History Cafe
350 episodes - English - Latest episode: 12 days ago - ★★★★★ - 14 ratingsTrue history storytelling at the History Café. Join BBC Historian Jon Rosebank & HBO, BBC & C4 script and series editor Penelope Middelboe as we give history a new take. Drop in to the History Café weekly on Wednesdays to give old stories a refreshing new brew. 90+ ever-green stand-alone episodes and building...
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Episodes
Taster: #15 ‘The Fourteenth Day’ - Ep 6 How Kennedy loses the Cuba Missile Crisis
February 16, 2021 18:02 - 4 minutes - 4.31 MB#15 28 October 1962: by holding his nerve Kennedy defuses the crisis in just 13 days. He says it’s over although he’s unable to verify whether Khrushchev ever withdraws his missiles or not. The last missiles do indeed leave Cuba on day 48 of the crisis but for very different reasons.
Taster: ‘The Fourteenth Day’ - Ep 6 How Kennedy loses the Cuba Missile Crisis
February 16, 2021 18:02 - 4 minutes - 4.31 MB28 October 1962: by holding his nerve Kennedy defuses the crisis in just 13 days. He says it’s over although he’s unable to verify whether Khrushchev ever withdraws his missiles or not. The last missiles do indeed leave Cuba on day 48 of the crisis but for very different reasons.
Taster: Newton and the Occult
February 15, 2021 19:35 - 4 minutes - 3.99 MBTaster for Ep 2 Newton and the Occult in the series Was Newton the last of the Magicians? Having thought about all the arguments that what Sir Isaac Newton was up to now looks like good, if early science, we now consider the other side of the coin. The last of magicians? Maybe.
Taster: #39 Newton and the Occult
February 15, 2021 19:35 - 4 minutes - 3.99 MBTaster for #39 Ep 2 Newton and the Occult in the series Was Newton the last of the Magicians? Having thought about all the arguments that what Sir Isaac Newton was up to now looks like good, if early science, we now consider the other side of the coin. The last of magicians? Maybe.
Taster: Newton the alchemist
February 05, 2021 11:36 - 3 minutes - 3.42 MBThe short answer to the question, ‘was Newton the last of the magicians?’ is, yes …. And also … no. Newton and alchemy turn out to be ‘a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.’ We toss a coin and take a heads-and-tails approach. In this podcast we argue that the alchemical experiments he undertook had nothing to do with magic. And in the next we'll argue they were. You can draw your own conclusions.
Taster: #38 Newton the alchemist
February 05, 2021 11:36 - 3 minutes - 3.42 MB#38 The short answer to the question, ‘was Newton the last of the magicians?’ is, yes …. And also … no. Newton and alchemy turn out to be ‘a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.’ We toss a coin and take a heads-and-tails approach. In this podcast we argue that the alchemical experiments he undertook had nothing to do with magic. And in the next we'll argue they were. You can draw your own conclusions.
Taster: #37 Hunger strikes and force feeding - Ep 4 The Secret History of the Suffragettes
February 01, 2021 10:07 - 4 minutes - 4.54 MB#37 The militant strategy of the WSPU – the Pankhurst Suffragettes - is delivering them headlines. It gets them nowhere with the government but it makes enormous sums of advertising revenue from fancy retailers, and funds Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst’s society lifestyle. Rich London ladies in silks and satins pour in the money, while working-class activists take all the risks
Taster: Hunger strikes and force feeding - Ep 4 The Secret History of the Suffragettes
February 01, 2021 10:07 - 4 minutes - 4.54 MBThe militant strategy of the WSPU – the Pankhurst Suffragettes - is delivering them headlines. It gets them nowhere with the government but it makes enormous sums of advertising revenue from fancy retailers, and funds Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst’s society lifestyle. Rich London ladies in silks and satins pour in the money, while working-class activists take all the risks
Taster: #14 'Eyeball to Eyeball' - Ep 5 How Kennedy loses the Cuba Missile Crisis
January 30, 2021 12:48 - 5 minutes - 5.32 MB#14 22 October 1962: President Kennedy goes on prime-time TV and announces a blockade around Cuba to prevent more Soviet missiles reaching the island. But US sailors call the so-called ‘quarantine’ nothing but ‘grand theatrics.’ Not a single Soviet ship is stopped by the US Navy. What was going on?
