Aspects of History

The editor of Aspects of History, Ollie Webb-Carter, interviews historians and authors on the past - from the ancient world right up to the modern day. In each episode, Ollie seeks to get to the bottom of a story or scrutinise a figure from history. There are bonus episodes too, from current events and anniversaries to the Aspects of History Film Club.

History
Books
Politics
126
Women's Secret Diaries with Sarah Gristwood
Sarah Gristwood returns to talk about the secret diary entries of women's diaries, from the 1st January all the way to the 31st December. There are many great names, and some less well-known, but we delve into some heart-breaking, funny, tragic and shocking accounts written with stunning honesty.
30 min
127
The Rise of the Mafia with Louis Ferrante
This week's guest is a man who has lived about what he writes. Louis Ferrante was a former member of the Gambino crime family, one of the Five Families of New York. He rose up the ranks until he was convicted of crimes and sent to prison where he became a changed man.
53 min
128
Film Club: Schindler's List (1993)
Steven Spielberg's 1993 masterpiece is hugely influential even today. His adaptation of the Thomas Keneally's Booker Prize winning Schindler's Ark, filmed in black and white, brought the Holocaust to a mass audience.
75 min
129
The Arctic Convoys with John McKay
On the 2nd September 1942 in Loch Ewe, Scotland, a large convoy of ships carrying food, ammunition, tanks, artillery pieces and materiel set sail for Archangel, Russia. This convoy would be of vital importance to the Soviet troops fighting the Nazis at Stalingrad.
42 min
130
Great British Commanders: WW1 Also Rans with Go...
Gordon returns to discuss those WW1 Commanders that lost out to Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig.
68 min
131
Film Club: Bonnie & Clyde (1967)
You've read the story of Jesse James Of how he lived and died. If you're still in need; Of something to read, Here's the story of Bonnie and Clyde. So wrote Bonnie Parker, partner to Clyde Barrow and the famous couple that attracted fans, headlines, cops and in the end, bullets.
34 min
132
Film Club: Public Enemies (2009)
On the 22nd July 1934 John Dillinger left a movie theatre in Chicago having just enjoyed the Clark Gable film, Manhattan Melodrama. He didn't get far before FBI agents shot him four times - the era of the romantic bank robber was over - or was it?
47 min
133
English Football with Gavin Mortimer
We've ignored the suitcase from Sepp Blatter bulging with cash and returned to football's roots to discuss the origins in England, the class system, the rise of the working class and the might Preston North End side of 1888/89 - thought Arsene Wenger did it first with the Invincibles and diet? Well you'd be wrong - it was PNE under William Sudell.
48 min
134
The Attack on Pearl Harbor with Alan Bardos
Early on the morning of 7th December 1941, Japanese fighters, dive bombers and torpedo planes descended on the port of Pearl Harbor, the headquarters of the American Pacific Fleet. Within minutes the balance of power had changed, and four days later Hitler declared war on the US.
35 min
135
Shogun: 17th Century Japan with Frederik Cryns
32 min
136
The History of Ballet with Lucy Ashe
Lucy Ashe joins to talk about the evolution of Ballet from the royal courts of Europe to Versailles and the Sun King, Louis XIV, to the Ballet Russe as the Russians came to dominate. Margot Fonteyne, Ninette de Valois and Rudolf Nureyev all feature.
43 min
137
Napoleon Bonaparte with Louis Sarkozy
Bonaparte: Greatest Frenchman or Corsican Ogre? Progressive or reactionary?
54 min
138
The War in Ukraine with Yaroslav Trofimov
Yaroslav Trofimov is the Foreign Affairs Correspondent of the Wall Street Journal, a native of Ukraine, and the author of Our Enemies Will Vanish. He joins to talk about the war and the ramifications of the conflict in a geo-political sense.
45 min
139
SpyMasters with Antonia Senior
20 min
140
Great British Commanders: WW2 Also Rans with Go...
Gordon Corrigan, the Major, returns as we go through those commanders from the Second World War that missed out when we settled on Bill Slim. The big names from the Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force are here.
52 min
141
Masters of The Air & The Allied Bombing Campaig...
The new Apple TV series has arrived, Masters of the Air, written and produced by John Orloff, of Band of Brothers. We discuss the history behind the show with two historians of the Allied Bombing Campaign.
43 min
142
The Princes in the Tower with History with Jack...
42 min
143
Film Club: Conspiracy (2001) - The Wannsee Conf...
72 min
144
Duelling & Rivet Counters with Ben Kane
39 min
145
The Gothic War & Historical Fiction with Simon ...
39 min
146
Great British Commanders: Douglas Haig with Gar...
60 min
147
Ridley Scott's Napoleon with Adam Zamoyski
33 min
148
SAS Debate: David Stirling - Founder or Phoney?...
49 min
149
Film Club: Napoleon (2023)
56 min
150
Winston Churchill with David Reynolds
48 min