History Extra podcast
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History Extra podcast
The HistoryExtra podcast brings you gripping stories from the past and fascinating historical conversations with the world's leading historical experts. HistoryExtra is a free history podcast, with episodes released six times a week. Subscribe now for the real stories behind your favourite films,...
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2551 episódios
A new take on the battle of Hastings
It's long been assumed that King Harold's English army arrived tired and in disarray at the battle of Hastings, having had to march over 200 miles fro...
Mrs Beeton: life of the week
Mrs Beeton is a name synonymous with 19th-century domesticity – most notably in connection with the iconic Book of Household Management. But who was t...
The battle of the Arctic: the overlooked crucible of WW2
The US and UK supplied the USSR with vast amounts of military materiel during the Second World War via the Arctic convoys. In this episode, Hugh Sebag...
How the Vikings pushed Anglo-Saxon England to the brink
During the latter decades of the ninth century, the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms faced an existential threat as Viking forces launched an assault on a scale n...
How to stay healthy in the Middle Ages
In reality, were medieval people dirty and covered in mud? What did they think were the healthiest things to eat? And how often did they think they sh...
Europe's Muslim history
From the magnificence of the Alhambra to the forgotten resting places of the Prophet Muhammad’s own relatives, Islam has long been a part of Europe’s...
Attila the Hun: life of the week
Few historical figures have reputations quite as diabolical as that of Attila the Hun. This nomadic leader pitched up on the edge of the Roman empire...
Captured by Barbary corsairs: an Englishwoman's extraordinary tale
In 1756, Elizabeth Marsh set sail from Gibraltar to Britain with the intention of meeting her fiancé. Instead, she was captured by Barbary corsairs –...
Was Elizabeth I's reign really a 'golden age'?
As Elizabeth I entered the final chapter of her reign, questions of ageing, succession, and legacy loomed large. In this final episode of our four-par...
Spy, hero, rebel, traitor: the story of Roger Casement
Rory Carroll unpacks the dramatic final years of Roger Casement – an Irish diplomat and nationalist whose tangled legacy includes heroism, betrayal, a...
The relentless rise of the mafia
The 20th century saw the mafia go global. Crime groups, from Japan's Yakuza to southern Italy's Camorra, capitalised on political chaos and mass migra...
Harriet Martineau: life of the week
Thinker, feminist, sociologist, campaigner: 19th-century writer Harriet Martineau was a pioneer and a radical across a huge range of areas, but it's v...
Sores, sweat and secretions: the pox in early modern London
With sinful associations and incredibly painful symptoms, the pox could be a damning diagnosis in the early modern period. In this episode, Olivia Wei...
Elizabeth’s enemies: plots, rivals and the Spanish Armada
Elizabeth I’s reign was defined by constant threat, both at home and abroad. In this third episode of our four-part Sunday Series on the Tudor monarch...
Britain and the looted African gold
In the 1870s, British troops invaded the African kingdom of Asante, razed its capital, prowled its palace and plundered its exquisite golden treasures...
The devastating Jewish revolt against the Roman empire
It was under the rule of the infamous emperor Nero that the Great Revolt, the first of the Jewish-Roman wars, began, sparking many decades of continuo...
Culture and conflict: a historical tour of Dublin
Ireland's capital may be famous today for its nightlife and literature, but it has experienced more than its fair share of conflict and oppression alo...
How Rasputin helped doom the Romanovs
The life of Grigori Rasputin, the Siberian peasant healer who wielded influence over the family of Russia’s last tsar, has fascinated the world for mo...
Elizabeth I: a woman in a man’s world
By 1559, Elizabeth I had secured the crown – but holding on to power would prove far more challenging. In this second episode of our four-part Sunday...
Life on the mean streets of 19th-century London
What can Charlie Chaplin's life tell us about the experiences of poor working-class people in 19th- and early 20th-century London? Quite a lot, it tur...
Trailblazers and troublemakers: women who made French history
Have women been relegated to the footnotes of French history? Katherine Pangonis – whose latest book is A History of France in 21 Women – tells Charlo...
Vladimir Lenin: life of the week
Few people had as much impact on the course of the 20th century as Vladimir Lenin – from his years as an émigré across the capitals of western Europe,...
Why Britons rejected fascism in the 1930s
The 1920s and 30s were golden decades for extremism. Across Europe, dictators including Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini goose-stepped their way into powe...
Young Elizabeth I: the making of a queen
Elizabeth I is one of history's most iconic monarchs, but her path to the throne was anything but secure. In this first episode of our four-part Sunda...
A poetic history of England
How can you do justice to the story of 1,300 years of English history? Through verse, according to cultural historian Catherine Clarke – whose latest...
The hidden history behind Mount Rushmore
Mount Rushmore is one of the most iconic images in US history – but its story is far more complex and controversial than that of a simple sculpture. I...
Juana Inés de la Cruz: life of the week
She led “a life that really, in many ways, shouldn't have been possible”. So says historian Paul Gillingham of Juana Inés de la Cruz. This 17th-centur...
The forgotten wars that redefined Europe
While the crusades raged across the Holy Land in the southern Levant, the kingdoms of central and northern Europe were engaged in their own battle to...
Does Magna Carta matter today?
Politicians invoke it, activists wield it, and legal thinkers debate what it can offer the modern world. But what does Magna Carta really mean today?...
Slavery in the Islamic world
Slavery in the Islamic world has a diverse and controversial history. Speaking to Emily Briffett, historian and journalist Justin Marozzi explores som...
The real women behind Europe's greatest legends
National icons aren’t born – they’re engineered. But how were historical figures such as Joan of Arc and Isabella of Castile transformed into politica...
Thomas Edison: life of the week
Widely remembered as the ultimate American inventor, Edison’s greatest talent may have been for self-promotion. In this episode, historian Iwan Morus...
Following the footsteps of a WW2 prisoner of war
Captured in Libya, imprisoned in Italy, and twice an escapee: historian Malcolm Gaskill's great-uncle Ralph's experiences of the Second World War were...
Magna Carta: why didn't King John keep his word?
As King John was poised to press his seal into the wax of a document whose impact would reverberate for centuries, did he understand the ramifications...
How to be a Victorian
The Victorian period was a time of great economic, cultural and technological change. But what was it like to actually live through it? Speaking to Is...
"The streets will run with blood!": the uprising that shook Victorian Britain
In 1838, a 6ft Cornishman going by the name of Sir William Courtenay led an insurrection in rural Kent. Courtenay claimed he was Jesus Christ – and a...
Pocahontas: life of the week
Pocahontas's life is shrouded in myth – but how much of that lore is true? Speaking to Emily Briffett, historian Camilla Townsend brings us face to fa...
The ruthless revolution that made Britain great
The spinning jenny and steam power may be the textbook markers of the Industrial Revolution – but Edmond Smith argues the story starts earlier, and ru...
The Magna Carta myth
Magna Carta may be associated today with power, liberty and freedom – but those weren’t quite the concerns back in 1215. So what did the barons really...
Terrible puns and filthy limericks: the Victorian sense of humour
Queen Victoria was – so legend has it – famously 'not amused'. But, as Dr Bob Nicholson reveals in this episode of the HistoryExtra podcast, the long-...