Dan Snow's History Hit

Rebecca Gibb is a Master of Wine. A ninja who can sniff out a Merlot from a Margaux at 50 paces. In this archive episode, she talks to Dan about the riots that tore through the region of Champagne just before the First World War as the small wine growers rose up against the power of the big Champagne brands. This story has it all: invasive species, globalisation, climate crisis, superbrands, booze and artisanal production.If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today! To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple store. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Most people think that Britain's worst moment of the war was in 1940 when the nation stood up against the threat of German invasion. Yet, eighty years ago, Britain stood at the brink of defeat. In 1942, a string of military disasters engulfed Britain in rapid succession, including the collapse in Malaya; the biggest surrender in British history at Singapore and the passing of three large German warships through the Straits of Dover in broad daylight.Taylor Downing, historian, writer and broadcaster, joins Dan on the podcast to draw the startling parallels between events in 1942 and today. They discuss just how unpopular Churchill became in 1942 against the backdrop of a new low of public morale, the two votes attacking his leadership in the Commons and the emergence of a serious political rival. As people began to claim that Churchill was not up to the job and that his leadership was failing badly, it was 1942 that was in fact Britain’s real darkest hour.If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of histor

On January 22, 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Texas law banning abortion, effectively legalising the procedure nationwide. The court held that a woman’s right to an abortion was implicit in the right to privacy protected by the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.Roe v. Wade, involved the case of Norma McCorvey “Jane Roe”, who in 1969, wanted an abortion but lived in Texas, where abortion was illegal except when necessary to save the mother's life. Her attorneys, Sarah Weddington and Linda Coffee, filed a lawsuit on her behalf in U.S. federal court against her local district attorney, Henry Wade, alleging that Texas's abortion laws were unconstitutional.Linda Greenhouse has reported on and written about the Supreme Court for The New York Times for more than four decades, earning numerous accolades, including a Pulitzer Prize. Currently, Linda writes an opinion column on the court and teaches at Yale Law School - today, she joins Dan on the podcast. They discuss the legality of abortion prior to the

Joan of Arc is a name that’s instantly recognisable to most. A controversial figure in her own day, she has remained so ever since, often being adopted as a talisman of French nationalism.But how much do we really know—or understand—about the young woman who ignited France’s fightback against England during the Hundred Years’ War, but who paid the ultimate price at the age of just 19? To get to the heart of the real ‘Maid of Orléans’, Matt Lewis from the Gone Medieval podcast is joined in this episode by Dr Hannah Skoda, a Fellow and Tutor in Medieval History at the University of Oxford.If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today! To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple store. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After the outbreak of the First World War, boys as young as twelve were caught up in a national wave of patriotism and, in huge numbers, volunteered to serve. The press, recruiting offices and the Government all contributed to the enlistment of hundreds of thousands of underage soldiers in both Britain and the Empire. Having falsified their ages upon joining up, many broke down under the strain and were returned home, while others fought on and were even awarded medals for gallantry.Richard van Emden, who has interviewed over 270 veterans of the Great War and has written twelve books on the subject, joins Dan on the podcast. They discuss the unknown stories of boys who served in the bloodiest battles of the war, fighting at Ypres, the Somme and on Gallipoli.If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today! To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple store. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for mo

Anthony Ray Hinton is an Alabama was held on death row after being wrongly convicted of the murders of two restaurant managers, John Davidson and Thomas Wayne Vasona, in Birmingham, Alabama on February 25 and July 2, 1985. In 2014 he was released after winning a new trial which demonstrated that the forensic evidence used against him during his original conviction was totally flawed. Since his exoneration and release Anthony has become an activist, writer, and author. In this episode, Anthony takes Dan around the streets of Birmingham, Alabama and they explore some of the most iconic locations of the civil rights movement. They also discuss his experiences as a death row inmate and the vital importance of forgiveness.If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today! To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple store. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Fought between the 22nd-25th of April 1951, the battle of Imjin River was part of a Chinese counter-offensive after United Nations forces had recaptured Seoul in March 1951. The assault on ‘Gloster Hill’ was led by General Peng Dehuai who commanded a force of 300,000 troops attacking over a 40-mile sector. The 29th Independent Infantry Brigade Group, under the command of Brigadier Tom Brodie, of the 1st Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment, was responsible for defending a 15-kilometre section of the front, over which General Peng Dehuai sent three divisions of his force. What resulted was the bloodiest battle that involved British troops in modern history since the Second World War.Taken from the 2021 Gloucester History Festival, Dan is joined by two battle veterans of the 1951 Korean War battle, Tommy Clough and Brian Hamblett. Tommy served as a gunner with the Royal Artillery which was attached to the Gloster, Brian served in the British military in Infantry manning machine guns in his platoon - both were Chi