Taster: 'Eyeball to Eyeball' - Ep 5 How Kennedy loses the Cuba Missile Crisis
January 30, 2021 12:48 - 5 minutes - 5.32 MB22 October 1962: President Kennedy goes on prime-time TV and announces a blockade around Cuba to prevent more Soviet missiles reaching the island. But US sailors call the so-called ‘quarantine’ nothing but ‘grand theatrics.’ Not a single Soviet ship is stopped by the US Navy. What was going on?
#36 The Pankhursts didn't want the poor to get the vote - Ep 3 Secret History of the Suffragettes
January 27, 2021 08:13 - 30 minutes - 28.1 MBThe WSPU – the Pankhurst Suffragettes - begin in the Manchester Labour Party in the 1890s and learn their publicity-grabbing tactics from Labour. But these tactics turn out to have the worst possible effect – making women’s votes even less likely than before. They are so bad, in fact, it makes you wonder whether the Suffragette leadership had some other agenda. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
#36 Some other agenda? - Ep 3 The Secret History of the Suffragettes
January 27, 2021 08:13 - 30 minutes - 28.1 MBThe WSPU – the Pankhurst Suffragettes - begin in the Manchester Labour Party in the 1890s and learn their publicity-grabbing tactics from Labour. But these tactics turn out to have the worst possible effect – making women’s votes even less likely than before. They are so bad, in fact, it makes you wonder whether the Suffragette leadership had some other agenda.
Taster: #36 Some other agenda? - Ep 3 The Secret History of the Suffragettes
January 26, 2021 13:00 - 5 minutes - 5.37 MB#36 The tactics adopted by the Women's Social and Political Union - the Pankhurst Suffragettes - turned out to be so disastrous for the movement for women's votes that we felt we had to explore whether they could have had another agenda?
Taster: Some other agenda? - Ep 3 The Secret History of the Suffragettes
January 26, 2021 13:00 - 5 minutes - 5.37 MBThe tactics adopted by the Women's Social and Political Union - the Pankhurst Suffragettes - turned out to be so disastrous for the movement for women's votes that we felt we had to explore whether they could have had another agenda?
#35 Most women didn't want the vote - Ep 2 The Secret History of the Suffragettes
January 20, 2021 08:14 - 27 minutes - 25 MBWe go back to the great number of unsung women and men who made great strides towards women’s votes and female emancipation by 1900. Emmeline Pankhurst sets up her Women’s Social and Political Union in 1903 as a pressure group for votes for poor working-women in the cotton mills. By then a majority of MPs is already consistently in favour. But the public are uninterested and no government will therefore act. The question is whether the WSPU can find a formula for making ministers give votes t...
#35 Why were the Suffragettes founded? - Ep 2 The Secret History of the Suffragettes
January 20, 2021 08:14 - 27 minutes - 25 MBWe go back to the great number of unsung women and men who made great strides towards women’s votes and female emancipation by 1900. Emmeline Pankhurst sets up her Women’s Social and Political Union in 1903 as a pressure group for votes for poor working-women in the cotton mills. By then a majority of MPs is already consistently in favour. But the public are uninterested and no government will therefore act. The question is whether the WSPU can find a formula for making ministers give votes t...
Taster: Why were the Suffragettes founded? - Ep 2 The Secret History of the Suffragettes
January 19, 2021 17:53 - 5 minutes - 5.06 MBWe go back to the great number of unsung women and men who made great strides towards women’s votes and female emancipation by 1900, three years before Emmeline Pankhurst and others founded the Women's Social and Political Union in 1903.
Taster: #35 Why were the Suffragettes founded? - Ep 2 The Secret History of the Suffragettes
January 19, 2021 17:53 - 5 minutes - 5.06 MB#35 We go back to the great number of unsung women and men who made great strides towards women’s votes and female emancipation by 1900, three years before Emmeline Pankhurst and others founded the Women's Social and Political Union in 1903.
