China

Broadcaster and historian Michael Wood joins Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook to discuss the world’s oldest civilisation. What were the great moments in Chinese history and why do the Opium Wars stil…

Tom and Dominic are back with Helen Thompson for a second episode on the history of oil, its impact and how it shapes geopolitics. Tune in to hear about the impact of oil production on US Politics…

China's Cultural Revolution under Chairman Mao was one of the most staggeringly brutal events in recent human history. Tom and Dominic are joined by historian Rana Mitter, who specialises in the histo…

In the second part of our Australian PMs trilogy, Tom and Dominic explore Chinese Communist conspiracy theories and talk about the most entertaining of all the Aussie leaders. The final instalment…

Friend of the show Rana Mitter joins Tom and Dominic this week to discuss the role of China in the Second World War. In the first of two episodes, Rana, Tom and Dominic cover the fall of the last…

Tom and Dominic welcome back special guest Rana Mitter to discuss China's position during World War Two. This episode covers the Rape of Nanjing by Japanese forces, the military tactic of flooding…

Having convinced the Catholic Monarchs to fund his journey across the Atlantic, Columbus sets sail with three ships, a crew with dubious loyalties, and a mission to find China or Japan by heading west…

“Let us advance courageously, to change the backward condition of our country, and turn it into a modern and powerful socialist state!” Deng Xiaoping, a man purged by Mao and his followers twice befor…

Baghdad was a place of fabulous sophistication and teeming multitudes, where terrible things could happen, but great wonders could also be found… During the Islamic Golden Age, it was the most global…

"The First Emperor will die and his land will be divided….” The First Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang, left behind him a monumental legacy: an Empire which would last millennia, the foundations of th…

"When dragons flew to war… everything burned. I do not wish to rule over a kingdom of ash and bone." Dragons - the most compelling of mythical beasts - are one of the most vivid creations of all huma…

The unexpected evolution of Italian food can serve as a tantalising doorway into some of the greatest moments of Italian history: from medieval monarchs, murdered popes, and the Renaissance, to secret…

At the height of Imperial Japan, during a golden age of court intrigue, obsessive hierarchy, and fabulous sophistication, who was the legendary lothario and emperor’s son, Genji? What can the Tale of…