S1 Ep99: The SPD
The Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands finally got its chance at power again in the late 90s — historian Jeremy Black joins Critic deputy editor Graham Stewart to discuss the rise and fall of Gerhard Schröder's government.
38m Sep 29, 2022
38m
S1 Ep98: The fall of East Germany
Professor Jeremy Black joins the Critic's deputy editor Graham Stewart to discuss why the fall of East Germany was far from inevitable.
44m Sep 24, 2022
44m
S1 Ep97: The Queen's place in history
In this Critic podcast recorded whilst Britain and the Commonwealth prepare for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, the historian, Professor Jeremy Black, talks with The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about the Queen's place in British history.
41m Sep 14, 2022
41m
S1 Ep96: East Germany — the illusion of Communist prosperity 
In this episode of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about the smoke and mirrors that obscured the reality of a failing East Germany. (Photo shows East Berliners rioting against Soviet occupation, 1953.)
39m Sep 08, 2022
39m
S1 Ep95: How West Germany rode the storm
How exceptional was West Germany's politics and prosperity in the 1950s and 1960s compared to other western European countries and what became of its Far Right? In this episode of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black discusses German exceptionalism with The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart. Photo shows a newsstand in West Berlin's Kurfuerstendamm during night time, 1955. (Photo b...
41m Sep 01, 2022
41m
S1 Ep94: Dividing Germany
Were there realistic alternatives to dividing post-war Germany along ideological lines and were West German politics an Anglo-American creation or the response of Germans to the circumstances in which they found themselves? In this episode of Black's History Week, The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, talks to Professor Jeremy Black about the emergence of rival Germanys.
44m Aug 25, 2022
44m
S1 Ep93: Hitler's war — within Germany
In this episode of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black continues his series on German history and talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about Germany's home front during the Second World War and what ordinary Germans knew about Jewish persecution and the Holocaust.
38m Aug 18, 2022
38m
S1 Ep92: Nazi foreign policy — did Hitler know what he was doing?
In this episode of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black, author of A Brief History of Germany, talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about how Nazi foreign policy differed from the traditional objectives of German nationalism. (Photo credit: AFP via Getty Images)
38m Aug 11, 2022
38m
S1 Ep91: How Hitler became unassailable
Continuing the series on German history, in this episode of Black's History Week Professor Jeremy Black talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about how Hitler entrenched his power across all aspects of German life in the 1930s.
44m Aug 04, 2022
44m
S1 Ep90: How Hitler won
Did the Nazis win power in 1933 because of the popular appeal of their message or through the divisions and miscalculations of their opponents? In this episode of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black, author of A Brief History of Germany, talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about how the Nazis won with only a third of the vote. Picture: Adolf Hitler is welcomed by supp...
38m Jul 28, 2022
38m
S1 Ep89: The Weimar Republic
In this episode of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black, author of A Brief History of Germany, talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about the Weimar Republic and whether its collapse blinds us to its achievements. Picture: DDP poster for the Reichstag elections. May, 1928. "Clean up the Reich! Vote German Democrat!" Germany. (Photo by: PHAS/Universal Images Group via Ge...
41m Jul 21, 2022
41m
S1 Ep88: Germany during the Great War
How was Germany governed during the pressures of the First World War and what caused the shortages that delivered so much hardship to its civilians? In this episode of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about wartime in the Kaiser's Reich.
38m Jul 14, 2022
38m
S1 Ep87: Kaiser Wilhelm's Reich
How democratic was Germany in the prelude to the First World War and what were the tensions in politics and society that ensured so much trust was placed in militarism? In this episode of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart about Kaiser Wilhelm II, his chancellors and the mood of a modernising country racing towards catastrophe. Pict...
41m Jul 07, 2022
41m
S1 Ep86: The unification of Germany
In this episode of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black, author of a A Brief History of Germany, talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about the path of German unification, from the failed revolutions of 1848 to the creation of Bismarck's Reich.
43m Jun 30, 2022
43m
S1 Ep85: Germany in the shadow of Napoleon
In this episode of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black, author of A Brief History of Germany talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about how the wars with revolutionary France and annexations by Napoleon reshaped the German lands. Photo: "Blucher the Brave Extracting the Groan of Abdication from the Corsican Blood Hound", April 9, 1814. Artist Thomas Rowlandson. (Photo ...
41m Jun 23, 2022
41m
S1 Ep84: Frederick the Great and the rise of Prussia
In this episode of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black, author of A Brief History of Germany, talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about the role of Prussia in the eighteenth century and whether its ruler, Frederick, really was so great. Picture: Portrait of Frederick II of Prussia (1712-1786). (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)
42m Jun 16, 2022
42m
S1 Ep83: Germany in the Baroque Age
In this episode of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black explains to the The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, how German states that were ravaged by the Thirty Years War recovered to produce the cultural achievements of the Baroque Age. Picture: A View in Cologne, c. 1660. Found in the collection of the National Gallery, London. (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Ima...