#34 Getting the vote in 1918 - the secret strategy - Ep 1 The Secret History of the Suffragettes
January 13, 2021 07:33 - 35 minutes - 32.4 MBMrs Pankhurst claims she won women the vote through ‘marvellous leadership.’ An all-male conference of MPs counters that it gifted women the vote. We reveal that neither is true. The door to women’s suffrage is finally opened in January 1917 through brilliant negotiations behind the scenes by Millicent Fawcett, the president of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage, her female colleagues and the enlightened MPs who work with her. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Taster: #13 ‘Russian roulette’ - Ep 4 How Kennedy loses the Cuba Missile Crisis
January 11, 2021 08:21 - 5 minutes - 5.14 MB#13 15 October 1962: Soviet nuclear missile sites are discovered. It’s only three weeks before the mid-term elections. Kennedy decides that to negotiate publicly with Khrushchev would be a disaster at the polls; as would ignoring them which is what his allies advise him to do. So, as Noam Chomsky puts it, the President chooses ‘to play Russian Roulette with nuclear missiles.’
Taster: ‘Russian roulette’ - Ep 4 How Kennedy loses the Cuba Missile Crisis
January 11, 2021 08:21 - 5 minutes - 5.14 MB15 October 1962: Soviet nuclear missile sites are discovered. It’s only three weeks before the mid-term elections. Kennedy decides that to negotiate publicly with Khrushchev would be a disaster at the polls; as would ignoring them which is what his allies advise him to do. So, as Noam Chomsky puts it, the President chooses ‘to play Russian Roulette with nuclear missiles.’
#33 Sex, Hollywood and Fashion
January 06, 2021 08:24 - 33 minutes - 30.8 MBWhy did fashion become so much more conservative in the 1930s? We look at the puritanical Hays Motion Picture Production Code that banned indecent passions, and at MGM’s Adrian Greenberg, the most powerful Hollywood designer of his day. The arrival of colour film stock and the invention of the close-up meant Adrian designed for the camera, experimenting with hats and calf-length dresses that flattered both the lead actresses and ‘Nancy’ in the plush seat. MGM’s Louis B Mayer, who’d started ou...
#33 Gowns by Adrian
January 06, 2021 08:24 - 33 minutes - 30.8 MBWhy did fashion become so much more conservative in the 1930s? We look at the puritanical Hays Motion Picture Production Code that banned indecent passions, and at MGM’s Adrian Greenberg, the most powerful Hollywood designer of his day. The arrival of colour film stock and the invention of the close-up meant Adrian designed for the camera, experimenting with hats and calf-length dresses that flattered both the lead actresses and ‘Nancy’ in the plush seat. MGM’s Louis B Mayer, who’d started ou...
Taster: 1918 - the secret strategy. Ep 1 The Secret History of the Suffragettes
January 05, 2021 08:21 - 4 minutes - 3.68 MBMrs Pankhurst claims she won women the vote through ‘marvellous leadership.’ An all-male conference of MPs counters that it gifted women the vote. We reveal that neither is true. (If you look at our logo we're using the constitutional suffragists' colours of berry red and leaf green not Emmeline Pankhurst's purple, green and white)
Taster: #34 '1918 - the secret strategy' - Ep 1 The Secret History of the Suffragettes
January 05, 2021 08:21 - 4 minutes - 3.68 MB#34 Mrs Pankhurst claims she won women the vote through ‘marvellous leadership.’ An all-male conference of MPs counters that it gifted women the vote. We reveal that neither is true. (If you look at our logo we're using the constitutional suffragists' colours of berry red and leaf green not Emmeline Pankhurst's purple, green and white)
Taster: #33 Gowns By Adrian
January 02, 2021 11:28 - 6 minutes - 5.98 MB#33 Why did fashion become so much more conservative in the 1930s? We look at the puritanical Hays Motion Picture Production Code that banned indecent passions, and at MGM’s Adrian Greenberg, the most powerful Hollywood designer of his day.
Taster: Gowns By Adrian
January 02, 2021 11:28 - 6 minutes - 5.98 MBWhy did fashion become so much more conservative in the 1930s? We look at the puritanical Hays Motion Picture Production Code that banned indecent passions, and at MGM’s Adrian Greenberg, the most powerful Hollywood designer of his day.
Taster: #12 'The only way to save Cuba' Ep 3 - How Kennedy loses the Cuba Missile Crisis
December 27, 2020 12:55 - 3 minutes - 3.55 MB#12 Short taster for the longer length episode 3. All episodes stand alone. The Cuban Missile Crisis begins not because Castro is a dangerous communist but because he is NOT. Khrushchev tells his ruling council: ‘The only way to save Cuba is to put missiles there’ - not only to prevent an American invasion, but also to keep Fidel Castro sweet.
