History Extra podcast

Serhii Plokhy discusses the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, and reveals just how close the world came to nuclear disaster.

Historian Timothy Hickman answers listener questions about the ban on booze in 1920s America, from speakeasies and moonshine to Al Capone’s shady dealings.

Dr Ben Raffield explains how in the ninth and tenth centuries, Scandinavian laws and customs prevailed across a swathe of what’s now northern and eastern England

Harriet Atkinson takes us back to 1951’s Festival of Britain, a celebration of a nation rising from the ashes of war

The Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 was a key moment in the reign of King Richard II. New research is revealing just how well-organised an operation it was

In the second episode of our new series on the prime ministers that experts believe accomplished most, Dominic Sandbrook champions Stanley Baldwin

Judy Batalion describes how a group of young Jewish women fought back against their Nazi oppressors in occupied Poland.

From daily routines to whether inmates really ate gruel, Peter Higginbotham responds to listener questions about the workhouse

Linda Colley explores how written constitutions, together with warfare, forged the modern world.

Nathen Amin discusses the plots and conspiracies that threatened to unseat Henry VII from his throne.