In the late 1970s, as Britain, America and other wealthy countries were developing free market solutions to the problems of inflation and low growth, China selected aspects of capitalism to incorporate into its economy, while maintaining the fiction that it was a communist society. This podcast explores how China transformed the world economy in the 1980s as a result. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/explaininghistory. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

By 1949 the development of a communist state in China radically changed the fortunes of France in Vietnam, a shift in dynamics that made the war for France virtually un-winnable. In 1950, a well armed Democratic Republic of Vietnam Army inflicted devastating losses on the French along the Chinese border, supported by Chinese supplies and training. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/explaininghistory. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

By the summer of 1942 the Japanese military was drunk on the victories it had achieved in the previous six months of war. It had over run Singapore, Malaya, Burma and Indochina, and it had dealt America a huge blow at Pearl Harbour and had seized the American protectorate of the Philippines. It was precisely this arrogance and risk taking that would result in a series of naval disasters and defeats in the summer of 1942, starting with setbacks at the Battle of the Coral Sea. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/explaininghistory. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Between 1915 and 1918 all sides in the First World War used poison gas against one another, but it was Germany that was the biggest pioneer of battlefield chemical weapons. The last year of the war saw the highest intensity of gas use as the desperation by all sides for a breakthrough intensified. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/explaininghistory. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Communist Party of Great Britain was established in 1920 and was heavily influenced by Comintern, the Communist International organisation in Moscow. Lenin was interested in shaping the party in Britain and other European countries, imposing the principal of democratic centralism on party members. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/explaininghistory. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Fascist bombing campaigns and planned coups, leading up to a massacre in Bologna in 1980 brought the threat of splinter group fascism to the Italian government's attention. The MSI (Italian social movement) attempted to broaden its appeal and mask its overtly fascist politics during a period where there was widespread revisionism about the legacy of Mussolini and an attempt to partly rehabilitate the fascist era in mainstream politics and discourse. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/explaininghistory. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the aftermath of the Second World War a set of global institutions allied with a social democratic shift in several leading world economies to create a relatively stable post war economic order. The long and bitter memories of the 1930s and the destruction of the Second World War gave rise to this post war new order. By the 1970s this had started to fall into decline and provide opportunities for the political and economic insurrectionaries of neoliberalism to seize control of economic agendas around the world. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/explaininghistory. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the 1960s, splinter groups from the right wing Italian Social Movement began to believe that only a military coup in Italy could save the country from the threat of communism. By the late 1960s they began actively planning and carrying out bombing campaigns across Italy in order to 'prepare the population' for direct rule by the army. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/explaininghistory. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As the allied powers deliberated at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, David Lloyd George encouraged the Greek prime minister Venizelos to seize the former Ottoman city of Smyrna. The consequences for the city, once a bastion of religious and cultural tolerance, would be tragic, but to the British simply consequence of a wider imperial game in the near east. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/explaininghistory. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Nazis always intended to wage a war of annihilation in the Soviet Union and both soldiers and civilians would die in unprecedented numbers. In the Nazi camps Soviet soldiers were left to starve, but the Soviet political officers, the commissars, were targeted for immediate execution wherever they were discovered. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/explaininghistory. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the mid 1960s a series of plots were considered, with varying degrees of organisation and commitment, to overthrow the Labour governments of Harold Wilson using the army. Even though a coup failed to transpire, the plots showed that deeply reactionary forces in the army, the City of London and the aristocracy were resistant to the modest reforms of the decade and the social change that accompanied mass affluence. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/explaininghistory. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Between the the late 1940s and late 1950s, as Cold War politics swept Europe, the Italian Social Movement, a neo fascist party, tried to merge into the wider parliamentary political right. Using electoral pacts with the other parties of the right, they saw their electability gradually improve, but faced angry resistance on the streets from those with long, bitter memories of Mussolini's crimes. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/explaininghistory. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The coordination and control of the German press by the Nazis took several years to complete as prior to 1933, the German newspaper industry was among the most diverse and vibrant in the world. A process of intimidation and self censorship, combined with Nazi confiscation and theft destroyed German press independence within three years. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/explaininghistory. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the aftermath of the Second World War, a centre right Christian Democratic Party emerged and by 1947 the Communist Party of Italy had been expelled from its coalition. The far right was able to reinvent itself in the Italian south, but were much diminished by the end of the 1940s. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/explaininghistory. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When the poorly defended British colony of Burma was attacked by Japan in December 1941 it quickly collapsed. For many Burmese, it was a moment of opportunity and for the British a desperate bid for escape and survival. Racial colonial attitudes soon showed themselves as the million Indians who had served the British in Burma were abandoned by their colonial masters and at least 50,000 died as they walked across the Burmese jungle to the Indian border. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/explaininghistory. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In order to rule China, Mao knew he needed to dominate the peasantry. In order to do this he divided Chinese peasant villages, creating new social classes in an otherwise socially conservative world that had little experience of such concepts. Mao created a landlord and poor peasant class and gave the latter free reign to terrorise the former (and in many cases educated them to do so). The result was rural anarchy, which only benefitted the Communist Party. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/explaininghistory. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, the new Labour government nationalised Britain's utilities, rail but most importantly its vast coal industry, creating more state employees of a national industry than anywhere else in the industrialised world. The decision to own the once mighty coal industry was part based in Labour's founding traditions but also in a shift towards economic and industrial nationalism that was emerging across the post war world. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/explaininghistory. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