Eugenics has been used in attempts throughout history, and across continents, to gain power and assert control.In this episode, we trace Eugenics from its intellectual origins in Victorian Britain to the actual policies put into action to control populations birthrates in Nazi Germany and 20th Century America.Dan is joined by broadcaster and geneticist Adam Rutherford who helps him understand this complicated legacy as well as what the troubling future of gene editing has to hold.If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today! To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple store. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The true-crime genre - stories of actual murders and other crimes that are then fictionalised - is not a new phenomenon. More than four centuries ago, a series of plays based on real life cases appeared on the London stage. It was a short-lived craze generated by the insatiable early modern appetite for the "three Ms" - melodrama, moralizing and misogyny. In this edition of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to author Charles Nicholl about the little known phenomenon of Elizabethan true crime, which even influenced the works of William Shakespeare.If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today! To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple store. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

George. Where did it all go wrong? George Washington could have had a comfortable career as a loyal member of His Majesty's Virginia militia and colonial grandee. But no, he had to go and roll the dice. In this episode, Dan speaks to historian Alexis Coe about her biography of Washington. She has a fresh take on the first President, but no less scholarly for that. Young George Washington was raised by a struggling single mother, demanded military promotions, caused an international incident, and never backed down - even when his dysentery got so bad he had to ride with a cushion on his saddle. But after he married Martha, everything changed. Washington became the kind of man who named his dog Sweetlips and hated to leave home. He took up arms against the British only when there was no other way, though he lost more battles than he won.If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today! To download the History Hit app please

The laws now enforced throughout the world are almost all modelled on systems developed in Europe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. During two hundred years of colonial rule, Europeans exported their laws everywhere they could. But not quite as revolutionary as we may think, they weren't filling a void: in many places, they displaced traditions that were already ancient when Vasco Da Gama first arrived in India. Even the Romans were inspired by earlier precedents.Fernanda Pirie, Professor of the Anthropology of Law at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies at the University of Oxford and author of ‘The Rule of Laws: A 4,000-Year Quest to Order the World,’ joins Dan on the podcast. They discuss where it all began, and what law has been and done over the course of human history.If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today! To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple store. Hosted on Acast. See

2021 was a bumper year for archaeological discoveries across Britain. In this episode, we go on a whistlestop tour of some of the most notable finds — from an immaculately preserved Roman mosaic found on a working farm, to the puzzling ruin of a Norman church discovered by HS2 engineers.Dan is joined by author and broadcaster Professor Alice Roberts, who got to see many of these discoveries first hand and meet the people who found them during the filming of the latest series of Digging For Britain. If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today! To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple store. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

102 years ago on the 10th of January 1920, the League of Nations was formed out of the Treaty of Versailles. Its aim was to maintain peace after the First World War. With 58 member states by the 1930s, it had successes e against drug traffickers and slave traders, settling border disputes and returning prisoners of war. But much of the treaty was designed to punish Germany after WWI, creating an environment of disillusionment that enabled Nazi ideology to thrive. Across the rest of Europe, it was working up against economic depression, rising nationalism and a lack of support from the two great nations of Russia and the United States. Its ultimate demise began with Hitler's declaration of war in 1939. Was it too utopian and doomed to fail? In this episode Mats Berdal, Professor of Security and Development at Kings College London, joins Dan to discuss the legacy of the League of Nations, its importance in establishing the Geneva Protocol (prohibition of gas warfare), laying the foundations of the UN and t

U.S. President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are two of the world’s most influential leaders, together at the centre of some of the biggest controversies and most impressive advancements of our time. Taking office at the height of the 2008 global recession, Obama was keenly aware of the fractured relationship between the US and Europe, while Merkel was initially sceptical of the charismatic newcomer who had captivated her country. Despite their partnership having been the subject of both scrutiny and admiration, few know the full story.Upon Merkel’s departure from office after 16 years last month, Dan is joined by Claudia Clark, author of ‘Dear Barack: The Extraordinary Partnership of Barack Obama and Angela Merkel’. They discuss Merkel and her administration, where the partnership between Obama and Merkel began, the historically significant parallel trajectories that marked the highs and lows of their extraordinary alliance, and the continued influence of their legacy on global politics.If

