throne. The HistoryExtra podcast is produced by the team behind BBC History Magazine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In the 18th century, two men – Carl Linnaeus and Georges-Louis de Buffon – both independently took on a mammoth task. They set out to identify, describe and categorise all life on Earth. Speaking to Matt Elton, Jason Roberts charts the two naturalists' hugely different views and approaches – and how they shaped our view of the natural world for centuries. (Ad) Jason Roberts is the author of Every Living Thing: The Great and Deadly Race to Know All Life (Quercus, 2024). Buy it now from Waterstones: https://go.skimresources.com?id=71026X1535947&xcust=historyextra-social-histboty&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.waterstones.com%2Fbook%2Fevery-living-thing%2Fjason-roberts%2F9781529400465. The HistoryExtra podcast is produced by the team behind BBC History Magazine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

King John has a terrible reputation. He's best known as the monarch who broke the terms of Magna Carta, lost Normandy to the French and committed numerous acts of unspeakable cruelty. Here, in conversation with Spencer Mizen, Nicholas Vincent considers if John really was as bad as all that - or if, indeed, he was even worse. Hear Nicholas Vincent discuss the Second Barons' War here: https://link.chtbl.com/77CrHf0Q. The HistoryExtra podcast is produced by the team behind BBC History Magazine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We know the Vikings best as brutal, seafaring, pagan raiders – and that’s an important part of their lives and histories. But it’s only one aspect: what about their love lives, experiences of travels, and attitudes to religion? Speaking with James Osborne, Eleanor Barraclough unpicks the day-to-day lives and culture of the Vikings across their vast – and complicated – geographic domain and timeline. (Ad) Eleanor Barraclough is the author of Embers of the Hands: Hidden Histories of the Viking Age (Profile Books, 2024). Buy it now from Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Embers-Hands-Intimate-History-Viking/dp/1788166744/?tag=bbchistory045-21&ascsubtag=historyextra-social-histboty. The HistoryExtra podcast is produced by the team behind BBC History Magazine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Chances are, like most of us, you probably enjoy a good cup of tea. But how did the world come to be so obsessed with this now-ubiquitous hot beverage? Where did it originate? How did trading it trigger wars? And when did people first experience the delights of an elegant afternoon tea? Elinor Evans puts your top questions on tea to historian, writer, and tea specialist Jane Pettigrew. Listen to Jonathan Morris chart the history of another of the world's favourite hot drinks, coffee: https://link.chtbl.com/rwuCVcs9. The HistoryExtra podcast is produced by the team behind BBC History Magazine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apprehending thieves in the street. Disguising as housemaids to spy on adulterous husbands. Investigating and exposing child abuse. The exploits of women detectives in the Victorian era were dramatic, secretive, and often dangerous. Author and historian Sara Lodge tells Ellie Cawthorne more about these sleuths and the roles they played in 19th-century crime fighting. (Ad) Sara Lodge is the author of The Mysterious Case of the Victorian Female Detective (Yale University Press, 2024). Buy it now from Waterstones: https://go.skimresources.com?id=71026X1535947&xcust=historyextra-social-histboty&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.waterstones.com%2Fbook%2Fthe-mysterious-case-of-the-victorian-female-detective%2Fsara-lodge%2F9780300277883. Listen to Drew Gray tackle listener question on crime, courts, policing and prisons in 19th-century Britain: https://link.chtbl.com/SGjwBedr. The HistoryExtra podcast is produced by the team behind BBC History Magazine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoi

