HistoryExtra podcast

In defence of Neville Chamberlain

22 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Walter Reid tells Spencer Mizen that, far from going down in history as the bloodless author of appeasement, Neville Chamberlain should be remembered ...

Spies in show business

21 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Professor Christopher Andrew talks to Elinor Evans about his book Stars and Spies, co-written with Julius Green. He reveals the many historical links ...

Stonehenge: everything you wanted to know (part two)

20 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In the second episode of this two-part special on Stonehenge, archaeologist and author Mike Pitts answers more listener questions on the most famous p...

The secret WW2 mission to save Britain’s art collections

19 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Caroline Shenton tells the story of the colourful cast of curators, museum directors and civil servants who embarked on a top-secret mission to protec...

The Normans: beyond 1066

18 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Judith Green reveals how there is much more to the Norman story than the events of the 1066 Conquest We all know the story of the Norman Conquest, ...

British identity in 50 documents

16 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Dominic Selwood chronicles Britain’s past through a diverse – and sometimes unexpected – selection of historical documents, from birthday invite...

Medieval masterclass 4: Revolution 1348-1527

15 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In this fourth and final episode, Dan Jones reveals how the Middle Ages came to a close, starting off with a global pandemic that ripped across the wo...

Shakespearean deaths: swordfights, snakebites & poison

14 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

From poison and fatal snakebites to dying from a broken heart, more than 250 named characters die in Shakespeare’s plays. Speaking with Ellie Cawtho...

Stonehenge: everything you wanted to know (part one)

13 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In the first episode of a two-part special, archaeologist Mike Pitts answers listener questions on the most famous prehistoric site in Britain. Speaki...

Britain’s only war crimes trial

12 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Mike Anderson and Neil Hanson discuss the 1999 prosecution of a former Nazi collaborator – Britain’s only war crimes trial Mike Anderson and Nei...

Extinct animals of medieval Britain

11 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

From beavers to whales, Lee Raye discusses wildlife found across medieval Britain that has since gone extinct from the region In conversation with D...

Mexico’s ill-fated Austrian emperor

09 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Edward Shawcross speaks to Elinor Evans about a little-known and disastrous attempt to install a Habsburg archduke, Ferdinand Maximilian, as emperor o...

Medieval masterclass 3: Rebirth 1216-1347

08 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Dan Jones charts the rise of the Mongols in the twelfth century – a sharp and hideously brutal episode, in which an eastern empire achieved fleeting...

Georgian Britain: the highs and lows of a transformative age

07 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Penelope J Corfield discusses the highs and lows of the Georgian era, from the abolition movement to the gin craze The long 18th century saw Britai...

Vichy France: everything you wanted to know

06 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Shannon Fogg answers listener questions on the collaborationist regime created following France’s defeat by Nazi Germany In the latest episode in ...

Berlin’s tumultuous history

05 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Barney White-Spunner discusses the extraordinary, absorbing and often tragic history of Germany’s capital Barney White-Spunner tells Spencer Mizen...

Three female civil rights pioneers

04 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Pamela Roberts discusses her research on Mary Church Terrell, Rosetta Lawson and Josephine Wilson Bruce – three women activists of Washington’s ‘...

America’s Cold War culture boom

02 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

From artistic experimentation to an explosion in pop music, Louis Menand speaks to Ellie Cawthorne about American art, culture and ideas between 1945-...

Medieval masterclass 2: Domination 750-1215

01 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Dan Jones and David Musgrove delve into the age of the Franks, who revived a Christian, pseudo-Roman empire in the west. They trace the rise of the dy...

Margery Kempe: medieval mystic

31 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Anthony Bale discusses the sensational life of medieval mystic Margery Kempe, charting a story of unusual visions, spiritual revelations, turbulent em...

Greek myths: everything you wanted to know

30 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In the latest episode in our series on history’s biggest topics, classicist Natalie Haynes tackles listener questions on Greek myths. Speaking to Ra...

Bloody Sunday: 50 years on

29 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

To mark the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, Diarmaid Ferriter speaks about the event and its tangled legacy today To mark the 50th anniversary of B...

The BBC at 100: audio adventures in the 1920s

28 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In the first episode of our new monthly series marking the centenary of the BBC, media historian David Hendy speaks to Matt Elton about the institutio...

Elitism in cricket: a history

26 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Duncan Stone argues that classism and racism have held back England’s summer sport for decades Duncan Stone talks to Spencer Mizen about cricket’...

Medieval masterclass 1: Imperium 410-750

25 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Dan Jones takes listeners on a journey through early medieval Europe, beginning with the Roman empire in a state of collapse, rocked by a changing cli...

