The Rest Is History
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742 episodes
742 episodes
600. Chatham High Street
Why is Chatham High-street both futuristic and riddled with the past? Why was it a magnet for historical figures such as King John, Charles II, Nelson and Charles Dickens, and the location for some of the most totemic moments in British hi…
599. The First World War: Downfall of the Habsburgs (Part 6)
After endeavouring to wreak their revenge on Serbia, what would be the greatest hammer blow to the Austro-Hungarian Empire during the First World War? With Leviv having fallen apocalyptically to the Russian hordes, what had gone so wrong? …
598. The First World War: The Eastern Front Explodes (Part 5)
While the Western front was raging following the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, what was unfolding on the Eastern Front? Why was it an even bloodier and more brutal arena than the West? As Austria took on its great antagonist - t…
597. The First World War: The Massacre of the Innocents (Part 4)
What happened at the crucial, bloody, Battle of Ypres in October 1914? How did the battle come about? Why did the Germans and the British fight each other so brutally and for so long to take Ypres? What made the fighting so particularly vi…
596. The First World War: The Miracle on the Marne (Part 3)
What extraordinary events saw the French - already on the brink of defeat - take on the formerly formidable German army in a remarkable counter-offensive on the 4th of September, in France, in a clash that would later become known as the M…
595. The First World War: The Battle of the Frontiers (Part 2)
What was Britain's first military move following the outbreak of the First World War? Where did the French launch their initial attack on the Germans? Whose army was the biggest and best of all the participants in the war? And, what unfold…
594. The First World War: The Invasion of Belgium (Part 1)
Following the declaration of war in 1914, how did the outbreak of the First World War unfold? What were the earliest military engagements of this terrible, totemic event? Who were its key political players and how did they respond? What wa…
593. The Fight of the Century
Why did two men - John Heenan and and Tom Sayers - illegally meet in a field in Hampshire, in 1860, to brutally fight one another, captivating Britain in the process? What can the fight tell us about the nature of Britishness in the 19th c…
592. Mad Victorian Sport
How and when was football invented, and what are the origins of football clubs? What is the connection between public hangings, highwaymen, and early sporting events? Which is the most historically important sporting ground in the world? W…
591. The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln: Manhunt for the Killer (Part 2)
How was President Abraham Lincoln murdered on Good Friday 1865, at Ford’s Theatre, just five days after Robert E. Lee’s surrender? Who was John Wilkes Booth, the racist actor with southern sympathies, who assassinated him? How did he escap…