Taster: 'The only way to save Cuba' Ep 3 - How Kennedy loses the Cuba Missile Crisis
December 27, 2020 12:55 - 3 minutes - 3.55 MBShort taster for the longer length episode 3. All episodes stand alone. The Cuban Missile Crisis begins not because Castro is a dangerous communist but because he is NOT. Khrushchev tells his ruling council: ‘The only way to save Cuba is to put missiles there’ - not only to prevent an American invasion, but also to keep Fidel Castro sweet.
Taster: #32 The curious case of inventing Scottishness
December 23, 2020 15:01 - 3 minutes - 2.86 MB#32 In 1983 Professor Hugh Trevor Roper claimed that Scottishness had been invented. We enjoyably demolish Trevor Roper’s theory and reveal that the commercialisation of romantic Scottishness in the nineteenth century had far deeper and darker roots than the manufacture of tartan and romantic fiction. Comedy and serious history combine for a Hogmanay special
Taster: The curious case of inventing Scottishness
December 23, 2020 15:01 - 3 minutes - 2.86 MBIn 1983 Professor Hugh Trevor Roper claimed that Scottishness had been invented. We enjoyably demolish Trevor Roper’s theory and reveal that the commercialisation of romantic Scottishness in the nineteenth century had far deeper and darker roots than the manufacture of tartan and romantic fiction. Comedy and serious history combine for a Hogmanay special
Taster: #11 Fidel Castro is not a Communist
December 15, 2020 12:50 - 3 minutes - 3.42 MB#11 Ep 2 How Kennedy loses the Cuba Missile Crisis 1959: The first country the new revolutionary president of Cuba visits is the United States of America. And he’s a big hit. The students at Princeton carry him on their shoulders. Castro wants a trade deal with the American government. So why does Kennedy fight the presidential election of 1960 on getting tougher than the Republicans with Cuba?
Taster: Fidel Castro is not a Communist
December 15, 2020 12:50 - 3 minutes - 3.42 MBEp 2 How Kennedy loses the Cuba Missile Crisis 1959: The first country the new revolutionary president of Cuba visits is the United States of America. And he’s a big hit. The students at Princeton carry him on their shoulders. Castro wants a trade deal with the American government. So why does Kennedy fight the presidential election of 1960 on getting tougher than the Republicans with Cuba?
Taster: How Kennedy loses the Cuba Missile Crisis
December 06, 2020 14:35 - 5 minutes - 4.87 MBAlthough the Electoral College voted for Biden on 14 December 2020, President Trump is still saying the election was stolen from him. It's worth reminding yourself that presidents will say almost anything if an election is involved. The Cuba Missile Crisis exploded just weeks before Kennedy's important mid-term elections. If he looked weak and lost any more seats in congress he would be a lame-duck president for the rest of his term. We have the memo to President Kennedy dated Day 2 of the ...
Taster: #10 'No significant difference' - Ep 1 How Kennedy loses the Cuba Missile Crisis
December 06, 2020 14:35 - 5 minutes - 4.87 MBAlthough the Electoral College voted for Biden on 14 December 2020, President Trump is still saying the election was stolen from him. It's worth reminding yourself that presidents will say almost anything if an election is involved. The Cuba Missile Crisis exploded just weeks before Kennedy's important mid-term elections. If he looked weak and lost any more seats in congress he would be a lame-duck president for the rest of his term. We have the memo to President Kennedy dated Day 2 of the ...
Taster: 'No significant difference' - #11 Ep 1 How Kennedy loses the Cuba Missile Crisis
December 06, 2020 14:35 - 5 minutes - 4.87 MB#11 Although the Electoral College voted for Biden on 14 December 2020, President Trump is still saying the election was stolen from him. It's worth reminding yourself that presidents will say almost anything if an election is involved. The Cuba Missile Crisis exploded just weeks before Kennedy's important mid-term elections. If he looked weak and lost any more seats in congress he would be a lame-duck president for the rest of his term. We have the memo to President Kennedy dated Day 2 of ...
Café Bite: War Remembrance - Aren't We Forgetting Something?
November 08, 2020 21:58 - 20 minutes - 19 MBAt least 50% of deaths from war in the last three centuries were civilians. In 2001 the International Red Cross calculated that in modern warfare ten civilians die for every member of the military killed in battle. In the two World Wars the vast majority of soldiers were "civilians in uniform" - conscripts or volunteers. And yet, in Britain, Remembrance ceremonies, led by the military, seem to be mainly about the military. We examine the British Army's lack of care of its civilian soldiers in...