Cold war mind games

24 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Martin Sixsmith speaks to Ellie Cawthorne about his book The War of Nerves, which explores the role of psychology in the Cold War, from propaganda and...

America’s “Roaring Twenties”: everything you wanted to know

23 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Were the twenties really “roaring”? If so, who actually experienced the best of the era? And were the parties really as debauched as popular cultu...

Escaping slavery in the American South

22 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

How can we reconstruct the experiences of enslaved people? Historian Shaun Wallace speaks to Ellie Cawthorne about his work on the Fugitive Slave Data...

Munich: the real history behind the new film

21 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Author Robert Harris speaks to Ellie Cawthorne about Munich: The Edge of War, the new Netflix film adapted from his 2017 historical novel Munich. They...

The Gothic: from Dracula to The Shining

19 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Roger Luckhurst speaks to Ellie Cawthorne about how the idea of the Gothic has evolved and mutated over time, from medieval-inspired architecture an...

Women of the Rothschild dynasty

18 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Historian Natalie Livingstone chronicles the unexplored lives of the women who shaped the famous Rothschild banking dynasty. She speaks to Elinor Evan...

Queen Victoria’s spy network

17 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Richard J Aldrich and Rory Cormac discuss Queen Victoria’s love of espionage and her network of royal intelligence agents   Historians Richard J Al...

Mao’s Cultural Revolution: everything you wanted to know

16 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In the latest episode in our series on history’s biggest topics, Professor Rana Mitter answers your questions about one of the defining events of mo...

How the Beatles were in tune with 60s Britain

15 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Dominic Sandbrook explains how the Beatles reflected 1960s Britain, from the globalisation of pop culture to a fascination with mysticism    The 196...

Shining new light on medieval Europe

14 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Matthew Gabriele and David M Perry speak to David Musgrove about their book The Bright Ages, which tackles the big themes of the Middle Ages and chal...

A murder mystery in 19th-century Dublin

12 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Thomas Morris speaks to Ellie Cawthorne about his book The Dublin Railway Murder, which reconstructs a strange historical cold case from 1856, revo...

Trading and crusading in the Middle Ages

11 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Mike Carr speaks to David Musgrove about Muslim-Christian relations in the medieval era, revealing how Papal-sanctioned trade was going on despite the...

The Demerara slave uprising

10 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Thomas Harding discusses a little-known uprising by enslaved people in the British colony of Demerara in 1823 Thomas Harding speaks to Ellie Cawtho...

The Age of Sail: everything you wanted to know

09 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Naval historian Kate Jamieson tackles listener questions on the Age of Sail, when sailing ships dominated global trade and warfare In the latest epi...

Ancient Greek scientific thinking

08 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Curator Jane Desborough talks to Ellie Cawthorne about a new Science Museum exhibition, Ancient Greeks: Science and Wisdom, which explores the ways in...

Hells, heavens and afterworlds: a traveller’s guide

07 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Edward Brooke-Hitching explores the many heavens, hells and lands of the dead from civilisations across global history Edward Brooke-Hitching speaks...

Women who served in WW2

05 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In commemoration of the 80th anniversary of conscription for women, historian Tessa Dunlop has written a new book capturing the remarkable lives of th...

A forgotten witch hunt in New England

04 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Malcolm Gaskill speaks to Ellie Cawthorne about his book The Ruin of All Witches, which chronicles a little-known 1651 witchcraft case from Springfiel...

Goods & globalisation: merchants in Tudor & Stuart England

03 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Between 1550 and 1650, English trade flourished as thousands of merchants sought out trading ventures across the globe. In conversation with Emily Bri...

The Jacobites: everything you wanted to know

02 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Murray Pittock answers listener questions about the Jacobites, and their attempts to restore the Stuart dynasty to the throne. Speaking to Emma Slatte...

History’s greatest mysteries: what caused the medieval ‘dancing plague’?

01 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

On several occasions from the 14th to 16th centuries, hundreds of people in central Europe began moving their bodies in a strange uncontrollable fashi...

History’s greatest mysteries: why did Mao’s chosen successor flee China?

31 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Fifty years ago, in September 1971, Lin Biao boarded a flight out of the country, only to crash in the Mongolian desert shortly afterwards. Was this t...

History’s greatest mysteries: was the Trojan War fact or fiction?

29 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Thanks largely to Homer’s Iliad, the Trojan War is one of the most famous events in Greek mythology. But how much – if any – of the legend is ac...

History’s greatest mysteries: what happened to the Roman Ninth Legion?

28 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The Ninth Legion of the Roman army was last recorded in York in around AD 107. After that it simply vanished from history. To this day no-one knows wh...

History’s greatest mysteries: Agatha Christie disappears

27 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In December 1926, crime writer Agatha Christie left her home and vanished without a trace. When she was discovered 11 days later, Christie claimed to ...

