Europe

Whose fault was it? Does the question even make sense? Are wars always somebody's "fault"? Was it really the first global war? And should Britain have fought, or stayed out?

Suzannah Lipscomb joins Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook to discuss the history of witches and witchcraft. Why did society see witches as a threat and what is the modern equivalent of a witch hunt?

Counterfactuals are the great what ifs of history. Imagine the Nazis winning World War 2, or the Roman Empire never falling. Is this a valid form of historical enquiry? Or is it simply game-playing?…

In the second part of our examination of Adolf Hitler, Sir Ian Kershaw joins Dominic Sandbrook to discuss the Nazi leader’s years leading up to and during the Second World War.

From their origins in the 1930's running parallel to the rise of fascism in Europe, to the Adam West camp of the 1960's, to the gritty modern reboots - what has made Superheroes a cultural phenomenon…

How devastating were European arrivals to the Americas in terms of deaths and the introduction of new infectious diseases? Tom and Dominic are joined by Professor Kyle Harper from the University o…

‘If it became necessary immediately to discard every line and method of communications used on the front, except one, and it were left to me to select that one method, I should unhesitatingly choose t…

Was the Catholic Church Europe’s first revolutionary group? How are the Cathars linked to the genesis of genocide? Where does the term crusade come from? Listen as Tom and Dominic discuss the real his…

Thought by some as the first genocide in Europe, the Albigensian Crusade was the bloodiest crusade in history. Following the Mystery of the Cathars and the Real Da Vinci Code, Tom and Dominic come to…

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…

Dynastic turmoil, inconvenient treaties with Scotland, tales of knights, longbows and the golden age of chivalry. In a time of chaos across Europe, England, a minor power of the time, takes on the mig…

In 1854, the twenty-five year old aristocrat Roger Tichborne, heir to an impressive fortune, died in a shipwreck ....Or did he? His mother, certain of her son’s survival, advertised extensively with…

As Hitler ramps up the German war machine, he remains obsessed with one idea: uprooting Jews from the Reich. The Nazis embark on a campaign of totalitarian oppression against them, persecuting Jewish…

The Reformation, launched in 1517, stands as one of the most convulsive and transformative events of all time, shattering Christendom and dividing Europe for centuries. Its outcome determined the fate…

Good God I am surely in hell! Upon Lord Byron’s return to England and the publication of Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, he became one of the most notorious men in Europe and the world's first celebri…

On the 24th of July 1914, in London, the Liberal British Cabinet met to hear the Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey, read them the Ultimatum handed to Serbia by the Austro-Hungarian Empire the day bef…

“The lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime” In the early days of August 1914, the British press has become increasingly vocal about the prospect of war…

“I like an Englishman to look like an Englishman, and beards are foreign and breed vermin. Also depend upon it, they will lead to filthy habits.” Europe has had a love-hate relationship with facia…

“You have shaken off the yoke of your despots, but surely this was not to bend the knee before a foreign tyrant…” It’s January 1792, and one of the largest factions in revolutionary France, the Giron…

In 1756 a musical prodigy was born in Salzburg, Austria: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Thanks to the efforts of his exacting father, Mozart's genius was exhibited and celebrated in some of the greatest cou…