Dr Chris Smith has written a fascinating new book about John Cairncross, one of the famous five Cambridge spies who infiltrated high positions in the British intelligence service and reported back to Russia. Kim Philby, the most famous of the spies, was almost in charge of MI6 before his associat...

Many Burmese people resisted the Japanese occupation of their country in World War Two. Filmmaker Alex Bescoby has made a new film celebrating those who the Empire left behind, despite the hardships they endured to serve Britain during the war. Producer: Peter Curry

Frederick Taylor's work looks at the outbreak of World War Two, and he discusses whether the British people were ready for war. This discussion moves away from traditional debates over Chamberlain to the people of Britain and Germany, and their attitudes to war. Producer: Peter Curry

This is the most remarkable father and son story I have ever come across. We are still marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz here at History Hit and this time I am talking to historian Jeremy Dronfield about an astonishing true story of horror, love and impossible survival. ...

For 50 years Christopher Tugendhat has been collecting modern first editions of books, including many that he believes reflect and illuminate the British experience during the first sixty years of the 20th century. In this podcast, he explores political and social change from 1900 to 1964 through...

75 years ago this Spring, the aerial assault on Germany was reaching a crescendo as city after city was devastated by British and American bomber fleets. History Hit TV have just launched a major documentary to mark this anniversary featuring veterans and historians like Max Hastings and Victoria...

The second atomic strike on the city of Nagasaki is less well known than the one a few days earlier on Hiroshima, but was it more influential in forcing the Japanese to surrender? To find out who exactly ordered it and why I talked to Harvard's Frederik Logevall. He discusses the debates that rag...

Ken Oatley, as one of the people who took part in the bombing of Dresden, talks about what it was like, and what he feels about having done it. He was also one of the last men to hear Guy Gibson alive, and he took part in numerous raids. In this podcast, he talks to Dan about his wartime experien...

In this part of our #RAF100 season Dan learns from Ian Castle about the conception of the RAF.

Dan talks to Richard van Emden about his new book - Missing: the need for closure after the Great War. The backbone of the book is based on the best single story of World War One that he has found in 35 years of research. It is the story of one woman’s relentless search for her missing son’s body...

The last great battle of the Second World War was fought on the island of Okinawa. After 83 blood-soaked days, almost a quarter of a million people lost their lives. The death toll included thousands of civilians lost to mass suicide - convinced to do so by Japanese propaganda. I invited Saul Dav...

In June 1940 Nazi Germany overran France and forced the British army to evacuate at Dunkirk. Severely lacking in military equipment, Britain and its Empire now stood alone against Adolf Hitler's forces. But new Prime Minister Winston Churchill refused to agree to peace terms, forcing Hitler to pl...

100 years ago, forces under the command of Colonel Reginald Dyer fired upon on an assembled crowd of Indians, who had gathered in peaceful protest about the deportation of two national leaders. Dan talks to Kim Wagner in order to better understand the events that occurred, and to challenge many o...

In this podcast I was joined by Margaret MacMillan, professor at St Antony's College, Oxford University and author of 'Peacemakers: The Paris Peace Conference of 1919 and Its Attempt to End War'. We discussed the effects WWI had on the world, and how Europe began to rebuild in the years that foll...

In the 1930s Lady Lucy Houston was one of the richest women in England and a household name, notorious for her virulent criticisms of the government, but politics had been far from her mind when, as young Fanny Radmall, she had set out to conquer the world. Armed with only looks and self-confiden...

Part Two of our special podcast mini series on the famous Christmas Truce. On Christmas Eve 1914 many sectors of the Western Front in France and Belgium fell silent. Troops from all sides put down their weapons and sang carols, exchanged gifts and buried their dead in No Man's Land. The following...

On Christmas Eve 1914 many sectors of the Western Front in France and Belgium fell silent. Troops from all sides put down their weapons and sang carols, exchanged gifts and buried their dead in No Man's Land. The following day the truce continued in many, but not all areas, and troops gathered in...

Rachel Holmes joined me on the podcast to discuss the life of British suffragette and socialist Sylvia Pankhurst. Sylvia found her voice fighting militantly for votes for women. The vote was just the beginning of her lifelong defence of human rights, from her early warnings of the rise of fascism...

In this episode Dan speaks with 5 survivors of genocide and how it affected their lives

There is almost no end to the dark secrets that emerge from the smashed ruins of 1945 Europe. Dr Florian Huber has spent years researching the fascinating story of the epidemic of suicide that spread through Germany as they faced certain defeat in 1945. Some people committed suicide after sufferi...

Anne Applebaum @anneapplebaum is an American journalist and Pulitzer Prize–winning author who has written extensively about communism and the development of civil society in Central and Eastern Europe.

80 years ago today the Second Great Fire of London was unleashed by sustained German bombing during one of the fiercest nights of the Blitz. On this podcast Dan goes on a tour around the City of London with Clive Harris looking at how Luftwaffe bombs reshaped the city. Dan also talks to Dr Tom Al...

Dr Lyuba Vinogradova @Lyuba_Martin is a Russian historian and author. Her most recent book is entitled Avenging Angels: Soviet women snipers on the Eastern front (1941–45).

Ben Macintyre joined me on the podcast to talk about Ursula Kuczynski, one of the greatest spies of the 20th Century.