World War II: Part 1 - World War I

The Haitian Revolution was the most radical and unlikely uprising in the modern world. In this episode, Dr. Roy Casagranda traces the rise of Toussaint Louverture and the extraordinary transformation of Saint-Domingue from the richest slave colony on earth to a revolutionary forc ...  Show more

Most histories of the Islamic Golden Age focus on its discoveries. But in this episode, Dr. Roy goes further back, tracing the long arc of Western civilization from ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia to Greece, Rome, Persia, and the rise of Islam. He reveals how one Persian emperor’s ...  Show more

By the end of July 1914, the world hovered on the edge of a cataclysmic world war; Austria was at war with Serbia, Russia with Germany, and an ultimatum had been handed to Belgium. The July crisis had resolved itself in the most calamitous way possible. But how did this state of ...  Show more

The summer of 1939, near the Mongolian village of Nomonhan, would see the largest clash between the Soviet Union and Japan of the interwar years, and it would have important ramifications for relations between the two nations as the world was rapidly descending into war. Sources: ...  Show more

During the interwar period there were some areas in which British politics would change, but in many ways it would be more of the same. Sources: Air Power and Colonial Control: The Royal Air Force 1919-1939 by David E. Omissi Anglo-American Strategic Relations and the Far East ...  Show more

When you think of the First World War, what springs to mind? Is it trench warfare? The myth that troops would be home by Christmas? Or perhaps the idea that the whole thing began because of the assassination of an Austro-Hungarian archduke? In this episode, we’re going beyond the ...  Show more