The Causes of World War 2

Thomas Jefferson’s 1802 letter to the Danbury Baptists famously described the First Amendment as building a "wall of separation between church and State." This line has been the gold standard for those who point to the secular origins of America and the threat of funding any sort ... Show More

There’s an argument to be made that every technology advance in communication – from cave paintings to fake AI movie trailers – is at its root an attempt to tell stories. Our first night-fires created the earliest audiences for spoken stories. In time, the development of rhyme, s ... Show More

During the Holocaust, Josef Mengele discarded every medical ethic to perform horrific human experiments at Auschwitz, including non-consensual vivisections, limb transplants, and agonizing surgeries conducted without anesthesia. Japan had its own program that is less known but eq ... 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

World War II was unquestionably the greatest bloodletting in world history. Never before had so many people lost their lives in such a short period of time. Of all of the many tragedies during the war, one of the largest actually took place after the war. It was the largest singl ... 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

<p>11th November 1918 saw the end of a four year war that had killed an estimated 20 million soldiers and civilians around the world. We hear eyewitness accounts of the conflict which was fought by many nations, on many continents. The historian, Professor Annika Mombauer joins M ... Show More

<p>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 Un ... Show More

Historian Heather Jones tackles the familiar image of a war centred on a static front line in northern Europe, and looks at how World War One affected populations beyond the front line. 

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

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