

The History of the Twentieth Century
Mark Painter
A chronicle of the history of the twentieth century, including art, music, popular culture, science, religion, and, of course, politics and war.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Jun 24, 2018 • 38min
120 A Line in the Sand
Turkish forces defeat a British force attempting to take Baghdad, but that doesn't stop the British and the French from divvying up the postwar Middle East. Also, the Russians advance, the Italians don't.

Jun 17, 2018 • 41min
119 The Minister without Portfolio
Venustiano Carranza is gaining momentum in the struggle over the future of Mexico, but Pancho Villa is not ready to give up. The Germans hope to lure the US into intervening, then Pancho Villa decides provoking the US is also in his interests.

Jun 10, 2018 • 44min
118 The Lunatics Have Taken Charge of the Asylum
In the neutral United States, the economy is booming and so is the motion picture business. And the most famous name in pictures is Charles Chaplin.

Jun 3, 2018 • 40min
117 What Are the French Doing?
Allied commanders on the Western Front spent 1915 developing new strategies for the Great War, and attempted to implement them in their autumn offensive.

May 20, 2018 • 49min
116 What Did You Do in the Great War?
With numbers of new volunteers declining every month, the British government wrestles with the issue of conscription. Across Europe, all the Great Powers are feeling the manpower and other shortages created by the war.

May 13, 2018 • 41min
115 Let Them Raise Hell
After the overthrow of Victoriano Huerta, the revolutionary forces in Mexico begin fighting among themselves, and Huerta himself conspires with the Germans to return to power.

May 6, 2018 • 40min
114 Beautiful Tightropes of Logic
Albert Einstein needed ten years to flesh out his special theory of relativity into a general theory of relativity, but when he finished, he changed our understanding of the nature of reality itself.

Apr 22, 2018 • 41min
113 Simpson's Circus
German East Africa stood strong against British attempts to capture the territory. The key to capturing the German colony was to contest German control of Lake Tanganyika.

Apr 15, 2018 • 51min
112 The Banana Wars II
Political instability and mounting foreign debts lead to US military intervention on the island of Hispaniola.

Apr 8, 2018 • 41min
111 The Bulgarian Summer
By the summer of 1915, both the Central Powers and the Allies were keen to get Bulgaria to join the war on their side. The Central Powers won the bidding war, and Bulgaria became the fourth (and last) member of the Central Powers.


