No state in America captures the imagination quite like California. With its glitz and glamour and also its enormous economic disparities the state is a symbol of both the American dream and nightmare. Dominic Sandbrook and Tom Holland explore California’s origins as well as its modern day politics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Who was Muhammad, where did he come from and what was the historical context for his life? Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook discuss one of the most influential religious, social, and political leaders in history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Competition for top deity hots up as we look back on the knock out stages of the Rest is History World Cup of Gods. Dominic Sandbrook and Tom Holland discuss the last eight contestants and analyse the final outcome. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
In one of the most anticipated contests of the year, sixteen gods battled for the crown of ultimate deity. Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook offer analysis and insight on the group stages of the competition. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
It may just be the most popular city on earth. Throughout history Paris has maintained a grip on the public imagination, thanks to its culture, architecture and its people. French journalist and historian Agnès Poirier joins Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook to discuss La Ville Lumièr. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
He remains one of the great characters in all history. But was he depraved, corrupt and evil? Or an artist much maligned by elitist historians? Dominic Sandbrook and Tom Holland discuss Nero. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
It promises to be the biggest event of the summer - The Rest is History World Cup of Gods. Sixteen competitors, but there can be only one winner. Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook preview all the runners and riders. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Did Oliver Cromwell save Britain from tyranny or was he a killjoy and military dictator? Paul Lay, author of Providence Lost: the Rise and Fall of Cromwell's Protectorate joins Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook to discuss the short-lived British Republic. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
What, if anything, can we learn about medieval history from Game of Thrones? Or is George R R Martin’s hugely popular series of books, and the blockbuster TV series based on them, in danger of supplanting true history in the popular imagination? Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook, both huge fans of the series, discuss books, films and history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook talk to award-winning writer Camilla Townsend, author of the revelatory Fifth Sun. Professor Townsend used Nahuatl language sources to write an engaging history offering a new interpretation of events in Mexico centuries ago. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
“They’re wasting their money and having sex with each other.” Dominic Sandbrook and Tom Holland explore the modern phenomenon of the teenager. Why do teenagers scare older generations and will Tom cope with his daughter’s veganism? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook tuck into the history of British food with author Pen Vogler. They debate the origins of curry and debate our obsession with beef. Plus, they discuss a curious historical obsession with cooking pigs and chickens, stitched together. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
With France facing economic struggles and rising unemployment revolution was in the air. But who was in charge of the uprising and what did it achieve? Dominic Sandbrook and Tom Holland storm their own podcasting Bastille. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook are joined by historian and broadcaster Dan Snow to discuss the biggest event of the 18th century - The Seven Years' War. @dcsandbrook Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The battle lines are drawn as Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook get involved in this most timely of subjects. They discuss the historical significance of culture wars from Ancient Rome to the US Civil Rights movement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook cross their legs and rank the best Eunuchs in history. From religious fanatics to operatic singers, they discuss the grisly glory these young men ‘enjoyed’. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
It is perhaps the best known year in English history. But why has it endured in the national consciousness? Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook talk the Battle of Hastings, the end of the Anglo-Saxons and wonder if King Harold really was killed by an arrow in the eye. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
It is arguably the most important year in modern history. With the British Expeditionary Force trapped at Dunkirk, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain replaced by the maverick Winston Churchill and France collapsing under the force of invasion, the world watched and waited to see which way the axis of power would tilt. James Holland, leading historian of the period, joins his brother Tom and Dominic Sandbrook to discuss the events of 1940. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.co...
Podcasting’s answer to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - that’s Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook of course - explore the Wild West in both fact and fiction. Does the romantic representation in both fiction and film bear any resemblance to the historical truth? And why are we still so intrigued by the myth of the American western frontier? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
It is one of the truly great civilisations in world history and yet the story of Persia has faded from view in the west. Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook are joined by Professor Ali Ansari to discuss Persia's extraordinary influence on the modern world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
From re-enactment to reinforcing capitalism through the board game Monopoly. Dominic Sandbrook and Tom Holland examine the history of games and the portrayal of history in games. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
She famously claimed to have the heart and stomach of a king and remains one of Britain’s most talked about monarchs, despite having reigned more than 400 years ago. Tracy Borman, author of the acclaimed Elizabeth’s Women, joins Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook to discuss Elizabeth I. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
It was one of the great political ideologies of the 20th century, vying with capitalism for supremacy. Now communism has retreated from the political mainstream having failed to create the utopia of a classless society. Dominic Sandbrook and Tom Holland discuss the origins of communism as a theory and the frequently repressive attempts to govern by its principles. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
History is littered with stories of espionage and its capacity to change the course of events. But does spying truly matter and has the human operative finally been replaced by the computer? Ben MacIntyre, author of books including Agent Zigzag and The Spy and the Traitor, joins Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook to discuss the history of spying. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
In our last episode we debated the merits of British Prime Ministers through the centuries. But who was voted the best of all by the public and why? Dominic Sandbrook and Tom Holland discuss the men who made it through to the final stages of our Prime Ministers’ World Cup and analyse the public voting patterns which led to the final outcome. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Who is the greatest British Prime Minister of them all? The bookmakers have Winston Churchill favourite to lift the crown, but William Gladstone and Maggie Thatcher won’t give up the fight without a struggle. And who’s this coming up quietly on the left-hand rail? Why, it’s Clement Attlee, who looks a real threat to the horses on his right. Dominic Sandbrook and Tom Holland debate the runners and riders in our inaugural Rest is History World Cup. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastch...
March 20th marks the annual Feast day of the Northumbrian Saint Cuthbert. But why should we care about this largely forgotten figure from the 7th century? Tom Holland persuades Dominic Sandbrook that the story of Cuthbert, whose body lay perfectly preserved long after his death, is well worth re-examining. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
It has been described as the most universal cultural mode there has ever been, but is football a worthwhile object of study for historians? Sports journalist and author Jonathan Wilson joins Dominic Sandbrook and Tom Holland to look at the history of the game and how it became Britain’s most successful export. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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? Dominic Sandbrook and Tom Holland discuss what might have been. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
It emerged from the Prussian victory over France in 1870 and was destroyed by the First World War less than fifty years later. German historian Katja Hoyer joins Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook to discuss the short but explosive life of the German Second Reich. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