For the first time, the 1921 Census of England & Wales is now publicly available, only online at the family history website, Findmypast. More detailed than any previous British census taken up to that point, it provides us with a remarkable, once-in-a-generation snapshot of a country that had been transformed after the First World War. In this episode, we are joined by guests Audrey Collins, from The National Archives, and Myko Clelland, from Findmypast. They explain what the records show about how families, communities and workplaces were reshaped by the war, as well as share stories buried deep within the Census that reveal so much about how our ancestors lived a hundred years ago.Are you interested in exploring your own family history? After years spent digitising and transcribing this unique record of your recent history, the 1921 Census is now available exclusively online with Findmypast. Start exploring now at findmypast.co.ukIf you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentarie

The 6th of January marks one year since the United States Capitol attack of 2021, whereby a mob of supporters of Republican President Donald J. Trump stormed the Capitol Building. On today’s anniversary, what can we learn from prehistory to the present, about democratic decay, corruption and cronyism?Dr. Brian Klaas, UCL Associate Professor in Global Politics, Washington Post Columnist, and author of ‘Corruptible: Who Gets Power and How it Changes Us’ is today’s guest on the podcast. So, are tyrants made or born? If you were thrust into a position of power, would new temptations to line your pockets gnaw away at you until you gave in? As one of the world's leading and most effective commentators of democratic decline, Brian joins Dan to answer these questions.They discuss the rise of hierarchy in prehistoric times, how cognitive biases from our Stone Age minds continue to cause us to select the wrong leaders and what we can learn about King Leopold II of Belgium about whether power or systems, corrupt.If you'

Sitting Bull, best known for his initiative and victory at the Battle of Little Bighorn, is a greatly revered Native American Chief. But he was more than a fierce leader of his people. Bestowed the name ‘Sitting Bull’ at only 14 by his father, he showed characteristics of courage, perseverance, and intelligence beyond his years - traits that would come to define him, and the relationship between Native Americans and the US government for generations. In this episode, James from the Warfare Podcast is joined by Professor Jeff Olster, who specialises in the impact of the United States on Native Americans between the 18th to 20th centuries. Together they discuss who Sitting Bull was, the journey that led him to Little Bighorn, and the injustices inflicted upon the Native American people by the US Government.If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today! To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple stor

Ramesses the Great, ego in the ancient world and Tutankhamun's sacred underwear. These are all covered in today's episode with Dr Campbell Price about the treasures that will be housed in the new Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza, set to open later this year. Dr Campbell Price is the Chair of Trustees for the Egypt Exploration Society, the UK’s leading charity supporting archaeological fieldwork and research in Egypt. He's also the curator of Ancient Egypt and Sudan at the Manchester Museum.If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today! To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple store. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tutankhamun's tomb was discovered by Howard Carter almost 100 years ago, and two years later they opened up the stone sarcophagus that held the golden coffin containing the mummy of Tutankhamun. In this archive episode from 2019, Dan gets Dr Tarek Al Awady to take him around the exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery which examined some of the treasures taken from his tomb, many of which were on tour for the first time. Dan and Dr Al Awady discuss Tutankhamun's life and his legacy.If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today! To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple store. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Revolutions, droughts, famines, invasions, wars, regicides - the calamities of the mid-seventeenth century were both unprecedented and widespread. A global crisis extended from England to Japan, and from the Russian Empire to sub-Saharan Africa. North and South America, too, suffered turbulence. Changes in the prevailing weather patterns, longer and harsher winters, and cooler and wetter summers - disrupted growing seasons, causing dearth, malnutrition, and disease, along with more deaths and fewer births. Some contemporaries estimated that one-third of the world died.Geoffrey Parker, distinguished University Professor and Andreas Dorpalen Professor of European History join Dan on the podcast to discuss the sequence of political, economic and social crises that stretched across the 1600s. They discuss the link between climate change and worldwide catastrophe 350 years ago, and the contemporary implications: are we at all prepared today for the catastrophes that climate change could bring tomorrow?Geoffrey is