How and Why History
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How and Why History
History Hit's How and Why History is a lively and accessible introduction to history. Historians and writers explore the big questions about history's most significant events and personalities, from the ancient world to recent times. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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King David
One of the Old Testament’s most compelling figures, David was anointed as king of a united Israel, conquering Jerusalem and bringing the Ark of the Co...
Alfred the Great
Ever since his reign in the 9th century, Alfred the Great has been celebrated as one of the most accomplished of our kings. A learned and religious ma...
The South African Boer War
From 1899 to 1902, a bloody war was fought between the British Empire and two independent Boer states – the Republic of Transvaal and the Orange Free...
The Great Fire of London
In September 1666, the Great Fire of London destroyed more than 13,000 houses, 87 Parish churches as well as St Pauls Cathedral, and uprooted hundreds...
The United Nations at 75
In the aftermath of the Second World War, 850 delegates from 50 nations gathered in San Fransisco, determined to establish an organization which would...
The Battle of Britain
In a moment of great danger to national survival, the Royal Air Force defended the United Kingdom against large scale attacks by the Luftwaffe. So how...
The Black Death
Between 75 million and 200 million people died in the Black Death, or Plague, which caused social, economic and religious upheavals that had a profoun...
Joan of Arc
In the early 15th century, a French village girl became a heroine for her role in the French victory during the Lancastrian phase of the 100 Years War...
The Gunpowder Plot
On 5 November 1605, a planned assassination attempt on King James I was thwarted. While a group of English Catholics planned to blow up the House of L...
The Philosophers of Ancient Greece
From the 6th century BCE, philosophy was used to make sense of the world – including astronomy, mathematics, politics, ethics, metaphysics and aesthet...
Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan was one of the most feared and most famous warrior kings in history. But how did he rise to power to become the Emperor of the Mongol Emp...
Oliver Cromwell
Having led the parliament of England’s armies against King Charles I, and seen to it that the king was executed, Oliver Cromwell went on to rule the B...
How World War Two Shaped The Modern World
With the end of the Second World War 75 years ago, the task of rebuilding shattered nations had to begin. But the years that followed saw the coming o...
Pilgrimage in the Middle Ages
In the Middle Ages, the Holy Land, as well as sites in Europe and around Britain became popular sites for pilgrimage. It was believed that praying at...
The Rise and Fall of the Berlin Wall
In the aftermath of the Second World War, Germany was divided and, as the Cold War escalated, a concrete barrier physically and ideologically divided...
Europe's Witch Craze
In 1597, King James VI of Scotland published a compendium on witchcraft called Daemonologie that laid down the kind of trial and punishment these prac...
America, Japan and the Atomic Bomb
On 6 August 1945, an American B29 bomber dropped the world's first deployed atomic bomb over Hiroshima. Three days later, Nagasaki was at the receivin...
The Red Scare
In the 1950s, Senator Joseph McCarthy was the public face of a period in which Cold War tensions fuelled fears in the United States of widespread Comm...
Charlemagne
Charlemagne was one of history’s most ruthless and ambitious warriors – King of the Franks, then King of the Lombards, conqueror of the Saxons, leadin...
The Rise of the Monasteries
In the Middle Ages, Christian monasteries played an integral role in the generation and spread of knowledge. Scholarship flourished behind monastery w...
The Troubles in Northern Ireland
On 10 April 1998 – Good Friday – the UK’s Prime Minister Tony Blair and the Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, signed an agreement that signalled the end o...
The Genius of Shakespeare
Arguably the world’s greatest ever dramatist, after five and a half centuries William Shakespeare remains as popular as ever. But how did he became so...
America's Entry into the World Wars
When World War I broke out in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the United States would remain neutral. The U.S.A. only officially entered the...
The Spread of Christianity
In the first century after his crucifixion, the teachings of Jesus quickly spread throughout the Greco-Roman world and his early followers often faced...
The Wall Street Crash
When share prices on the New York Stock Exchange collapsed, it was the most devastating stock market crash in the history of the United States, signal...
The Birth of Scotland
The recorded story of Scotland begins with the arrival of the Romans in the 1st century, when the province of Britannia reached as far north as the An...
The Vietnam War
By 1964 America was deeply embroiled in a conflict in Vietnam that would, over the next decade, claim millions of lives including almost 60,000 US ser...
William the Conqueror
On 14 October 1066, Norman invaders led by Duke William of Normandy won a decisive victory over the Anglo-Saxon King Harold Godwinson. But why did Wil...
Rome and the Mediterranean
By the first century BC, the nuisance of piracy had become a plague in the Mediterranean. The Romans dispatched Pompey who freed the way for the expan...
Operation Barbarossa
In June 1941, Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa, opening up the Eastern Front in World War II – a campaign to which more forces were committed than...
The Renaissance
Spreading throughout the length and breadth of Europe, the Renaissance made an enduring impact on art and architecture, science, politics and law. How...
The Battle of Waterloo
The Battle of Waterloo brought a generation of terrible warfare to a close, decisively ending the career of Napoleon Bonaparte. How did the Duke of We...
Pearl Harbor
On Sunday 7 December 1941, Japanese aircraft attacked the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. The US Pacific Fleet was devastated and...
Attila the Hun
Known as the Scourge of God, Attila the Hun was one of the greatest Barbarian rulers in history. Renowned for his brutality, sacking and pillaging the...