20th Century

20th Century

Defined by a rise of nationalism, two world wars, clashing super powers, nuclear weapons and space exploration, the 20th Century is certainly not void of fascinating history. Enjoy our enormous library of documentaries on key events such as D-Day or the sinkng of the Titanic, interviews with leading experts such as Tom Holland, David Cannadine and fascinating podcasts on the history of warfare.

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20th Century
  • 🎧 Easter Rising with Dr Heather Jones

    Dr Heather Jones @WW1POWs is Associate Professor at the Department of International History London School of Economics and Political Science. Dr Jones is author of Violence against Prisoners of War in the First World War.

  • 🎧 Edward VIII in America

    Dan speaks to historian and author Ted Powell about why Edward VIII's fascinating relationship with the USA.

  • 🎧 Eglantyne Jebb and 100 Years of Save The Children with Clare Mulley

    Clare Mulley chats to Dan about Eglantyne Jebb, the founder of Save the Children. Now 100 years old, Save the Children was initially founded in response to the plight of German and Austrian children during the blockade of Germany in the aftermath of World War One. Producer: Peter Curry

  • Introduction to the First World War

    1 season

    Top up your knowledge of the key events of the First World War with our handy audio guides.

  • 🎧 Eisenhower's Train Driver with Keith Joyce

    Keith Joyce's grandfather claimed that he had been General Eisenhower's train driver during the Second World War, and Keith has spent years trying to find the records that tell the story of the remarkable train and the remarkable man who drove it. Thumbnail image credit: Alan Wilson / Commons.

  • John F. Kennedy's Moon Shot Speech

    A short, animated video of John F Kennedy's famous speech, made to Congress on 25 May 1961, where he outlined the United States' intentions to put a man on the Moon before the end of the decade.

  • 🎧 Emily Davison with Kate Willoughby

    Dan talks to actor, activist, and "part-time suffragette" Kate Willoughby about Emily Davison, the centenary of the Representation of the People Act, and what still needs to be done.

  • 🎧 Europe Remembers World War Two with Remi Praud

    The Liberation Route Europe team are working to ensure that the end of World War Two is celebrated and that those who fell are justly commemorated. RΓ©mi Praud, a member of the team, talks to Dan about remembering and commemoration. Producer: Natt Tapley Audio: Peter Curry

  • 🎧 Excavated Trenches on the Somme with Teddy Corrigan

    Teddy Corrigan is the custodian of the Ulster Tower in Thiepval, with his wife, Phoebe. He works in remembrance of the soldiers who died in the Great War.

  • 🎧 Exclusive: Wartime Secrets of Alderney Quarry

    Alderney, like the rest of the Channel Islands, was occupied by German forces from 1940 to 1945. On Hitler's orders it was turned into a fortress, covered in concrete and steel fortifications. After liberation British forces dumped a vast amount of military hardware into a quarry which was then f...

  • 🎧 Fighting Nazism at the Grand Prix

    Neal Bascomb joined me on the podcast to tell a remarkable story of the fight against Hitler - on the Grand Prix racetrack. We delved into the high-speed world of the American heiress Lucy Schell, a motorsport obsessive and the top American driver in the Monte Carlo Rally. With the help of Rene D...

  • 🎧 First World War Theatre with Helen Brooks

    Dan Visits the First World War Theatre Project, an Arts and Humanities Research Council project, to hear about the plays made it past the censors in World War One.

  • 🎧 Flu Pandemics: Then and Now

    We are very very vulnerable' says the brilliant science author and journalist Laura Spinney. Her fantastic book 'Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How it Changed the World' is a shocking account of the flu pandemic that killed tens of millions of people a century ago. What was Spanish Flu a...

  • 🎧 Foreign Interference: Ronald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington with Jennet Conant

    Jennet Conant is the author of Man of the Hour: James B. Conant, Navigating a Dangerous Era and the New York Times bestsellers The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington and Tuxedo Park: A Wall Street Tycoon and the Secret Palace of Science That Changed the Course o...

  • 🎧 Forgotten Bastards of the Eastern Front

    During the Second World War, from 1941 onwards, Stalin's Soviet Union was joined in a close but awkward coalition with the Western allies. Military aid and intelligence flowed to the Soviets but virtually no troops. The exception was a small group of US airmen who were sent to Russia to set up an...

  • 🎧 Forgotten Women of the Civil Rights Movement

    I was delighted to be joined by Keisha Blain, an Associate Professor at the University of Pittsburgh. She took me far into the past - years before Martin Luther King or Rosa Parks - to the roots of North America's long tradition of Civil Rights activism. We discussed how African American women pl...

  • Private Snafu

    1 season

    Private Snafu is a series of instructional films created for the United States Army during World War Two. The character was devised by Frank Capra and the films were produced by Warner Brothers. The films conveyed important lessons for newly enlisted American soldiers in a simple and humorous way...

  • 🎧 Fritz and Tommy with Robin SchΓ€fer

    Dan talks to German military historian Robin SchΓ€fer to discuss German perceptions of the First World War

  • 🎧 From Aethelred to Blitz: The History of London with Antony Robbins

    Antony Robbins, Communications director Museum of London.

  • 🎧 Gallipoli Landings

    Dan visited Gallipoli to mark 100 years since the start of the Gallipoli Campaign on April 25th 1915.

  • 🎧 Gallipoli: the Endgame

    In December 1915, some 135,000 allied troops, nearly 400 guns and 15,000 horses were collectively trapped in the bridgeheads at Anzac, Suvla and Helles. It was clear that the operation to seize control of Dardanelles and the Bosporus straits and capture Constantinople (now Istanbul) from the Turk...

  • 🎧 Gandhi with Ramachandra Guha

    Gandhi is a complex and sometimes controversial figure, so Dan chats to Ramachandra Guha to find out what shaped Gandhi's worldview and how his early life informed his actions.

  • 🎧 Gary Lineker on his 'D-Day Dodger' Grandfather

    Gary Lineker's grandfather was one of the 'D-Day Dodgers': men who fought in the Italian campaign, who were accused of missing the supposedly harder fighting in Normandy. Of course, this wasn't true. The Italian campaign was one of the hardest military campaigns of World War Two, and Dan talks to...

  • 🎧 Gary Oldman on Playing Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour

    Dan Snow talks to acclaimed actor Gary Oldman about the challenge of taking on the role of Winston Churchill in 'Darkest Hour', and the role of art in interpreting history.