40m Jun 09, 2022
40m
S1 Ep82: The Thirty Years War
In this episode of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black, author of A Brief History of Germany, talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about the origins and course of the Thirty Years War in the German lands. Picture: "Death of King Gustav II Adolf of Sweden at the Battle of Lützen", 1855, by Carl Wahlbom (1810-1858)
40m Jun 02, 2022
40m
S1 Ep81: The roots of Germany
Picture: Germany: 'King Rudolf I Marries his Son Rudolf II with Agnes of Bohemia, Daughter of King Ottokar II', oil on metal painting, 19th century. (Photo by: Pictures from History/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
40m May 26, 2022
40m
S1 Ep80: The German Reformation
In this podcast, Professor Jeremy Black, author of A Brief History of Germany, talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about the effect that Martin Luther and the Reformation had on the German lands and whether a compromise solution existed but was missed.
39m May 19, 2022
39m
S1 Ep79: The Caribbean in the twentieth century
In this concluding episode of his four part history of the Caribbean, Professor Jeremy Black talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about how the nations of the Caribbean have adapted to modern times.
28m May 12, 2022
28m
S1 Ep78: The Caribbean after slavery
In this edition of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black, author of A Brief History of the Caribbean talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about the Caribbean in the nineteenth century as it adapts to an economy no longer dependent upon slavery and responds to the growing regional influence of the United States of America.
44m Apr 21, 2022
44m
S1 Ep77: The rise and fall of slavery in the Caribbean
In this episode of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black, author of A Brief History of the Caribbean, talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about the reality of the slave economy created by the Caribbean's European colonisers as well as the processes that drove its expansion and ultimately its dismantlement.
48m Apr 14, 2022
48m
S1 Ep76: What drove the colonisation of the Caribbean?
In this episode of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black, author of A Brief History of the Caribbean, talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about Caribbean society before Columbus and whether the European colonisers were primarily driven by religious, economic or strategic interests.
48m Apr 07, 2022
48m
S1 Ep75: How modern wars end
In this episode of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black, author of A Short History of War, talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about how wars are brought to a conclusion.
38m Mar 22, 2022
38m
S1 Ep74: What now for strategic priorities?
In this episode of Black’s History Week, Professor Jeremy Black, author of Geopolitics and the Quest for Dominance talks to The Critic’s deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about where Russia’s invasion of Ukraine leaves American and European strategic priorities.  
34m Mar 17, 2022
34m
S1 Ep73: Geopolitics and the invasion of Ukraine
In this edition of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black, author of Geopolitics and the Quest for Dominance, sets out the lessons Russia's invasion of Ukraine has for the study of geopolitics.
39m Mar 07, 2022
39m
S1 Ep72: The Fortified Palace
In this episode of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black, author of Forts and also Fortifications and Siegecraft, talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about the fortified palaces and manor houses of the sixteenth century.
44m Mar 03, 2022
44m
S1 Ep71: Ukraine and Russia's European Empire
What prompted the Tsars to create a Russian Empire that colonised Ukraine, eastern Poland, the Baltic States and other lands in Eastern Europe? Was Moscow seeking greater security or fulfilling a sense of religious mission, or was Russia's western expansion simply naked nationalism and greed?  In this edition of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black discusses with The Critic's deputy ed...
44m Feb 24, 2022
44m
S1 Ep70: The Great Game
In this edition of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about The Great Game and whether Tsarist Russia's expansion through Central Asia posed the challenge to India that British soldiers and diplomats feared. 
52m Feb 17, 2022
52m
S1 Ep69: The Eastern Question and the origins of the Great Game
In this edition of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black, author of Geopolitics and the Quest for Dominance, explains how calculations over Europe's balance of power and the Eastern Question set up the conditions for what became the Great Game rivalry between Russia and Britain.
44m Feb 10, 2022
44m
S1 Ep68: The Spanish-American and Russo-Japanese wars
In this edition of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about the Spanish-American war of 1896 and the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-5, conflicts often interpreted as differentiating rising and declining powers. 
44m Feb 03, 2022
44m
S1 Ep67: The Boer War
In this edition of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black, whose books include A Short History of War, talks to the The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about why the British found the Boers so difficult to defeat and whether the conflict in South Africa introduced new means of waging and combatting guerrilla warfare. 
41m Jan 27, 2022
41m
S1 Ep66: The Scramble for Africa
Was the “Scramble for Africa” in the late nineteenth century strategically planned or a succession of opportunistic acquisitions? In this edition of Black’s History Week, Professor Jeremy Black talks to The Critic’s Deputy Editor Graham Stewart about how the European powers fought over Africa whilst avoiding fighting each other.  
