Dan Snow's History Hit
Episodes
History of Freemasonry
24 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
John Dickie joins Dan from the History Hit Archive to discuss the international story of an organisation that now has 6 million members across the glo...
The World According to Obama Official Ben Rhodes
23 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Ben Rhodes has served at the very pinnacle of politics in his role as deputy national security adviser in Barack Obama's Whitehouse and seen what it t...
Operation Barbarossa
22 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
On 22 June 1941 Hitler unleashed Operation Barbarossa the biggest military operation in human history. More than 3 million men of the Axis poured into...
Tragedy at the Scottish Crannog Centre
21 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
From the Neolithic period to the early 18th century Crannogs were a feature of Scottish, Welsh and Irish lakes and estuaries enabling a unique way of ...
Black American Struggle: Riot or Revolution?
20 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The 1960s and early 1970s saw civil unrest and violence in the United States on a scale not seen since the civil war between black residents and the p...
Mary, Queen of Scots
19 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Mary, Queen of Scots, returned to the news headlines when the rosary she carried to her execution in 1587, was recently stolen from Arundel Castle. It...
Voices of Waterloo
18 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
206 years ago today, 60,000 men were slaughtered in the Battle of Waterloo. Napoleon Bonaparte's French army was finally defeated by an almighty coali...
Churchill's Daughters: The Privilege and the Pain
17 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Winston Churchill's daughters Diana, Sarah, Marigold and Mary are often overshadowed by their father's extraordinary fame but they also lived fascinat...
The Curious History of Postcards
16 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
For many people sending a postcard is an enjoyable part of any seaside trip but rather than just being a novelty they were once a vital form of commun...
Everything You Need to Know about the Anglo-Saxons
15 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The Anglo-Saxon period is vital for the formation of England and the UK as we know it but is a difficult era to fully understand. The departure of the...
The Heiress, the Kidnap, and the Making of London
14 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
After the Great Plague of 1665 and the Great Fire of London in 1666 London was on its knees with its population decimated and the heart of the city bu...
Gordon Brown on How To Save the World
13 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Gordon Brown stood at the pinnacle of UK politics for 13 years first as Chancellor of the Exchequer and the as Prime Minister but it is as a private c...
The Euros
12 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
England holds the slightly unwanted title for the most appearances in the Euros without ever reaching a final, so why the excitement when it comes bac...
Alexander the Great’s Corpse and the Greatest Heist in History
11 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Alexander the Great is one of the most famous generals and empire builders in history, but the story of his death is almost as remarkable as his life....
The Mary Rose and Her Ethnically Diverse Crew
10 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The Mary Rose, a Tudor warship in Henry VIII's navy, sank in the Solent on 19 July 1545 with the loss of most of her 415 strong crew. Recent developme...
The Crusades with Dan Jones
09 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The two Dans are back. And this time, they're talking all things crusades. In this rerun episode, Dan Jones provides his namesake host with a thrillin...
Stalin's War
08 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The Second World War is often depicted as a straight battle between good and evil but it was perhaps less straightforward than that. Whilst the Nazi r...
The History of Head Transplants
07 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The superpower rivalry of the Cold War had many different fronts, space, the rice paddy fields of south-east Asia and even the operating theatre. The ...
New D-Day Shipwrecks Discovered
06 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
D-Day on 6 June 1944 saw the largest amphibious landing in history take place as more than 150,000 allied troops stormed five assault beaches in Norma...
The Profumo Affair
05 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
It was the scandal that shook the British political world to its core leading to ministerial resignations and helping to bring down a prime minister a...
The Beauty and Violence of the Renaissance
04 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The Renaissance was a time of radical change in Europe with an explosion in the production of art, new methods of waging war, Europeans discovering th...
Disaster Before D-Day: Exercise Tiger
03 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The D-Day landings of June 6 1944 were the largest amphibious landing in the history of warfare, and are famed as a major turning point towards Allied...
The Bank That Sacked Its Customers
02 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When we think of investment banking we think of high-risk trades, profit at any cost and big bonuses but there is an institution that sees it differen...
Democracy
01 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode taken from our back catalogue Professor Paul Cartledge the concept which is the foundation stone of our political culture: democracy. ...
Tulsa Race Massacre
31 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
On May 31 1921 Tulsa, Oklahoma, was torn apart by one of the worst instances of racialised violence in American history. In a period of great racial t...
