Latest Episodes
Most Recent
The Rest Is History Club
Join The Rest Is History Club for ad-free listening, weekly bonus episodes, and more!
More Episodes
From the Great Wall of China to the Berlin Wall, history is littered with the building of barriers aimed at keeping people out, and sometimes in. Do they work? Are they ever a good thing? Tom Holland...
· 48 min 0 sec
Is the author’s responsibility to the quality of the novel or the truth of history? What makes a great historical novel and which authors have contributed to our understanding of history. Tom Holland...
· 1 hr 1 min 29 sec
Stephen Fry is our guest on The Rest is History as he tells Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook about his enduring fascination with the Greek myths. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoice...
· 1 hr 5 min 15 sec
History is littered with conspiracy theories, from Popish plots to JFK’s assassination. But what makes people believe in them and how do they gain currency? As strange stories continue to swirl around...
· 49 min 49 sec
As Britain leaves the EU, Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook look at the best & worst comparisons from history that have been made to Brexit. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices...
· 46 min 58 sec
Is Christmas an ancient ritual or was it invented by Dickens? Dominic Sandbrook and Tom Holland discuss the transformation of Christmas from public to private event and decide when it became a commerc...
· 41 min 31 sec
Whose fault was it? Does the question even make sense? Are wars always somebody's "fault"? Was it really the first global war? And should Britain have fought, or stayed out? Learn more about your ad c...
· 48 min 7 sec
Social media has colonised the world but is it really a new phenomenon? Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook debate the effects of technical innovations from the printing press to Twitter. Do they really...
· 46 min 24 sec
Can we truly learn from history? And if we can - do we?It’s one of the big questions this week as Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook roam through the centuries in search of certainty.Never get involved...
· 50 min 13 sec
It’s been described as the most legendary story ever told. But did the Trojan War actually happen? And was it really fought over a beautiful woman? Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook discuss an endurin...
· 40 min 42 sec
As a new series of The Crown arrives on Netflix, returning viewers to the 1980s, we look back at the year many Britons consider the worst in living memory.Rocketing unemployment, riots in major cities...
· 43 min 20 sec
Plague, pestilence and statue smashing are back in business. Has 2020 turned out to be the 17th Century in disguise? And if so, has Boris Johnson become the new Oliver Cromwell, determined to crack do...
· 38 min 58 sec
Recorded hours after Joe Biden was named President of the United States, we ask if Donald Trump is a modern day Caesar, willing to do anything to stay in power? Or is Trump the natural successor to th...
· 40 min 49 sec
What are the conditions needed for a civil war to start? Could we see a modern industrial nation turn upon itself again? Historians Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook explore examples from ancient hist...
· 41 min 21 sec
How did certain people come to be called ‘the Great’? Is the notion of great men and women outmoded? Can anyone today be reckoned ‘great’? Historians Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook take a wide rang...
· 34 min 55 sec
Historians Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook are interrogating the past, attempting to de-tangle the present for their new podcast "The Rest Is History"They question the nature of Greatness, why the W...
· 4 min 19 sec