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
  • 🎧 Kohima: The Battle for India with Akiko MacDonald and Richard Greenwood

    The Battle of Kohima was a critical part of the war fought between Britain and Japan during World War II. It acted as a turning point on the eastern front more generally, and Dan talks to Akiko MacDonald, the daughter of a Japanese soldier who fought in the battle and Richard Greenwood, a former ...

  • 🎧 Krystyna Skarbek

    Clare Mulley joined me on the podcast to talk about the extraordinary story of Krystyna Skarbek, who worked as a spy for the British Special Operations Executive during the Second World War.

  • 🎧 Latvia, Soviet Occupation and Family History with Inara Verzemnieks

    Dan talks to Inara Verzemnieks about the history of Latvia, Nazi & Soviet occupation, and the history of her family.

  • 🎧 Leading Germany's Resistance against The Nazis

    Norman Ohler joined me on the pod to discuss two remarkable lovers who led Germany's resistance against the Nazis. Harro Schulze-Boysen and Libertas Haas-Heye led a complex network of antifascists, which operated across Berlin's bohemian underworld. They infiltrated German intelligence leaked Naz...

  • 🎧 Lesbianism in World War One

    Dan Snow is joined by Laura Doan to explore female homosexuality in World War One and Two.

  • 🎧 Life as a Woman in World War Two with Eve Warton

    Dan meets Eve Warton, a 95-year old who worked as a Wren in the Second World War. She discusses what happened to her, the good and the bad, including the sexual harassment she suffered.

  • 🎧 Life at Bletchley Park with Betty Webb

    Betty Webb was heavily involved with the work going on at Bletchley Park. While she was not part of the code-breaking team, her work was invaluable to the success of Bletchley, and Dan talks to her about her life and wartime experiences.

  • 🎧 Life Before World War Two

    Victor Gregg is a veteran of World War Two and the Dresden Bombings, and travelled with Dan to visit Dresden for a documentary. In this episode, Dan discusses Victor's early life, and how he came to join the army.

  • 🎧 Living Through the Dresden Firebombing with Victor Gregg

    Victor Gregg is a veteran of World War Two and the Dresden Bombings, and travelled with Dan to visit Dresden last year for a documentary. In this episode, Victor talks about what it was like to be in Dresden during the bombings, and the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) he suffered as a resul...

  • 🎧 Lord Bramall

    Dan meets Field Marshall the Lord Bramall, who served from the Second World War until the 1980s.

  • 🎧 M: Maxwell Knight, MI5's Greatest Spymaster

    Henry Hemming @henryhemming is a historian and author of five works of non-fiction including In Search of the English Eccentric, Misadventure in the Middle East, shortlisted for the Dolman Travel Book Award, and Churchill’s Iceman, published in the US as The Ingenious Mr Pyke, which became a New ...

  • 🎧 Mata Hari: The Truth Behind The Legend

    More than 70 years after her death, Mata Hari is still a household name throughout the Western world. So who was this daughter of a Dutch hat-maker, who was executed for espionage after a secret trial during the darkest days of World War One? Julie Wheelwright joined me on the pod to guide me thr...

  • 🎧 Maud West, the Original Miss Marple with Susannah Stapleton

    Maud West, operated her own detective agency during the Golden Age of crime in the period after World War One. She used all manner of disguises and tactics to gather information for her clients and to subvert the expected roles for women in this period. Producer: Peter Curry

  • 🎧 Max Eisen: Surviving Auschwitz

    Max Eisen was only 15 when he and his family were taken from their Hungarian home to the infamous Auschwitz Concentration Camp during the Second World War. All of his relatives were killed;only Max survived to see VE Day and eventual liberation. 75 years on from being liberated, he talks about th...

  • 🎧 Meuse Argonne: America's Bloodiest Battle

    Dan Snow visits the National World War One Museum in Kansas and discovers more about the Meuse Argonne Offensive in 1918.

  • 🎧 MI9: The Secret Service for Escape and Evasion

    Helen Fry joined me on the podcast to talk about the thrilling history of MI9. The WWII organisation engineered the escape of Allied forces from behind enemy lines.

  • 🎧 Missing World War Two B-25 Bombers Found in the Pacific Ocean with Dr. Eric Terrill

    Project Recover is a public-private partnership to enlist 21st century science and technology combined with in-depth archival and historical research in a quest to transform the approaches to underwater search to locate aircraft associated with American servicemen still unaccounted for during war...

  • 🎧 Moscow Metro

    Dan explores the Moscow Metro in search of history.

  • 🎧 Moscow's Communist Dorm

    In 1931, an enormous apartment building was completed in Moscow. Challenging the Kremlin for architectural supremacy on the Moskva River, it was the largest residential building in Europe, combining 505 furnished apartments with every modern luxury - a cinema, library, tennis court and shooting r...

  • 🎧 Murder After World War One with Paul Stickler

    Dan talks to Paul Stickler about a bizarre murder in the aftermath of the First World War.

  • 🎧 Muslim Soldiers of Dunkirk

    May 28, 1940: Major Akbar Khan of the Royal Indian Army Service Corps marches at the head of 299 soldiers along the beach at Dunkirk - the only Indians in the BEF in France and the only ones at Dunkirk. These men of the Indian Army, carrying their disabled imam, find their way to the East Mole an...

  • 🎧 My Family and the Holocaust

    Dan talks to Lord Daniel Finkelstein about his family's experience of the Holocaust, their time in Belsen, and their friendship with Anne Frank.

  • 🎧 Myths of the Titanic

    If you want to know anything about RMS Titanic, Tim Maltin's your man. He is one of the world’s leading experts on the Titanic and has an encyclopaedic knowledge of every nut and bolt secured in place in Belfast, and every moment of its terrifying submersion in the freezing waters of the Atlantic...

  • 🎧 Nazi Generals in Britain

    When captured Nazi generals found themselves in Britain in the Second World War, they were probably surprised to be brought to a beautiful country house where they were wined and dined by a senior British aristocrat. But it was all a charade. For the skirting boards, the swings seats and the flow...