Joan of Arc
30 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
On May 30, 1431, Joan of Arc was burned at the stake at the age of 19. It is safe to say that few teenagers have had as big an impact on Anglo-French ...
Israel and Palestine: An Israeli Perspective with Benny Morris
29 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The conflict between Israeli's and Palestinians is one that inflames strong emotions and opinions on all sides, but can a solution be found or is it a...
The Mystery of the Ninth Legion
28 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The legions of Rome were the nucleus of Rome’s military might for centuries. From campaigning in northern Scotland to the Persian Gulf, these devast...
Sinking the Bismarck
27 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In May 1941 Nazi Germany's most powerful warship and pride of the Kriegsmarine the Bismarck slipped out of harbour and made its way to hunt Allied mer...
Mary Anning: Palaeontology's Forgotten Pioneer
26 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Born in Lyme Regis in 1799, Mary Anning was a pioneering palaeontologist and fossil collector whose story continues to inspire so many scientists to t...
Hunting the Bismarck
25 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In May 1941, the Royal Navy pursued Nazi Germany's largest battleship, the Bismarck, in the greatest chase story in the history of naval warfare. Bism...
The UK’s Top Diplomat on the State of the World
24 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Sir Jeremy Greenstock served as a diplomat from the 1960s to the well into the 21st century and is someone who has been in the room when some of the m...
Martin Luther: Scourge of the Papacy
23 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Martin Luther is one of the most extraordinary and consequential men of the last 500 years but was also a man keenly aware of his image and went to co...
Eurovision
22 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Eurovision is an annual extravaganza of European music and culture but what is its history and what role does it play? To help explore this subject Da...
Israel and Palestine: A Jewish Perspective with Daniel Finkelstein
21 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
As part of our season of programmes looking at the Arab-Israeli conflict Lord Daniel Finklestein joins the podcast to discuss his perspective as a mem...
The Amelia Earhart Mystery with Amelia Rose Earhart
20 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
On the morning of May 20, 1932, 34-year-old Earhart set off from Newfoundland, Canada in her bid to become the first woman to fly solo across the...
Anne Boleyn Special Part 1: Life and Afterlives
19 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In the first of two special podcasts, from our sibling podcast Not Just the Tudors, to mark the 485th anniversary of Anne Boleyn's death, Suzannah Lip...
Gone Medieval
18 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Dan is joined by the wonderful Cat Jarman who, along with Matt Lewis, will be presenting History Hit's brand new podcast Gone Medieval. They discuss t...
The Western Front
17 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The Western Front in the First World War is a story of aristocratic generals sending ordinary men over the top to their deaths in futile frontal attac...
Israel and Palestine: A Palestinian View with Yara Hawari
16 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
History is essential to understanding the world around us and this couldn't be more true than in the case of the Israel-Palestine conflict. The recent...
Malcolm Gladwell
15 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Malcolm Gladwell has sold millions of books and more recently become a podcasting titan and he joins Dan to talk about his most recent project The Bom...
War Crimes and Innocence in Iraq
14 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Following the toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003 British troops in Basra were confronted with a chaotic situation as looting and rioting took...
Ian Fleming & The Birth of Bond
13 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A suave secret agent and fictional character turned household name and multi-billion dollar franchise: we all know James Bond. But what about the man ...
Motherhood, Working and Pandemics
12 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Being a working mother is now an entirely normal part of life but this was certainly not always the case and was often seen as a social ill in the pas...
Ken Burns and Lynn Novick on Hemmingway
11 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Ken Burns and Lynn Novick are two of the most talented and inspiring history filmmakers on earth. Their works include the seminal The Civil War, Baseb...
Napoleon Bonaparte: Rise to Power
10 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this archive episode, Dan talks to Adam Zamoyski, a historian who has written a biography of Napoleon, about the early life and rise to power of on...
Greatest Heist in History: The Crown Jewels and Thomas Blood
09 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
On the 9 May 1671, Thomas Blood led his co-conspirators in a daring bid to steal the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London. Through a combination of t...
Life at Bletchley Park with Betty Webb
08 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Betty Webb was heavily involved with the work going on at Bletchley Park. While she was not part of the code-breaking team, her work was invaluable to...
The Sinking of the Lusitania
07 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
On 7 May 1915, the ocean liner RMS Lusitania was sunk by a German U-boat off the coast of Ireland with more than half the passengers and crew being ki...
Roman Prisoners of War
06 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We know all about the battles of the Roman Empire: the opposing sides, their weapons and incentives. But if history is written by the winners, what ha...