The state of history in 2021

26 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Anna Whitelock looks back on some key moments and trends that made the historical headlines in 2021. Speaking to Ellie Cawthorne, she covers topics in...

Christmas feasts: WW2 rationing & postwar absurdity

24 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Annie Gray looks back on festive food in the 20th century – from suspect dishes made under WW2 rationing to joyful postwar creations pickled in aspi...

Thomas Kendrick: MI6 spymaster who helped win WW2

22 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Helen Fry speaks to Jon Bauckham about the remarkable life and career of Thomas Kendrick, an elusive MI6 intelligence officer who helped thousands of ...

Pearl Harbor episode 5: Chaos unleashed

21 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In the final episode in our new series on the raid on Pearl Harbor, Ellie Cawthorne speaks to Robert Lyman about the attack’s immediate aftermath an...

The Stuart princess who could have deposed Charles I

20 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth Stuart was beloved by Protestants and Catholics, English and Scots alike. Many clamoured for her to replace her brother, Charles I, on the t...

Fascism: everything you wanted to know

19 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Richard Bosworth answers listener questions on the authoritarian ideology that emerged in Italy a century ago How was Mussolini able to seize contro...

Yugoslavia: the beginning of the end

18 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Dejan Djokic reflects on the brief 1991 war that saw Slovenia secure independence and helped set in motion the bloody collapse of Yugoslavia. In con...

Christmas feasts: Victorian merrymaking

17 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

From Twelfth cakes to creepy greetings cards and booze-soaked desserts, Annie Gray guides us through festive feasting in the Victorian era. Speaking t...

Triumph against the odds: the 1821 Greek Revolution

15 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Historian Mark Mazower explains how the Greeks secured an unlikely victory against the Ottoman empire in their 1820s fight for freedom. Speaking to...

Pearl Harbor episode 4: The day of the attack

14 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In the latest episode in our new series on the raid on Pearl Harbor, Ellie Cawthorne and Gavin Mortimer chart how the attack unfolded on 7 December 19...

England’s last witches

13 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

John Callow discusses the tragic case of the Bideford witches, the last women in England to be executed for the crime of witchcraft In 1682, three wom...

Hadrian’s Wall: everything you wanted to know

12 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

As we approach the 1900th anniversary of the building of Hadrian’s Wall, Rob Collins answers listener questions on Britain’s most famous Roman for...

Animals in space: from Laika to jellyfish & tortoises

11 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Stephen Walker tells Rhiannon Davies about the history of animals in space, from fruit flies and monkeys to Laika the Soviet space dog  Thousands of ...

Christmas feasts: Georgian elegance

10 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Taking in glamorous dinner parties and decadent “wine-chocolate”, Annie Graytransports us back to a festive feast from the Georgian era. Speakin...

How US-Russian relations fractured in the 1990s

08 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Mary Sarotte tells Spencer Mizen about her new book Not One Inch, which reveals how diplomatic missteps after the fall of the Berlin Wall soured US-...

Pearl Harbor episode 3: Countdown to the raid

07 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In the latest episode in our new series on the raid on Pearl Harbor, Steve Twomey speaks to Ellie Cawthorne about the immediate run-up to the attack, ...

Pearl Harbor episode 2: America on the eve of war

07 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In the latest episode in our new series on the raid on Pearl Harbor, Dayna Barnes speaks to Ellie Cawthorne about the United States in the years and m...

Sex lives of medieval people

06 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Were medieval attitudes to sex really that different from our own? Historian Katherine Harvey speaks to Elinor Evans about the sex lives of ordinary p...

The Great Depression: everything you wanted to know

05 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

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Searching for WW1’s fallen soldiers

04 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Robert Sackville-West describes attempts to identify the bodies of the dead after the devastating battles of the First World War  Historian Robert Sa...

Christmas feasts: Medieval & Tudor revelry

03 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

From brawn to plum pottage, Annie Gray takes us back to the raucous world of festive feasting in the medieval and Tudor eras. Speaking to Ellie Caw...

Pearl Harbor episode 1: A gathering storm in Japan

01 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In the first episode in our new series on the raid on Pearl Harbor, Chris Harding speaks to Ellie Cawthorne about Japan in the years running up to Dec...

Colour: a human history

30 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Colour has been hugely important to humans through history, with different cultures attaching their own meanings to all the hues of the rainbow. From ...

Stranger danger? Xenophobia’s unexpected history

29 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Psychiatrist and historian George Makari speaks to Jon Bauckham about the origins of the term “xenophobia”, and the ways in which western thinkers...

