“If you do not want to see God’s hand in...

Merton College's Tutor in History, an historian of 20th century Britain, argues that English Christianity survived the First World War rather better than is often assumed. 

The Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology, Canon of Christ Church, and author of In Defence of War (2013) analyses Britain's belligerency in terms of Christian just war reasoning, and concludes that it was justified. 

The Professor of War Studies at Wolverhampton University, a leading British military historian of the First World War, explodes some myths about British generalship and the performance of the British Army. 

The Spectre of War: International Communism and the Origins of World War II (Princeton UP, 2021), looks at a subject we thought we knew—the roots of the Second World War—and upends our assumptions with a new interpretation. Professor Jonathan Haslam, in the words of historian, Ge ... Show More

World War II endures in the popular imagination as a heroic struggle between good and evil, with villainous Hitler driving its events. But Hitler was not in power when the conflict erupted in Asia—and he was certainly dead before it ended. His armies did not fight in multiple the ... Show More

From BBC Radio 4 Responsibility for the Great War has been a fierce battle for meaning ever since 1914. Michael Portillo examines how the history of the origins of the Great War and the issue of war guilt has, since 1914, frequently been a fierce battle for meaning with high stak ... Show More

As some of you may know, I am also a First World War historian, and the academic history of the war can be very different from the public perspective, which dwells on the first two years of the war.  Forgetting the victories of 1917 and 1918 is not new; it is something the Britis ... Show More

Michael Portillo reveals how our understanding of the war has been distorted through a century of intellectualising, interpretation and misinterpretation. In this first episode Michael Portillo examines how the German invasion of neutral Belgium in August 1914 transformed Britain ... Show More

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the history and philosophy of warfare. The British historian Edward Gibbon wrote: “Every age, however destitute of science or virtue, sufficiently abounds with acts of blood and military renown.” War, it seems, is one of mankind’s most constant com ... Show More

The 11th of November marks Remembrance Day, a memorial day honoured since the end of the First World War. Hostilities ended on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918 after four years of global conflict. As we use this day to look back at those lost, it's importan ... Show More

The First World War marked the end point of a process of German globalization that began in the 1870s, well before Germany acquired a colonial empire or extensive overseas commercial interests. Structured around the figures of five influential economists who shaped the German pol ... Show More