USA: Isolationism

How did technological and industrial development revolutionise World War One? The tank, gas, flame throwers, Zeppelins were like nothing that had been experienced before. 

A century ago a shot rang out in Sarajevo which set the world on a path to war. How did the peace made after WW1 influence the ethnic conflicts in the region during the 1990s? 

How did World War One change the face of the Middle East? And, how did this seismic and controversial period shape the century to follow? 

Was the USA already a superpower when it joined the Second World War? How did it turn from an isolationist nation to a force ready for action?  Today Don is joined by Craig Nelson to find out how President Franklin D. Roosevelt manoeuvred the country from the isolationism of the ... Show More

En avril 1917, les Etats-Unis s'engagent dans la Première Guerre mondiale. Dans le dernier épisode de notre série spéciale "Au cœur de l'Histoire" consacrée au passé américain, Jean des Cars vous raconte pourquoi et comment, après deux ans de débats et d’hésitations, les USA, qui ... Show More

Most Americans are indifferent about the nation's involvement in World War One (under half say the U.S. had a responsibility to fight in the war; one-in-five say it didn't). Many figure it entered the conflict too late to claim much credit, or intervention was discreditable. Some ... Show More

The Cold War, Prohibition, the Gold Rush, the Space Race. Every part of your life - the words you speak, the ideas you share - can be traced to our history, but how well do you really know the stories that made America? We'll take you to the events, the times and the people that ... Show More

On September 1 1939 Nazi Germany invaded Poland followed two days later by France and the United Kingdom declaring war on Germany and beginning the Second World War. This was the opening act in what would be the most devastating clash in human history. By its end Europe and much ... Show More

The cherished idea of United States as a unified country has been long believed. But today’s guest Colin Woodard argues that this is an invented tradition. He has argued for the existence of 11 separate stateless nations within the United States, where rival cultures explain the ... Show More

In June 1914, a gunman assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir apparent to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This event set off a chain reaction that plunged Europe’s major powers, and the wider world, into all-out war. President Woodrow Wilson was determined to keep the Unite ... Show More

November 11, 1918. At exactly 11 AM local time, the shooting stops. It’s eerily quiet for the first time in a long time. World War I has finally come to an end today after Germany and the Allied nations signed an armistice not long before. The final battle of the war, known today ... Show More