Explaining History

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. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share.▸ Support the Show & Get Exclusive ContentBecome a Patron: patreon.com/explaininghistory▸ Join the Community & Continue the ConversationFacebook Group: facebook.com/groups/ExplainingHistoryPodcastSubstack: theexplaininghistorypodcast.substack.com▸ Read Articles & Go DeeperWebsite: explaininghistory.org 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. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share.▸ Support the Show & Get Exclusive ContentBecome a Patron: patreon.com/explaininghistory▸ Join the Community & Continue the ConversationFacebook Group: facebook.com/groups/ExplainingHistoryPodcastSubstack: theexplaininghistorypodcast.substack.com▸ Read Articles & Go DeeperWebsite: explaininghistory.org 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. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share.▸ Support the Show & Get Exclusive ContentBecome a Patron: patreon.com/explaininghistory▸ Join the Community & Continue the ConversationFacebook Group: facebook.com/groups/ExplainingHistoryPodcastSubstack: theexplaininghistorypodcast.substack.com▸ Read Articles & Go DeeperWebsite: explaininghistory.org 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. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share.▸ Support the Show & Get Exclusive ContentBecome a Patron: patreon.com/explaininghistory▸ Join the Community & Continue the ConversationFacebook Group: facebook.com/groups/ExplainingHistoryPodcastSubstack: theexplaininghistorypodcast.substack.com▸ Read Articles & Go DeeperWebsite: explaininghistory.org 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. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share.▸ Support the Show & Get Exclusive ContentBecome a Patron: patreon.com/explaininghistory▸ Join the Community & Continue the ConversationFacebook Group: facebook.com/groups/ExplainingHistoryPodcastSubstack: theexplaininghistorypodcast.substack.com▸ Read Articles & Go DeeperWebsite: explaininghistory.org 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. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share.▸ Support the Show & Get Exclusive ContentBecome a Patron: patreon.com/explaininghistory▸ Join the Community & Continue the ConversationFacebook Group: facebook.com/groups/ExplainingHistoryPodcastSubstack: theexplaininghistorypodcast.substack.com▸ Read Articles & Go DeeperWebsite: explaininghistory.org 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. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share.▸ Support the Show & Get Exclusive ContentBecome a Patron: patreon.com/explaininghistory▸ Join the Community & Continue the ConversationFacebook Group: facebook.com/groups/ExplainingHistoryPodcastSubstack: theexplaininghistorypodcast.substack.com▸ Read Articles & Go DeeperWebsite: explaininghistory.org 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. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share.▸ Support the Show & Get Exclusive ContentBecome a Patron: patreon.com/explaininghistory▸ Join the Community & Continue the ConversationFacebook Group: facebook.com/groups/ExplainingHistoryPodcastSubstack: theexplaininghistorypodcast.substack.com▸ Read Articles & Go DeeperWebsite: explaininghistory.org 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. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share.▸ Support the Show & Get Exclusive ContentBecome a Patron: patreon.com/explaininghistory▸ Join the Community & Continue the ConversationFacebook Group: facebook.com/groups/ExplainingHistoryPodcastSubstack: theexplaininghistorypodcast.substack.com▸ Read Articles & Go DeeperWebsite: explaininghistory.org 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. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share.▸ Support the Show & Get Exclusive ContentBecome a Patron: patreon.com/explaininghistory▸ Join the Community & Continue the ConversationFacebook Group: facebook.com/groups/ExplainingHistoryPodcastSubstack: theexplaininghistorypodcast.substack.com▸ Read Articles & Go DeeperWebsite: explaininghistory.org Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.