Explaining History Nick Shepley

In this week's episode we hear from writer Toby Manning whose new book, Mixing Pop and Politics explores a Marxist history of popular music and examines the economic and social forces that make the phenomenon that is popular music and culture. In a wide ranging conversation that explores everything from Beyonce's country album, John Lennon's Working Class Hero, the intersection with queer culture and representation, Queen's commercial suicide in USA following the video for I want to break free, and the corporate pressure on the Beatles and Guns N' Roses, we explore popular music as a site of resistance.
You can order a copy of the book directly from Repeater Books here
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Peter Hain was, along with his family, forced to flee South Africa in the late 1960s, at the height of the Apartheid regime's war against its opponents. From exile in London Peter was a pivotal member of the anti Apartheid movement in the 60s, 70s and 80s. In this interview before the publication of his third novel, the Lion Conspiracy, we talk about conservation and the international corruption that fuels poaching across Africa, and the valiant attempts by African rangers to preserve wildlife. We also explore the state of South Africa three decades after the transition to a multiracial democracy and the reasons for a decline in the popularity of the ANC following the corruption of former prime minister Jacob Zuma. A former member of Tony Blair's government and now a member of the House of Lords, Peter has fascinating insights on the nature of the struggle against apartheid and the reasons for the fall of the Pretoria regime.
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Open up your Twitter feed or Facebook page and you're one or two clicks away from a nostalgia meme, they grow like historically illiterate fungi, but nostalgia itself is a more complex and even sometimes problematic phenomenon. In this episode of the Explaining History podcast we hear from Dr Agnes Arnold-Forster, the author of a new history of Nostalgia itself. We explore the first recorded instances of nostalgia in the 17th Century through to its current usage and weaponisation in culture wars. Our shared longings for less complex or worrying times and our fears and misunderstandings about the nature of the past are part of this complex and fluid socially shared emotional and cultural phenomenon.
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In today's podcast we're joined by Damian Collins MP, whose new book - Rivals in the Storm -, charts the political career of David Lloyd George, the man credited popularly with winning the First World War. In this episode we explore the radical liberal Chancellor and later Prime Minister whose ability to focus on the key challenges of the war saw him eclipse Herbert Asquith in 1916. We examine his complex relationships with both the Liberal and Conservative Parties and his political downfall in 1923.
You can hear Damian speak at the Hay Festival on May 28th, tickets are available here.
You can grab your copy of Rivals in the Storm Here
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In this wide ranging interview with Ewan Gibbs, lecturer in social and economic history at the University of Glasgow, we explore the themes in his forthcoming book, The Unmaking of the British Working Class, in which Ewan explores the changes in post war class consciousness, identity and culture. We discuss key transitional moments from post war affluence in the 1950s and 1960s, the assault on organised labour in the 1970s and the social transformations brought about by Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s, all the way to Brexit and the current moment.
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A family history project into the war record of Jim Carter's great grandfather became an exploration of the history of the Royal Navy in peacetime and war.
In July 1918 Herbert Leeder joined the Royal Navy, beginning a naval career which spanned 2 World Wars and 16 ships. 100 years later, his great grandson, Jim Carter was researching the lives of the men listed on his Berkshire village’s war memorial when his mother gave him Herbert’s S459 Record of Service and Carter, with a passion for military history, began to research Herbert’s life.
In today's podcast we discuss the early phases of the war, Britain's battle for the Mediterranean, the failed defence of Greece and Crete and the steep learning curve the Royal Navy undertook to win a war at sea.

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