During the 1930s, the pressures on families in the USSR was immense. Men, women and children faced extreme economic hardship and political uncertainty, which in some cases had the effect of making families more cohesive and intimate, and in others tore families apart. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/explaininghistory. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

During the 1930s, social class in Great Britain was experiencing a gradual transition away from the dominance that the landed aristocracy had enjoyed during the 19th Century. Instead, a new bourgeoisie was emerging, divided between an upper and lower middle class with different expectations and experiences, but similar political loyalties. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/explaininghistory. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Even before 1933, the Nazis were aware that radio offered then unprecedented opportunities to shape public thought. However, the use of radio did not quite have the power to create the type of existential and cultural revolution that Goebbels and Hitler had envisaged. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/explaininghistory. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the first of a series of podcasts on the development of anti communism in the 1940s in the USA and the role that the Republican Party played. By 1945 a fear of communism and also the suspicion that the Democrats had been too easy on communists led to the development of deep changes in the public perception of communism and fears that communists might be operating in the USA. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/explaininghistory. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This podcast is a continuation of a series on the origins of fascism and it examines the development of fascist ideas in interwar Italy and Germany. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/explaininghistory. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Strategic bombing of the enemy's home front began in earnest in the second half of the First World War, with London facing a near collapse of its air defences in early 1918. This podcast focuses on the development of German strategic bombing and the British and French anti aircraft responses. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/explaininghistory. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

During the 1920s and 1930s, communist parties across Europe and beyond fell under the control, often voluntarily, of Comintern, the Soviet body dedicated to foreign subversion. This podcast explores the prominence that Comintern agents rose to in Eastern Europe after the Second World War how non 'Moscow Communists' were viewed with suspicion by Moscow. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/explaininghistory. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

During the Stalin era, those accused of counter revolutionary crimes and their family members were desperate to be relieved of the stigma of being a class enemy and the punishments that accompanied it. One approach to dealing with the threat of being disenfranchised was to renounce ones class origins, even if this meant renouncing ones family, community, spouse or religion. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/explaininghistory. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

During the interwar years Britain became a dramatically more democratic society, following the extension of the franchise in 1918 and 1928. British society began to change gradually with the challenges of modernity and mass democracy, but many traditional deferential values endured. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/explaininghistory. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

At the end of the Second World War, Czech prime minister in exile Eduard Benes petitioned both western allies and the USSR to expel all ethnic Germans from Czechoslovakia. This permission was granted and the result was the ethnic cleansing of the Sudetenland. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/explaininghistory. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The second in my reports on the current political crisis here in Great Britain. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/explaininghistory. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

By 1945 the political landscape in America was changing in ways that would be far less favourable to Truman than the previous years had been to Roosevelt. An impressive and far reaching domestic agenda for reform was sabotaged by conservative and business interests on Capitol Hill throughout the seven years of his time in office. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/explaininghistory. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is an unprecedented podcast for Explaining History, but in 2019 here in Britain we're in uncharted constitutional territory. I try not to engage too much in political podcasting because I wanted the podcast to connect with a broad audience but I feel it would be intellectually dishonest to talk about political history each week and ignore the crisis in Britain at the moment. To listeners around the world who want to understand why an unelected British Prime Minister is planning to suspend the country's parliament, here is a brief explainer. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/explaininghistory. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Continuing the study of the background to European fascist thinking, this episode focuses on the impact of the ideas of Friedrich Nietzsche on fascist thinking and ideas. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/explaininghistory. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Stalinist regime, in the mid 1930s brutally purged towns and cities of those they considered to be socially deviant. Beggars, gypsies, prostitutes and thieves were exiled and sent to labour colonies and camps in a bid to change them into 'productive' soviet citizens and to socially change the nature of soviet towns and cities. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/explaininghistory. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This podcast continues the examination of Britain's social, economic and political circumstances on the eve of the First World War. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/explaininghistory. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Following the surprise attack on Pearl Harbour on December 7th 1941, the strategic decision making of America, Japan, Germany and Britain shaped the eventual outcome of the war itself. Japanese military planners realised they had begun a war they had no chance of winning and while Churchill rejoiced in this fact, he was also aware that a 'Japan first' strategy might divert badly needed American aid away from Britain. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/explaininghistory. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the aftermath of the Chinese Civil War, the beginnings of dramatic and brutal social change in China were evident in Mao's attitudes towards the urban poor. Those deemed socially unproductive, beggars, rickshaw pullers, hawkers and prostitutes were sent to re-education camps. The ultimate goal of the regime was to socially re-order urban life and to eliminate politically unwanted and seemingly socially useless or deviant labour. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/explaininghistory. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A new feature on the Explaining History Podcast, Talking History is our opportunity to hear from teachers, researchers, writers and academics about the history books they value and how they have engaged with them. Today's guest is history teacher Siobhan Profaska who has chosen The Five by Hallie Rubenhold to discuss. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/explaininghistory. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The origins of Stalin's imitators, admirers and henchmen in Eastern Europe is explored in this podcast. Walter Ulbricht of East Germany, Boleslaw Beirut of Poland and Matyas Rakosi of Hungary respectively were the first generation of post war Stalinists to rule Eastern Europe, but their long association with Soviet communism from 1919 onwards through Comintern made them trusted and loyal candidates for power. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/explaininghistory. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

