Latest Episodes

“God is too late, you have begun, now I will finish it.” Swash-buckling hero or sacrilegious tyrant? Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook explore Napoleon’s campaign in Egypt, his dream of becoming the n...

November 29, 2021 · 1 hr 3 min 48 sec

The USA's Central Intelligence Agency is a mysterious organisation which has used covert methods to assassinate enemies, influence governments and tip whole countries into revolution - or so countless...

November 25, 2021 · 57 min 4 sec

Elizabeth II. Henry V. William the Conqueror. All pretenders, according to our twitter poll to find England’s greatest monarch, which has been running over the last week. Dominic and Tom discuss those...

November 23, 2021 · 1 hr 3 min 41 sec

Oliver Cromwell. Queen Victoria. George V. All contenders for the title of England's greatest monarch, a poll for which took place on a twitter over the last week. We know that Athelstan went on to wi...

November 22, 2021 · 58 min 20 sec

After an intense tournament featuring sixteen of the finest Kings and Queens this island has to offer, the people have decided the greatest king of England also happens to be the first. The 10th centu...

November 19, 2021 · 59 min 35 sec

"Discovered this territory, 1770". So reads the inscription on a statue of Captain Cook in Hyde Park, Sydney. But did he really discover it? Tom and Dominic are joined by David Hunt to explore the lon...

November 18, 2021 · 54 min 25 sec

1973: Major oil-producing nations led by Saudi Arabia quadruple the price of oil overnight, sending the West (particularly the United Kingdom) into crisis. The face of 20th century geopolitics is perm...

November 15, 2021 · 1 hr 56 sec

Who's England's greatest monarch? Voting starts on Saturday 13th November, go to @TheRestHistory on Twitter to get involved.*The Rest Is History Live Tour 2023*:Tom and Dominic are back on tour this a...

November 12, 2021 · 44 min 17 sec

On the anniversary of the day the guns fell silent on the Western Front, we look at the last moments of the First World War – and how we remember them. How did Remembrance Day start? What are the stor...

November 11, 2021 · 58 min 43 sec

In the second part of our Alexander the Great special, we head to the limits of the known world, burning down palaces, storming mountain-top fortresses and battling elephants as we go. Might Alexander...

November 9, 2021 · 59 min 57 sec

Alexander the Great is the most charismatic conqueror in history. Tom and Dominic, in the first of a two part special, trace the course of his dazzling career from Macedonia to his mysterious journey...

November 8, 2021 · 59 min 18 sec

‘Remember, remember / the Fifth of November / Gunpowder, treason & plot.” But what is it exactly we are remembering on Bonfire Night? Tom & Dominic explore what - if it had succeeded - would h...

November 4, 2021 · 1 hr 1 min 0 sec

Like Merlin, who lived his life in reverse, we go backwards in time as we continue our two-part series on paganism. Renaissance philosophers; green men; a pagan city in the early caliphate; hooded god...

November 2, 2021 · 53 min 54 sec

In the first of a two part Hallowe’en special, Tom and Dominic are joined by Professor Ronald Hutton to explore the history of modern paganism: from Wicca to Druids, and from Himmler to the Glastonbur...

November 1, 2021 · 55 min 57 sec

The word ‘medieval’ is often used to mean backward, benighted, unscientific. But is this fair? Historian of science Seb Falk joins Tom and Dominic to explore how the Middle Ages shaped and influenced...

October 28, 2021 · 52 min 11 sec

Oh, to be Dutch in the seventeenth century. Or Roman in 150 AD. Or British in the 1990's. Tom and Dominic debate the merits of various "Golden Ages" in history, and ask whether we might have seen the...

October 25, 2021 · 57 min 56 sec

Curator and art historian Aparna Andhare gives Tom and Dominic her selection of the ten buildings that best illustrate India’s past 4,500 years. Ranging from Mohenjo-daro to Narendra Modi, all the Sub...

October 21, 2021 · 1 hr 24 sec

How did the existence of dinosaurs come to be discovered, & what role have they played in the popular imagination over the past 200 years? And what can humanity learn from the extinction of dinosa...

October 18, 2021 · 54 min 38 sec

Did the industrial revolution really improve people’s lives? And why was Britain first to industrialise? Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook are joined by Emma Griffin, professor of modern history and a...

October 14, 2021 · 1 hr 2 min 6 sec

Despite his overwhelming lead in the polls, President Richard Nixon’s paranoia leads to the criminal actions of the Watergate scandal. In this second part of our mini-series, Dominic Sandbrook and Tom...

October 12, 2021 · 53 min 44 sec