Café Bite: What was great about the Great Reform Act of 1832?
October 27, 2020 10:31 - 2 minutes - 2.39 MBWas Britain any more democratic after 1832? Is it any more democratic now? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Cafe Bite: What was great about the Great Reform Act of 1832?
October 27, 2020 10:31 - 2 minutes - 2.39 MBWas Britain any more democratic after 1832? Is it any more democratic now?
Café Bite : Why the US lost the Vietnam war
October 27, 2020 10:26 - 2 minutes - 2.39 MBIn May 1967 US Defence Secretary Robert McNamara reported that the war was un-winnable because of the strategy of the North Vietnamese army and not because of the Vietcong in the South. That was two years after they got involved and before the serious escalation of the war which dragged on for another 6 years before the US withdrew. What was going on? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Cafe Bite : Why the US lost the Vietnam war
October 27, 2020 10:26 - 2 minutes - 2.39 MBIn May 1967 US Defence Secretary Robert McNamara reported that the war was un-winnable because of the strategy of the North Vietnamese army and not because of the Vietcong in the South. That was two years after they got involved and before the serious escalation of the war which dragged on for another 6 years before the US withdrew. What was going on?
#23 A short naval war? or the last million men - Ep7 WW1: how much was it Britain’s fault?
October 27, 2020 10:19 - 36 minutes - 33.5 MBOne day after Britain goes to war - ‘at sea’ - on 4 August 1914 the first War Council unceremoniously throws out the army’s secret plan to send a few divisions to meet the Germans head on and win quick, painless glory fighting alongside the French. Only then do the four men who had single-handedly thrown away the chance of avoiding a general European war, understand what Britain’s most prestigious soldier, Kitchener, has been warning since 1911. That a war with Germany would last at least 3 y...
#23 A short naval war? - Ep7 WW1: how much was it Britain’s fault?
October 27, 2020 10:19 - 36 minutes - 33.5 MBOne day after Britain goes to war - ‘at sea’ - on 4 August 1914 the first War Council unceremoniously throws out the army’s secret plan to send a few divisions to meet the Germans head on and win quick, painless glory fighting alongside the French. Only then do the four men who had single-handedly thrown away the chance of avoiding a general European war, understand what Britain’s most prestigious soldier, Kitchener, has been warning since 1911. That a war with Germany would last at least 3 y...
Cafe Bite: the great Empire State Building mystery
October 22, 2020 09:21 - 4 minutes - 3.76 MBWall Street Crash, pump and dump dodgy finance, US politics...
Café Bite: the great Empire State Building mystery
October 22, 2020 09:21 - 4 minutes - 3.76 MBWall Street Crash, pump and dump dodgy finance, US politics...
Cafe Bite: The last Maharajah
October 22, 2020 09:20 - 3 minutes - 2.8 MBWhat do James Bond, Lara Croft and Nicole Kidman have to do with Queen Victoria's Maharajah godson?
Café Bite: The last Maharajah
October 22, 2020 09:20 - 3 minutes - 2.8 MBWhat do James Bond, Lara Croft and Nicole Kidman have to do with Queen Victoria's Maharajah godson?
21 8pm 1 August 1914 war in Belgium and France is off - Ep 5 WW1: how much was it Britain’s fault?
October 13, 2020 13:02 - 33 minutes - 30.9 MB8pm German time the Kaiser orders champagne, halts the German advance towards Belgium, and sends a telegram of congratulations to his cousin George V at Buckingham Palace. The Liberal British Cabinet had voted to remain neutral on 31 July. Earlier on 1 August Foreign Secretary Grey met the German ambassador Prince Lichnowsky (one of a string of meetings that week) to tell him that France might also remain neutral. A few hours later they met again and Grey added that even if France went to war...
Café Bite Indigenous People's Day
October 12, 2020 16:49 - 2 minutes - 2.51 MBThe second Monday in October is traditionally Columbus Day. This is now called by most Indigenous People's Day. And here's why...
Cafe Bite Indigenous People's Day
October 12, 2020 16:49 - 2 minutes - 2.51 MBThe second Monday in October is traditionally Columbus Day. This is now called by most Indigenous People's Day. And here's why...