A Scandalous Duchess
05 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Elizabeth Chudleigh, Duchess of Kingston was a duchess who attracted scandal, a duchess who divided opinion, a duchess who refused to give up agency o...
Pre-historic Britain in Seven Burials with Alice Roberts
04 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
How much can a burial really tell us about our ancient past? Professor Alice Roberts is today's guest and, as her new book Ancestors demonstrates, old...
The Apollo Program with Kevin Fong
03 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Getting to the moon was no easy feat, no matter how confident Kennedy may have sounded in his famous 1961 speech. NASA built a team from the ground up...
Amend: The Fight for America
02 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Take a deep dive into the remaking of the American Constitution and the 14th amendment created in the wake of the American Civil War. The 14th amendme...
The Death of Hitler
01 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Did Hitler shoot himself in the Führerbunker, or did he slip past the Soviets and escape to South America? There have been innumerable documentaries,...
Captain Cook: The Aboriginal Perspective
30 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Captain Cook has been celebrated, wrongly, as the first European to discover Australia but many now believe it is time to reappraise his legacy partic...
Not Just the Tudors
29 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When thinking about the 16th century the Tudor dynasty often comes to the fore, but the was so much more to this extraordinary period to be explored. ...
The Battle of Okinawa
28 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The last major confrontation of the Second World War and the largest amphibious assault of the Pacific theatre, the Battle of Okinawa ended in Allied ...
Blood and Iron: The German Empire
27 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
German unification in 1871 immediately altered the balance of power in Europe and across the world, but what did its existence and expansion in the 19...
Chernobyl: Memories of a Survivor
26 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
On April 26th 1986 reactor No. 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear plant exploded sending a vast plume of radioactive material into the atmosphere, but what wa...
The Last Nuremberg Prosecutor
25 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Ben Ferencz at 102 years old is the last surviving prosecutor from the Nuremberg trials and a direct witness to the horrors of the Nazi death camps. B...
Cellini: Bad Boy of the Renaissance
24 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Benvenuto Cellini was the bad boy of the Renaissance! His life was a story of murders, violence, war, the sack of cities, sodomy, imprisonment, religi...
Football, Money and the European Super League
23 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The attempt to create a new European Super League might have been short-lived with the attempt to form a breakaway competition collapsing in the face ...
Shakespeare's Shoreditch Theatre with Heather Knight
22 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this archive episode, Dan visits the site of The Theatre, the 16th-century playhouse where some of Shakespeare's works were first performed, to inv...
Lessons from the Antonine Plague
21 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A plague which affects people from across society, the mass exodus from city centres and numerous opinions on how best to stay well ... all familiar t...
Lady Mary and the First Inoculation
20 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In the 18th century, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu was an aristocrat, courtier, brilliant beauty, intellectual, wife to the ambassador to the Ottoman Empi...
Prisoners of Geography
19 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Five years ago Tim Marshall wrote the international best selling book Prisoners of Geography which examined how our politics, demographics, our econom...
300 years of British Prime Ministers: Part 3
18 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In the third episode of our series chronicling the history of British Prime Ministers we travel from one of the Most famous occupants of the office, W...
Irish Independence
16 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
On 18th April 1949, the Republic of Ireland Act came into effect which saw Ireland become a republic and leave the Commonwealth. 2021 also marks the 1...
JFK's Darkest Hour: The Cuban Missile Crisis
16 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In October 1962 the world came very close to annihilation during the Cuban Missile Crisis. During the autumn of 1962, a U2 reconnaissance aircraft pro...
Life and Death in Medieval England
15 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We often hear about the kings and queens of medieval England, but what was life like for the ordinary person? From knights to peasants to barbers, Dan...
British Seapower in the 1900s
14 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
During the changes and troubles of the 20th century, officials in Britain faced a huge question: how could they maintain imperial power? Dr Louis Hale...
The End of Sex Disqualification?
13 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The First World War saw unprecedented numbers of women enter the workplace and help pave the way for women to be given greater rights and responsibili...
Yuri Gagarin: The First Human to Leave Our Planet
12 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
On April 12th 1961 the Soviet Union shocked the world by launching the first man into space; Yuri Gagarin. Strapped to the top of a gigantic ICBM Gaga...
300 years of British Prime Ministers: Part 2
11 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Continuing our series looking at British Prime Ministers this episode tackles the period following the Battle of Waterloo all the way up to Winston Ch...
