The Origins of WW1

08/11/20 • 32 min

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The First World War is one of the great turning points of the last couple of centuries. Debates surrounding its origins, however, remain endless. In this podcast Margaret MacMillan, Professor of International History at Oxford, discusses the circumstances which led to the declarations of war in 1914 with Dan Snow. They consider our enduring fascination with this moment in history, in which so many of the modern world's problems have their roots.

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Hiroshima

On 6 August 1945 a B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay dropped a uranium bomb, nicknamed the 'Little Boy' onto the Japanese city of Hiroshima. It was the first use of nuclear weapons in warfare - and also one of history's most controversial acts. While it almost certainly hastened the surrender of Japan to the USA and ended World War Two, it came at an incredible human cost - with 150,000 being killed in the blast and nuclear aftermath. In this podcast, first broadcast on Dan Snow's History Hit, survivor Hirata-San talks to Dan about his experiences, and his work on keeping global peace.

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Women Scientists in WW1

In considerations of the First World War, the roles of female scientists in supporting the war effort have been shockingly under acknowledged. Dan was joined in this podcast by Patricia Fara, a historian of science at the University of Cambridge, to talk about the women who worked as scientific researchers during the First World War.