The History of the Twentieth Century

A chronicle of the history of the twentieth century, including art, music, popular culture, science, religion, and, of course, politics and war.

393 Everything Is Going to Be Fine 01/05/2025

393 Everything Is Going to Be Fine The Japanese claimed to be liberating their fellow Asians from Western oppression, but Japanese rule proved to be brutal and murderous. /episode/index/show/history20th/id/34725890

392 Warsaw and Katyn 12/29/2024

392 Warsaw and Katyn In early 1943, the remaining residents of the Warsaw Ghetto rose up against the SS. Farther east, the German Army uncovers the mass grave where the Soviet NKVD buried thousands of murdered Polish Army officers. /episode/index/show/history20th/id/34602815

391 The Manhattan Project 12/25/2024

391 The Manhattan Project After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, the American atom bomb project kicked into high gear. Fearful that the Germans were already working on a bomb and had a head start, the US government built a huge program meant to approach the problem of building an atom bomb from several different angles all at once. /episode/index/show/history20th/id/34602780

390 Benito è finito 12/22/2024

390 Benito è finito The Allies invade Sicily, which leads to the fall of Benito Mussolini. /episode/index/show/history20th/id/34569630

389 On the Defensive 12/15/2024

389 On the Defensive Hitler himself said that he had "never been a man of the defensive," but in the aftermath of Stalingrad, he had no choice. /episode/index/show/history20th/id/34335360

388 Woman of the Year 12/01/2024

388 Woman of the Year RKO Radio Pictures had a reputation for producing second-rate films. Even so, this was the studio that signed Fred Astaire and Katharine Hepburn; it was the studio that released King Kong and Citizen Kane. /episode/index/show/history20th/id/34217120

387 Hooray for Hollywood 11/24/2024

387 Hooray for Hollywood The first in a series looking at the American film industry in the 1930s and 1940s, the heyday of the "studio system." /episode/index/show/history20th/id/33960867

386 Do Or Die 11/17/2024

386 Do Or Die The fall of Burma to the Japanese put India on the front lines of the war, posing hard questions for the Indian nationalist movement. /episode/index/show/history20th/id/33960832

385 The Thingamabob That's Going to Win the War 11/10/2024

385 The Thingamabob That's Going to Win the War The BBC struggles to determine its role in wartime Britain. /episode/index/show/history20th/id/33866702

384 Do You Want Total War? 10/27/2024

384 Do You Want Total War? Stalingrad falls and Joseph Goebbels tries to spark a program to ramp up the German war effort. /episode/index/show/history20th/id/33629562

383 Casablanca 10/20/2024

383 Casablanca Roosevelt and Churchill met again in early 1943 to discuss the next stage of the war against the Axis, and they chose a provocative venue: Casablanca, a city their armies had only recently taken. /episode/index/show/history20th/id/33535042

382 Turning Point 10/06/2024

382 Turning Point In October and November 1942, the Japanese began their final push to drive the Americans off Guadalcanal. /episode/index/show/history20th/id/33249412

381 Der Manstein kommt! 09/29/2024

381 Der Manstein kommt! The Germans began an operation to relieve the siege of Stalingrad, but the Red Army was already prepared with a counter attack. /episode/index/show/history20th/id/33249337

380 Operation Uranus 09/15/2024

380 Operation Uranus The battle for Stalingrad raged on for two months, then the situation was suddenly upended by a surprise Soviet offensive that surrounded the city. /episode/index/show/history20th/id/32960292

379 How Green Is My Ally 09/08/2024

379 How Green Is My Ally The Anglo-American amphibious landings in French North Africa were not only a complex military operation. There was also complex negotiation going on behind the scenes. The Allies did not want to defeat French forces in North Africa; they wanted the French to join them. /episode/index/show/history20th/id/32960252

378 The End of the Beginning 09/01/2024

378 The End of the Beginning In October 1942, Bernard Montgomery began his long-awaited offensive against the Italians and Germans in Egypt. Meanwhile, at the opposite end of the Mediterranean, the Allies were preparing to open a new front in Africa. /episode/index/show/history20th/id/32852097

377 Verdun on the Volga 08/25/2024

377 Verdun on the Volga The Battle of Stalingrad was a throwback to the kinds of battles fought in the last war. Like Verdun, the Germans were paying a heavy price. Would the gain be worth it? /episode/index/show/history20th/id/32446937

376 Two Hammers, One Anvil 08/11/2024

376 Two Hammers, One Anvil As Bernard Montgomery plotted an offensive against Axis forces in North Africa from the east, Dwight Eisenhower was plotting one from the west. /episode/index/show/history20th/id/32446912

375 Time Is Blood 08/04/2024

375 Time Is Blood When German soldiers began their assault on the city of Stalingrad, they expected a quick victory, but the Soviet defense was far tougher than they had imagined. /episode/index/show/history20th/id/32429987

374 A Steppe Too Far 07/21/2024

374 A Steppe Too Far German forces advance on Stalingrad in August 1942, while Adolf Hitler becomes increasingly hostile and mistrustful of his military commanders. /episode/index/show/history20th/id/32226872

373 The Machinery of Mass Murder 07/14/2024

373 The Machinery of Mass Murder The Nazis applied the experience they had gained from murdering disabled people and Soviet POWs to their project to exterminate Jewish people in Europe. /episode/index/show/history20th/id/32055812

372 The Road to the Holocaust 06/30/2024

372 The Road to the Holocaust It started with the concentration camps. /episode/index/show/history20th/id/31948277

371 Operation Shoestring 06/23/2024

371 Operation Shoestring In the first American offensive action of the war, US marines land on Guadalcanal. /episode/index/show/history20th/id/31853382

370 Not One Step Back 06/16/2024

370 Not One Step Back The German 1942 offensive in the USSR began well, so well that Hitler split the offensive into two parts. The German Army was advancing on Stalingrad and threatening to cut Russia off from its oil fields in the Caucasus. /episode/index/show/history20th/id/31756697

369 Operation Sledgehammer 06/09/2024

369 Operation Sledgehammer The US military went into the war just itching to invade France and take on the Germans ASAP. It was up to the British to talk them down, though the Allies did attempt a raid on the French coast at the port of Dieppe. Meanwhile, German intelligence infiltrated saboteurs into the United States. /episode/index/show/history20th/id/31667917

368 The Second United Front 05/26/2024

368 The Second United Front The war against Japan brought the Nationalists and the Communists back into a new alliance, but it didn't last. Mao Zedong polished up his political writings and asserted his authority over the Party. /episode/index/show/history20th/id/31245997

367 El Alamein 05/19/2024

367 El Alamein Adolf Hitler redeployed Luftwaffe units from the Eastern front to the Mediterranean. With Axis air superiority in the region established, shipments of equipment and supplies to Panzer Army Africa substantially increased. Soon Rommel was on the move again, this time driving the British deep into Egypt. /episode/index/show/history20th/id/31245987

366 The Desert Fox 05/12/2024

366 The Desert Fox Rommel was surprised by a British offensive (Operation Crusader) and his forces were driven all the way back to where he had started from a year earlier. But in a few months, he and his army pushed the British back to where they had started. /episode/index/show/history20th/id/31245937

365 The Second Happy Time 05/05/2024

365 The Second Happy Time When the United States entered the war, the German U-boats suddenly had many more targets. /episode/index/show/history20th/id/31016753

364 The Man with the Iron Heart 04/21/2024

364 The Man with the Iron Heart Reinhard Heydrich was one of the most vicious of the Nazis. So much so that the Czechoslovak and British governments decided that he needed to be eliminated. /episode/index/show/history20th/id/30913078

The History of the Twentieth Century

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