Prince Philip
09 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Abandoned by his parents, exiled from his home, a veteran of Second World War battles, an author, the founder of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF),...
The Xiongnu: History's First Nomadic Empire?
09 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Between the 3rd century BC and the 1st century AD, the Xiongnu inhabited the area surrounding Mongolia. They influenced the later Hun Empire, and had ...
What Britain Did to Nigeria
08 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When we think of the British Empire we often think of India, Pakistan, Singapore, Burma or perhaps South Africa but an often underrepresented part of ...
Catherine the Great
07 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Catherine the Great came from minor German nobility to become Empress of Russia and one of the most extraordinary women of the eighteenth century. Dan...
30 Years since the Kurdish Uprising
06 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In the aftermath of the First Gulf War, groups rose up against Saddam Hussein's regime in a bid to win independence from Baghdad with devastating resu...
Will This Be the New Roaring 20s?
05 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Our impressions of the Roaring 20s are a time of economic growth, social change and in some cases wild debauchery, but were the Roaring 20s really a t...
300 years of British Prime Ministers: Part 1
04 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We're heading back to the Eighteenth century as 300 years ago Sir Robert Walpole became the first prime minister. In this first episode of our Prime M...
Violence Against Women in Victorian London
03 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In the 1880s and 1890s Whitechapel, in London, become notorious for its violence especially towards women but what lessons can be drawn from this peri...
The Truth About Easter
02 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In one of the most popular episodes from our archive, Dan is joined by Francesca Stavrakopoulou to discuss the history and myths that surround Easter....
Hitler's Atlantic Wall
01 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The Atlantic Wall is one of the biggest construction projects in history a line of formidable defences stretching from the Pyrenees to the Norwegian A...
Music and Humans
31 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Today we take music for granted but humans have a unique relationship with the musical form which reaches back far into our ancient past. In this epis...
Operation Jubilee: A Pinch Raid at Dieppe?
30 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
On 19 August 1942, a six thousand strong combined Allied landing force took part in a raid on Dieppe, Northern France. Sixty-seven percent of these be...
The Man Who Dropped the First Bomb on Iraq
29 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
30 years ago Maj. Gen. Greg "the beast" Feest dropped a bomb from his F-117 stealth bomber destroying an Iraqi command bunker which began the air war ...
Boudica: Britain's Warrior Queen
28 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This episode from our sibling podcast The Ancients is all about that hero of British folklore; Boudica. Her leadership of the Iceni in an uprising aga...
Icelandic Volcanoes and Us
27 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This explosive episode is all about the effects of Icelandic volcanoes on us all. In 1783 a massive eruption of Lakagígar volcano nearly forced the a...
The Suez Canal
26 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The creation of the Suez Canal was the culmination of a dream stretching back to the pharaohs of connecting the Mediterranean to the Red Sea, but why ...
Greek War of Independence
25 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
200 years ago the banner was raised which marked the beginning of the Greek War of Independence that would lead to their freedom from the Ottoman Empi...
Istanbul: A Tale of Three Cities with Bettany Hughes
24 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode from the back catalogue, Dr Bettany Hughes joins Dan to talk about her history of Istanbul which sits at the crossroads of Europe and ...
One Normal Family, 300 Years of History
23 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Every family has a history and delving into the history of one ordinary French family over three centuries provides a remarkable picture of deep socia...
French Resistance Super Spy
22 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Today's podcast is about French Resistance spies! Dan is joined by the author Roland Phillips who has uncovered the story of Mathilde Carré who was c...
Napoleon: Captive on Saint Helena
21 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Saint Helena is one of the most remote inhabited islands in the world. Nearly a thousand mile from the nearest piece of land, this recently created vo...
The Census
20 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Here in the UK, it's census time! Today, I'm joined on the podcast by one of the nations favourite family historians Dr Michala Hulme who certainly kn...
The War in the East: Part 1 with Bill Frankland
19 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode taken from our archive, I talk to Dr Bill Frankland (19 March 1912 – 2 April 2020), a veteran of World War Two who lived through a J...
Another History of Ideas with David Runciman
18 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Today, I am joined once again by Professor David Runciman to talk about the second series of his brilliant History of Ideas podcast. The series looks ...
St Patrick's Day
17 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We all have a story about St Patrick's Day and our guest on the podcast today, Adrian Mulligan has a few. Adrian is an Associate Professor of Geograph...