40m Jan 20, 2022
40m
S1 Ep65: The North American Question
After its victory in the American War of Independence, would the new American Republic assert a "manifest destiny" over all of North America or would much of the continent remain in the hands of the old European powers of Britain, France and Spain? In this episode of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black, author of Fighting for America, talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart...
45m Jan 13, 2022
45m
S1 Ep64: The American Civil War - could the South have won?
In this episode of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black explains to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, how the Confederate forces hoped to overcome the superior numbers and resources of the North and assesses whether they stood a realistic chance of winning. Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/4rPIgCi7DsB19KPXE2mI3J) and iTunes (h...
43m Dec 09, 2021
43m
63: The Indian Mutiny
In this episode of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about the British military presence in India in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and what the Indian mutineers hoped to achieve in 1857 when they rose in rebellion. Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/4rPIgCi7DsB19KPXE2mI3J) ...
50m Dec 02, 2021
50m
62: The Crimean War
In this episode of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about why Britain, France and the Ottoman Empire found themselves fighting together against Russia in the Crimea. Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/4rPIgCi7DsB19KPXE2mI3J)  and iTunes (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-cri...
47m Nov 25, 2021
47m
61: The Napoleonic Wars
In this edition of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black, whose books on the period include Waterloo and the forthcoming The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars - Strategies for a World War, talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about why and how Europe was engulfed in wars with France between 1792 and 1815. Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify (https:...
44m Nov 18, 2021
44m
60: Was there a military revolution in early modern Europe?
Were warfare and the state's role in military affairs transformed between 1500 and 1800? In this edition of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black, author of A Short History of War explores and debunks some generalisations about war in early modern Europe. Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/4rPIgCi7DsB19KPXE2mI3J)  and iTunes (https://podca...
44m Nov 03, 2021
44m
59: Medieval Warfare
In this edition of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black, whose books include A Short History of War, talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about how the feudal system, differing weaponry and firepower and the size of armies shaped medieval warfare. Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/4rPIgCi7DsB19KPXE2mI3J)  and iTunes (http...
53m Oct 28, 2021
53m
58: Siege warfare
Siege warfare was the most common form of warfare in medieval Europe. In this edition of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black, author of Forts and Fortifications and Siegecraft, talks about defending and capturing walled cities and castles with The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart. Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/4rPIgCi7DsB19KPX...
43m Oct 20, 2021
43m
57: Warfare in the classical world
In this edition of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black, author of A Short History of War, talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about the nature of warfare in Ancient Greece and Rome. Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/4rPIgCi7DsB19KPXE2mI3J)  and iTunes (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-critic-podcast/id149932960...
39m Oct 13, 2021
39m
56: Japan v China - the history of a rivalry
In this week's Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about the centuries’ old military rivalry between China and Japan. Image by Getty. Music: Radetzky March by Human Symphony Orchestra (premiumbeat.com) See https://acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
42m Oct 07, 2021
42m
55: Does AUKUS change Australia's role in the Pacific?
Australia's military capacity to check Chinese influence is being boosted by a new Anglo-American submarine contract and the establishment of the AUKUS defence pact. But how have Australia's interests been defended until now in the south-west Pacific and what difference will AUKUS make?   In this week's Black's History Week podcast, Professor Jeremy Black talks to The Critic's deputy editor, G...
45m Sep 29, 2021
45m
54: A short history of war
Is there anything a 21st century military strategist can usefully learn from the tactics of Hannibal or the age of pike, sword and musket? In this edition of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black offers The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, a crash course in the history of war. Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/4rPIgCi7DsB19KPXE2mI3...
43m Sep 22, 2021
43m
53: The long view of Britain's armed forces
Concluding the Black's History Week series on the deployments of the British armed forces between Waterloo and the fall of Kabul, in this podcast Professor Jeremy Black talks The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about the themes, breaks, and continuities that have shaped the British military over the last two hundred years. Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify (https://op...
48m Sep 15, 2021
48m
52: Where does American strategy go from here?
In this edition of Black's History Week, the author of Military Strategy: A Global History, Professor Jeremy Black, talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about the strategic options for American defence policy in the aftermath of the withdrawal from Afghanistan. Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/4rPIgCi7DsB19KPXE2mI3J)  and iTunes...
46m Sep 08, 2021
46m
51: What now for Britain's armed forces?
Continuing the series of Black's History Week podcasts on British military deployments, Professor Jeremy Black talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about the future role of Britain's armed forces and whether the departure from Kabul marks the end of foreign nation-building operations. Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/4rPIgCi7DsB...
49m Sep 01, 2021
49m
50: Britain's military performance in Iraq and Afghanistan
In this edition of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black, author of Insurgency and Counterinsurgency, talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about the performance of British forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/4rPIgCi7DsB19KPXE2mI3J)  and iTunes (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-critic-...
54m Aug 18, 2021
54m