Harold II – best known as the defeated king who reportedly got an arrow through the eye at the Battle of Hastings – was part of the Godwin family. In this episode, Marc Morris reveals how the Godwins were the power behind the throne through much of the reign of Harold’s predecessor, King Edward the Confessor. He explains to David Musgrove why the family came to prominence and how Harold managed to take the crown for himself after King Edward’s death at the start of 1066. The HistoryExtra podcast is produced by the team behind BBC History Magazine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When we think of American civil rights, we tend to focus on the mid 20th-century and the likes of Martin Luther King Jr and Rosa Parks, who fought for the rights of black people in an era of segregation. But, in his revelatory new book, Before the Movement, which has recently been shortlisted for the Cundill History Prize, Dylan Penningroth tells a much longer and broader story, beginning in the era of slavery and focusing on everyday legal matters that historians have often overlooked. Rob Attar speaks to Dylan to find out more about this little-known aspect of black American history. (Ad) Dylan Penningroth is the author of Before the Movement: The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights (Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2023). Preorder it now from Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Before-Movement-Hidden-History-Rights/dp/1324093102/?tag=bbchistory045-21&ascsubtag=historyextra-social-histboty. Listen to the first episode of our podcast series on the US civil rights movement of the mid 20th century here: https

Historian and biographer Susan Ware joins Elinor Evans to discuss the life of Eleanor Roosevelt, from her transformative role as First Lady of the United States during her husband Franklin Delano Roosevelt's presidency, to her advocacy for human rights amid personal tumult. The HistoryExtra podcast is produced by the team behind BBC History Magazine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today there are an estimated 450 million guns in civilian hands in the United States – ten times the number than at the end of the Second World War. But how did that conflict spark a weaponry boom? And what are the social and economic currents that have led the US to have more guns than people? Matt Elton speaks to Andrew C McKevitt, whose Cundill History Prize-shortlisted book Gun Country explores these questions. (Ad) Andrew C McKevitt is the author of Gun Country: Gun Capitalism, Culture, and Control in Cold War America (The University of North Carolina Press, 2023). Buy it now from Amazon:https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gun-Country-Capitalism-Culture-Control/dp/1469677245/?tag=bbchistory045-21&ascsubtag=historyextra-social-histboty. Find out more about the Cundill History Prize here: https://www.cundillprize.com The HistoryExtra podcast is produced by the team behind BBC History Magazine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

First published in 1848, the The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels presents communism as a 'spectre' haunting Europe. During the century that followed, this revolutionary ideology swept the world and left an indelible mark on the geopolitical dynamics of the modern age. Historian Maurice J Casey talks to Danny Bird about the history of communism – from Bolshevik emigrés and the fall of the Berlin Wall; to the rise of the Comintern and the legacy of anticommunism. The HistoryExtra podcast is produced by the team behind BBC History Magazine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When Allied forces arrived in Naples in October 1943, they found a city on its knees. Already ravaged by three years of war, Naples had been further decimated by German occupiers and now faced a desperate battle to get back on its feet as the Second World War continued to unfold around it. In this episode, the historian Keith Lowe joins Rob Attar to explore the story of the first major European city to be liberated by the Allies – a tale of ingenuity and heroism, immorality and despair. The HistoryExtra podcast is produced by the team behind BBC History Magazine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The roots of the Norman Conquest of 1066 can be traced all the way back to 1016 – when England was hit by an earlier foreign invasion. This time, the assault came from Denmark and the forces of Cnut. In the first episode of our new series on 1066, Marc Morris talks to David Musgrove about how the events of the early 11th century set the scene for the Norman invasion half a century later. The HistoryExtra podcast is produced by the team behind BBC History Magazine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In the run-up to the Second World War, Winston Churchill's Kent home, Chartwell, was transformed from a cosy country pile to an informal Home Office, as the politician invited influential guests to come for dinner, drinks.... and off-the-record discussions. From 'Lawrence of Arabia' to Albert Einstein, Katherine Carter tells Ellie Cawthorne how these visitors shaped Churchill's views about the looming prospect of war. (Ad) Katherine Carter is the author Churchill's Citadel: Chartwell and the Gatherings Before the Storm (Yale University Press, 2024). Buy it now from Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Churchills-Citadel-Chartwell-Gatherings-Before/dp/0300270194/?tag=bbchistory045-21&ascsubtag=historyextra-social-histboty. The HistoryExtra podcast is produced by the team behind BBC History Magazine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices