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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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-...
What your hands say about you – according to history
What do your hands reveal about you? Historian Alison Bashford joins Elinor Evans to explore the extraordinary history of how people have interpreted...
Thomas More: life of the week
Thomas More is best remembered as a martyr and a saint, but the circumstances of his death were just one facet of his controversial life. Historian an...
Going on strike in ancient Rome
Strikes and unions may seem like modern inventions, but they’ve existed for much longer than many of us realise. Historian Sarah E Bond talks to Jon B...
Magna Carta: king v barons
In the early 13th century, England was a kingdom under pressure, as the challenges posed by King John’s reign had left the realm restless. By 1215, te...
Untold LGBTQ stories of the National Trust
In 1895, when the National Trust was founded, homosexual acts of ‘gross indecency’ were still illegal in Britain. And yet, as Michael Hall reveals in...
Why Greenwich is the home of time
Why is a small observatory in south east London so important to the story of how we tell the time? Speaking to Elinor Evans, Emily Akkermans, Curator...
James Gillray: life of the week
James Gillray was one of Georgian Britain’s most ruthless satirists, using his prints to mock kings, politicians and generals, turning politics into p...
Churchill and de Gaulle: a strange relationship
After France fell in 1940, it was Charles de Gaulle who led the Free French forces against Nazi Germany and Vichy France. From the moment he assumed t...
Why Pompeii's tragedy still captivates us today
When the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum were buried by ash spewed out of Vesuvius in AD 79, so too were their inhabitants, frozen in the moment of...
The United States and Latin America: a turbulent history
Has the United States always seen Latin America as its ‘backyard’? And when did influence tip into intervention? In this episode, Danny Bird is joined...
History's most mysterious manuscripts
What do exploding bats and amphibious galleons have in common? They're both fascinating features of some of the world's most mysterious manuscripts, a...
Francisco Franco: life of the week
Emerging in the early 20th century as Europe's youngest general since Napoleon Bonaparte, Francisco Franco was destined to make waves. But how did thi...
How grim was life on Hitler's U-boats?
"Statistically, they were on a suicide mission." That's Roger Moorhouse's assessment of the odds facing Hitler's U-boat crews in the final years of th...
How ancient Pompeii was rediscovered
The buried Roman city of Pompeii was ‘discovered’ in the 16th century, but was it ever lost? In this penultimate episode of our four-part series, Kev...
Why Belgian agents risked their lives spying for Britain
In the chaotic opening months of the First World War, Britain's intelligence services were desperate to learn where the Germans would attack next. Ent...
How tanks redefined warfare
From the mud-churned battlefields of the First World War to the high-stakes clashes of the Cold War, the tank has shaped the course of conflict like n...
Robert McNamara: life of the week
Robert McNamara is best remembered as a key architect of the Vietnam War, a man who pushed for military escalation as thousands died on all sides of t...
The road to the Holocaust
In his latest book, The Hitler Years: Holocaust 1933–1945, Frank McDonough offers a heart-rending year-by-year narrative of the Nazis' escalating pers...
The final days of Pompeii
The Roman towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum were wiped off the map within 24 hours of Vesuvius erupting, buried under volcanic debris that would entomb...
Life in the Luftwaffe during the Battle of Britain
In the eyes of a German fighter pilot in the skies over English Channel in 1940, the Battle of Britain was as much a struggle of human endurance as it...
The hidden history of US immigration detention
The roots of immigration detention in the US stretch back over a century. Speaking to Elinor Evans, historian Brianna Nofil explores how the US built...
Emperor Hirohito: life of the week
While most of the other surviving Axis leaders were put on trial following the end of the Second World War, Japan's Emperor Hirohito never faced justi...
Secrets of the Romans' spectacular success
How did a muddy settlement on the banks of the river Tiber grow into the greatest empire the world had ever seen? Who was the more diabolical: Caligul...
Before the volcano: life in ancient Pompeii
In AD 79, Pompeii and Herculaneum were subsumed by the eruption of Vesuvius, buried and preserved under metres of volcanic ash. Today, they are among...
How do you solve a problem like Napoleon?
In the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars, it fell to Britain to maintain the balance of power in continental Europe – but how could a small island mana...
What does history teach us about protest?
The past 12 months have seen protests around the world make headlines and dominate social media feeds. But how have such popular demonstrations change...
Hatshepsut: life of the week
Hatshepsut is one of ancient Egypt’s most extraordinary figures: a pharaoh who deftly asserted her right to the throne, reigned over an era of prosper...
Tragedy and triumph: a 500-year history of Mexico
The chaos of the Spanish conquest, the humiliation of military defeat to the United States, the disruption of the revolution… Mexican history is often...
Jane Austen’s final chapter – and lasting legacy
What does Austen’s later writing tell us about her changing ideas? And what factors contributed to her death? In this fourth and final episode of our...
Prophetesses & she-preachers of the 17th century
A prophetess who warned Oliver Cromwell against killing the king. A Yorkshire maidservant who gained an audience with the Ottoman Sultan. The religiou...
New Year's Eve, newts and Nessie: a history of British folklore
Why should you be careful about who's first through your door on New Year's Day? What led people to believe that newts and earwigs were responsible fo...
Augustus: life of the week
‘Evil genius’ is a phrase that could have been invented to describe Augustus, the first emperor of Rome. Augustus butchered his way to power in the ch...
Inside the Viking battle of the genders
What do we know for certain about Old Norse ideas about masculinity and femininity, and can Viking Age mythology provide any answers? In conversation...
A house of one’s own: Jane Austen’s ‘golden years’
It was at Chawton House, a cottage in rural Hampshire, that Jane Austen experienced one of the most fruitful episodes of her writing career. In this t...