Dan Snow's History Hit

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 amendment formed a key part of addressing citizenship rights and equal protection under the law, particularly for former slaves. Comedian, writer and actor Larry Wilmore is executive producer and one of the stars of the six-part series Amend: The Fight For America which examines why the 14th amendment mattered at the time and continues to be of vital importance to American society today. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Did Hitler shoot himself in the Führerbunker, or did he slip past the Soviets and escape to South America? There have been innumerable documentaries, newspaper articles and Twitter threads written by conspiracy theorists to back up the case for escape. Luke Daly Groves has made it his mission to take on the conspiracy theorists, and smash their arguments using the historical method. With the help of recently declassified MI5 files, previously unpublished sketches of Hitler's bunker and eyewitness accounts from intelligence officers, this made for a fascinating discussion. Enjoy. Warning: some strong language. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Captain Cook has been celebrated, wrongly, as the first European to discover Australia but many now believe it is time to reappraise his legacy particularly in light of the devastating effect it had on the native Aboriginal people of Australia. Professor John Maynard is a Worimi man and Director of Aboriginal History at The Wollotuka Institute. He joins the podcast to explain what Cook's landing at Botany Bay meant for the Aboriginal people at the time and right through the generations to today and into the future. He believes it's time that we had an honest reckoning with Cook's legacy and that this is essential for reconciliation and creating a better way forward. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. In celebration of the launch of her new History Hit podcast, Professor Suzannah Lipscombe joins Dan to discuss all things Not Just the Tudors. This new podcast will look right across the 16th century including the Renaissance, the Aztecs, Henry VIII's wardrobe, werewolves and much, much more.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 victory but with massive casualties on both sides. To take us through the battle James welcomed Saul David onto our sibling podcast Warfare. Saul is a professor of Military History at the University of Buckingham and author of Crucible of Hell. He and James explore the use of kamikaze pilots by the Japanese and of the Atomic bomb by the United States. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 19th and early 20th-century really mean? Katja Hoyer joins Dan in this follow-up episode to The Second Reich which examined the formation of Germany. This time round Katja and Dan tackle the internal politics of the Second Reich, the role of the Kaiser, German expansionism and colonialism and how the legacy of the German Empire can still be felt today.If you want to listen to our podcast with the creators of the Oscar-winning film Colette the please click here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 was it like for ordinary people nearby? It was the worst nuclear accident to that point in history and the catastrophic response to that meltdown and the mishandling of the messages around the accident helped to hasten the end of the Soviet Union itself. In this episode, Dan is joined by Sophia Moskalenko who was ten at the time and living in Kyiv around 60 miles from the site of the accident. She movingly describes her life before the explosion, the trauma of the events afterwards and the long term effect on her mental and physical wellbeing. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Ben was born in Transylvania before emigrating to the United States with his family as a child to escape antisemitic persecution. He trained at Harvard Law School graduating in 1943 and served in the US army in the campaign to liberate western Europe. In 1945 at the end of the war he was assigned to a team charged with collecting evidence of war crimes during which he visited the death camps and saw first hand the appalling conditions there. He then became a prosecutor during the Nuremberg war crimes trials where his work focussed on the prosecution of the Einsatzgruppen death squads. His experiences during the war have led him to be a passionate, lifelong campaigner advocating for the international rule of law and helped found the international criminal courts in The Hague. In this episode, he shares his life experiences and how we all need to find ways to resolve our differences peacefully if we want to continue to see humanity flourish. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Benvenuto Cellini was the bad boy of the Renaissance! His life was a story of murders, violence, war, the sack of cities, sodomy, imprisonment, religious conversion, prodigious artistic talent and writing one of the greatest artistic autobiographies of all time. Jerry Brotton, Professor of Renaissance Studies at Queen Mary University of London, has recently made a superb series for the BBC called The Essay, Blood and Bronze which charts the sometimes mad life of Cellini. He joins Dan to discuss Cellini's life, work and the mystery of a recently discovered Cellini painting. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 of widespread protests and denunciations from fans, but what led to this point? In this episode, Dan is joined by Jonathan Wilson of the Guardian Football Weekly and author of Inverting the Pyramid. Jonathan takes us from the origins of the sport over a hundred years ago through to the big business of the modern game. This historical perspective helps to shed light on what might have caused clubs to try and break away. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.