By the eve of the Second World War, Great Britain had been economically eclipsed by the USA, but it was still the most industrialised and urbanised nation in the world and experienced a transition away from heavy to light industry. In the fields of aviation, mass media and scientific discovery, Britain continued to be a world leader. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/explaininghistory. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Seizing political power was just the beginning of the Nazi programme, creating a profound and lasting cultural change among Germans to undo the perceived corruption of Germanic culture by the Weimar Republic was the longer struggle. Hitler's war on liberal democracy and socialism was in his view a bid to reclaim the essence of German identity from false and foreign ideas. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/explaininghistory. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Germany and Austria were outnumbered in terms of troops and cavalry by nearly 2:1 in 1914 and desperately needed to win a rapid war on the western front if they stood any chance of victory. For both powers a long drawn out conflict would result in social unrest, economic ruin and revolution. For both powers, following the failure to encircle and destroy the French and British armies in 1914, this was the inevitable outcome. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/explaininghistory. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the second in a series on the development of fascism in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. In this podcast we examine the legacy of racial thinking, imperialism and the interaction of romantic nationalism and racial thought. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/explaininghistory. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 1934 a new interior minister in the right wing government that took power in late 1933, Salazar Alonzo, declared a state of emergency and the right wing CEDA movement that supported the government demanded extreme action against striking peasants and workers. A new fascist party, the Falange, formed in early 1934 to wage a bloody war against the left, believing in the 'bullet and the fist' as tools to preserve Spain from the spectre of socialism. The Falange would usher in a new phase of violent class confrontation in Spain. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/explaininghistory. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Administrative exile had been used by the Tsarist regime against political dissidents and the revolutionary intelligentsia, however the mass deportation of entire ethnic and social groups was a new phenomenon under the Stalinist regime. This podcast explores the exile and deportation of class groups and nationalities and the mass dekulakisation campaigns. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/explaininghistory. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

During the Second World War, the fate of British and French mandates in the Middle East was a constant pressure on war time diplomacy and on American domestic policy. The legacies of the Anglo-French carve up of the Middle East after the war and the pressures placed on both empires by the Axis powers gave Jewish nationalism and the careerism of Roosevelt's chief rival Wendell Wilkie new opportunities. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/explaininghistory. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hitler's vision of a new Germany, built in vast neoclassical grandeur, required stone to be quarried and bricks to be manufactured in vast quantities. Three camps, Flossenburg, Mauthausen and Orianenburg were created to supply these materials. They were significantly different from the existing network of camps and far more lethal in the 18 months before the outbreak of the Second World War. Listen to the full podcast now. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/explaininghistory. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the late 19th Century a series of intellectual and ideological movements coalesced into the beginnings of fascist thought. Romanticism, nationalism and racial thinking created the intellectual climate for authoritarian creeds based around race, identity and a rejection of materialism and modernity to develop. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/explaininghistory. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 1945 Truman inherited from Roosevelt a more prosperous America, but one which had moved politically to the right. Rising living standards and the Republican Party's successful capture of anti communist sentiment made for a difficult environment for New Deal liberalism to thrive in. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/explaininghistory. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

During the 1930s the Nazi regime attempted to exploit prisoners for their labour but there were few examples of successful profiteering and as the decade wore on prisoners were mainly forced to build the infrastructure of the Nazi camp system itself. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/explaininghistory. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.