The History of Iran: A Primer. This is actually a video, which can be seen on Youtube or here. You could just listen to it if you wanted to, but he has some diagrams to illustrate the various periods and dynasties He starts off by talking about periodization i.e. ancient Persia, then the Arab conquest around 630-40 leading to Islamic/Medieval Persia, then around 1800s with Western Influence in Modern Iran. He follows a string of different dynasties, some lasting centuries, other little more than two-generations. It is a little bit eye-glazing, but I learned a lot: like, for example, just how big that Mongol empire was. So, an interesting, rather pain-free 38-minute skate from 3200 BCE up to 1979 with the establishment of the Islamic Republic. I have no idea who ‘Premodernist’ is: he seems a bit shy about his name.
The Rest is History Episode 404 The Nazis in Power: The Night of the Long Knives (Part 1) I tend to think of the Nazis as all cut from that chiselled, resolute mould, but of course they had factions just like any other group. Ernst Röhm, streetfighter and flagrantly gay, headed the SA, or Stormtroopers which had 4.5 million (million!) paid up members. Röhm was from the faction calling for permanent revolution, and by 1934 he was suggesting that the SA should be the army. He was opposed by the police (who were generally Nazified too), the Army, the Old Order and Hitler’s own personal guards, the SS, who all wanted Hitler to bring everything into order, rather than embark on eternal revolution. Hitler was told (incorrectly) that Röhm and the SA were going to move against him on the one side, and that the Conservatives like Hindenberg and Von Papen were going to also move against him on the other side. So Hitler decided to get rid of all of his enemies at once, with the support of the Army, the police and the SS in the ‘night of the long knives’, which involved the arrests of SA members across Germany. In Berlin, Goering and Goebells went after the Old Conservatives. 85 were killed and Röhm was shot, declining the option of committing suicide. Hitler delivered a two-hour talk to the Reichstag, which passed retrospective enabling legislation to cover the killings. Hindenburg died, and the position of President of Germany was retired, leaving Hitler the only leader. The Army pledged an oath of loyalty to Hitler, and this was all tidied up with a referendum.
The Rest is Classified Episode 121 Kim Philby: Stalin’s Mole Inside MI6 (Ep.1) While listening to a podcast about the Spanish Civil War, all of a sudden Kim Philby’s name popped up. Who would have thought? Kim Philby has gone down in history as Britain’s most notorious double agent: spying for Stalin while running the MI6 counter-intelligence operation against him. His father was an Indian civil servant, and Kim was born in India and named after the Rudyard Kipling book, which ironically enough is about a spy. Young Kim was sent home to England during World War I while his father went to the Middle East where he became an Arabist for the rest of his life. Kim enrolled in history at Trinity College, Cambridge in 1929, then undertook economics. By then the Depression had taken hold, and there was a Labor government in England. Philby became a Marxist as an intellectual decision under the influence of Professor Dobbs. His handler was Arnold Deutsch, who recruited him to Soviet intelligence, although he was to have other handlers over his career.
Short History of… The London Underground (October 12 2025) When we travelled to London, we used the Underground a lot but as a result I had absolutely no idea of the layout of London at all. In the early years of the Underground’s operation, starting from 1863, there was an ongoing danger of ‘choke damp’, a toxic mixture of nitrogen and carbon dioxide. At first there was a multiplicity of private lines, but by 1907 many of them were brought under the umbrella of the Underground Electric Railways . Company, which was financed by the American investor Charles Yerkes (how galling!) In 1933 the decision was made to merge all the lines and buses into ‘London Transport’. Some lines were extended and new stations were designed, influenced by European modernism. The famous Underground Map was designed using the metaphor of an electrical network rather than a geographical representation (hence my confusion when we emerged into the open air!) During WW2 there was resistance at first to the idea of using them as bomb shelters because it was feared that people would stay there, but public pressure saw them opened up, even though it was not always safe underground – although surely safer than at ground level. During the 1960s and 1970s there was more emphasis on cars and highways, and the Underground fell into disrepair, leading to accidents during the 1970s and the fire at Kings Cross station in 1987. In 2000 ‘London Transport’ was transformed into Transport for London (TfL). In 2012 there was the suicide bombing described in John Tulloch’s book One Day in July (my review here). During the London Olympics, most people travelled by Underground, and the Elizabeth Line was opened 160 years after the first services commenced. Pretty amazing really, given that Melbourne has only just opened its fourth Underground station early this year.
The Resident Judge of Port Phillip 