The Irish famine: everything you wanted to know

28 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Christine Kinealy answers listener questions on the devastating famine that struck Ireland in the mid-19th century Christine Kinealy answers listener ...

How Shakespeare inspired terrorists

27 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Shakespeare has been an obsession of extremist groups across the globe over the centuries. The Nazi Party held him up as a hero, while Osama Bin Laden...

How the Greeks changed the world

26 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Historian Roderick Beaton ranges over 4,000 years of Greek history, from the glories of Mycenae to the life of a modern European nation. In discussion...

What can churches tell us?

24 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Peter Stanford speaks to Emily Briffett about his new book, If These Stones Could Talk, which chronicles his journeys around Britain and Ireland’s ...

Sex work: a brief history

23 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

From the courtesans of Edo Japan and ancient Greece to the mollyhouses of Regency London, Kate Lister speaks to Ellie Cawthorne about her new book Ha...

The Ottoman “Age of Discovery”

22 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The “Age of Discovery” is traditionally known as a period between the 15th and 16th centuries, when European Christian powers sailed west and enco...

Anglo-Scottish border wars: everything you wanted to know

21 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

How much blood was spilled in the border regions of England and Scotland from the 14th to the 16th centuries? Who were the Reivers? And why did the Fr...

A secret trial that transformed transgender rights

20 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In 1965, Scottish aristocrat Ewan Forbes stood to inherit his family’s baronetcy but, as a transgender man, he soon became embroiled in a top-secret...

How to tell the story of WW2 in museums

19 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

What makes a good Second World War exhibit? How can we best share the story of the Holocaust? Two new galleries dedicated to these seismic events at L...

How slavery & empire shaped epidemiology

17 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Jim Downs speaks to Ellie Cawthorne about his book Maladies of Empire, which reveals how the conditions created by colonialism, war and slavery affec...

George V: not so dull after all

16 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Jane Ridley speaks to Ellie Cawthorne about the life and reign of George V. She reveals how the king, often unfairly dismissed as something of a dulla...

The man who made King Alfred great

15 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

As the author of the Life of King Alfred, the Welsh churchman Asser is in large part responsible for how the early medieval king was viewed, and the...

Espionage history: everything you wanted to know

14 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

When did espionage become professionalised? What ingenious gadgets did intelligence agents use in the past? And how have animals been used for spying?...

The St Brice’s Day Massacre of 1002

13 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

On 13 November 1002, the St Brice’s Day Massacre took place, when Danes living in England were killed, apparently on the orders of King Aethelred. B...

Medieval manuscript makers

12 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Medieval manuscripts tell a story far greater than just what’s written inside them. In conversation with Emily Briffett, Mary Wellesley shares the h...

Surviving hell on earth: Polar explorer Ranulph Fiennes on Shackleton

10 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Ernest Shackleton looms large in the heroic age of exploration, making two bids to reach the South Pole and famously attempting to traverse the Antarc...

The CIA’s secret African missions

09 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Historian Susan Williams discusses the United States’ covert programme to undermine the leaders of newly independent African nations in the 1950s an...

The rebel who defied William the Conqueror

08 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Matt Lewis tells Spencer Mizen about the extraordinary escapades of Hereward the Wake, who led a rebellion in the 1070s that drove William the Conquer...

SALEM EPISODE 9: Conclusion

07 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

After the witch trials were over, Salemites had to resume life as normal and come to terms with what had happened. Suspected witches had to go back to...

SALEM EPISODE 8: Willful, weak-minded women?

07 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Fourteen of the 19 people hanged for witchcraft at Salem were women. So could their gender – or perhaps their transgression of gender norms – be p...

SALEM EPISODE 7: Quarrelsome neighbours & family tensions

07 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Salem was made up of a dense web of social connections – not all of which were harmonious. In fact, it was a community riven with fault lines that t...

SALEM EPISODE 6: Chaos in the courtroom

07 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The list of failings that could be levelled against the Salem justice system is substantial – from the acceptance of so-called ‘spectral evidence’...

SALEM EPISODE 5: Satanic sabbaths and supernatural sins

07 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

From flying witches to demonic familiars and translucent cats, the Salem villagers believed themselves plagued by a spectrum of supernatural terrors. ...

From chariots to e-scooters: transformations in transport

06 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Tom Standage traces technological advances in transport, from the invention of the wheel to the rise of the car Tom Standage, author of A Brief Histor...

Giving birth in the 17th century

05 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Dr Sara Read explores women’s experience of pregnancy and childbirth in early modern England. Speaking to Emma Slattery Williams, she discusses the ...

Cricket as a colonial weapon

03 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Dr Souvik Naha reveals how the Victorians used cricket to export “British virtues” across the empire For 19th-century imperialists, cricket wasn’...