Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook ask why Tutankhamun remains the best known of the Egyptian pharaohs. They examine the discovery of the tomb by Howard Carter in 1922 and discuss Tutankhamun?s relatives, in particular his father Akhenaten.

A Goalhanger Films & Left Peg Media production

Produced by Harry Lineker

Exec Producer Tony Pastor

Twitter:

@TheRestHistory

@holland_tom

@dcsandbrook

Email: [email protected]gmail.com

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Suzannah Lipscomb joins Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook to discuss the history of witches and witchcraft.

Why did society see witches as a threat and what is the modern equivalent of a witch hunt?

A Goalhanger Films & Left Peg Media production

Produced by Harry Lineker

Exec Producer Tony Pastor

Twitter:

@TheRestHistory

@holland_tom

@dcsandbrook

Email: [email protected]

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Is the age of empires over? And are they always a bad thing?

Dominic Sandbrook and Tom Holland explore empires through history, examining the modern assumption that nation statehood is always the better way.

A Goalhanger Films & Left Peg Media production

Produced by Harry Lineker

Exec Producer Tony Pastor

Twitter:

@TheRestHistory

@holland_tom

@dcsandbrook

Email: [email protected]

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Everything you wanted to know about sex in the 18th and 19th Century but were afraid to ask. Hallie Rubenhold, author of The Covent Garden Ladies and the multi-award winning The Five joins Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook to discuss this fascinating subject.

A Goalhanger Films & Left Peg Media production

Produced by Harry Lineker

Exec Producer Tony Pastor

Twitter:

@TheRestHistory

@holland_tom

@dcsandbrook

Email: [email protected]

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Ecstasy, emails and economic stability. Dominic Sandbrook and Tom Holland discuss the 1990s, a decade which brought us Oasis, Tony Blair, Monica Lewinsky and Mr Blobby.

A Goalhanger Films & Left Peg Media production

Produced by Jack Davenport

Exec Producer Tony Pastor

Twitter:

@TheRestHistory

@holland_tom

@dcsandbrook

Email: [email protected]

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The Rest is History brings you the top ten strangest conflicts of all time. Obscure, little-known, downright strange. Dominic Sandbrook and Tom Holland choose five each. 

A Goalhanger Films & Left Peg Media production

Produced by Jack Davenport

Exec Producer Tony Pastor

Twitter:

@TheRestHistory

@holland_tom

@dcsandbrook

Email: [email protected]

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What is history?s take on the future? Oracles, prophecies, apocalypse, scientific projection. Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook discuss them all.

A Goalhanger Films & Left Peg Media production

Produced by Jack Davenport

Exec Producer Tony Pastor

Twitter:

@TheRestHistory

@holland_tom

@dcsandbrook

Email: [email protected]

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Broadcaster and historian Michael Wood joins Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook to discuss the world?s oldest civilisation. What were the great moments in Chinese history and why do the Opium Wars still feature so prominently in the modern Chinese school syllabus? The birth of the Chinese Communist Party and the complicated legacy of Chairman Mao all feature.

A Goalhanger Films & Left Peg Media production

Produced by Jack Davenport

Exec Producer Tony Pastor

Twitter:

@TheRestHistory

@holland_tom

@dcsandbrook

Email: [email protected]

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It remains the most romantic historical story of all time, but is the legend of King Arthur a myth? Was he even English? And will he rise again when the country needs him most?

Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook take their places at the round table.

A Goalhanger Films & Left Peg Media production

Produced by Jack Davenport

Exec Producer Tony Pastor

Twitter:

@TheRestHistory

@holland_tom

@dcsandbrook

Email: [email protected]

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England has long been divided by an invisible line somewhere north of Watford and south of the Mersey.

But do northerners really have more in common with Scots and Welsh people than their fellow Englishmen in London?

Dan Jackson, author of The Northumbrians and a former advisor to Cheryl Cole, joins southerner Tom Holland and midlander Dominic Sandbrook to try and decide if we should eat lunch then dinner, or dinner then tea.

A Goalhanger Films & Left Peg Media production

Produced by Jack Davenport

Exec Producer Tony Pastor

Twitter:

@TheRestHistory

@holland_tom

@dcsandbrook

Email: [email protected]

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What is fascism and where did it come from? No one admits to being a fascist yet it continues to be a term of abuse hurled on a regular basis. Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook discuss the history of this most unacceptable of political models.

A Goalhanger Films & Left Peg Media production

Produced by Jack Davenport

Exec Producer Tony Pastor

Twitter:

@TheRestHistory

@holland_tom

@dcsandbrook

Email: [email protected]

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Pompeii

Why does Pompeii continue to hold such a fascination for so many people? And which secrets are still to be uncovered from beneath the ashes? Dr Sophie Hay, a leading expert on the ruined Italian city, joins Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook to answer lots of listener questions.

A Goalhanger Films & Left Peg Media production

Produced by Jack Davenport

Exec Producer Tony Pastor

Twitter:

@TheRestHistory

@holland_tom

@dcsandbrook

Email: [email protected]

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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 and Dominic Sandbrook climb walls and explore borders as they investigate the history of separation. 

A Goalhanger Films & Left Peg Media production

Produced by Jack Davenport

Exec Producer Tony Pastor

Twitter:

@TheRestHistory

@holland_tom

@dcsandbrook

Email: [email protected]

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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 and Dominic Sandbrook range across literature in search of the best of historical fiction.

A Goalhanger Films & Left Peg Media production

Produced by Jack Davenport

Exec Producer Tony Pastor

Twitter:

@TheRestHistory

@holland_tom

@dcsandbrook

Email: [email protected]

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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.

A Goalhanger Films & Left Peg Media production

Produced by Jack Davenport

Exec Producer Tony Pastor

Twitter:

@TheRestHistory

@holland_tom

@dcsandbrook

Email: [email protected]

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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 the coronavirus vaccine, Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook examine conspiracy theories through the ages. Oh and Dominic finally solves the question of who did kill JFK.

A Goalhanger Films & Left Peg Media production

Produced by Jack Davenport

Exec Producer Tony Pastor

Twitter:

@TheRestHistory

@holland_tom

@dcsandbrook

Email: [email protected]

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As Britain leaves the EU, Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook look at the best & worst comparisons from history that have been made to Brexit. 

A Goalhanger Films & Left Peg Media production

Produced by Jack Davenport

Exec Producer Tony Pastor

Twitter:

@TheRestHistory

@holland_tom

@dcsandbrook

Email: re[email protected]

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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 commercial rather than spiritual celebration.

A Goalhanger Films & Left Peg Media production

Produced by Jack Davenport

Exec Producer Tony Pastor

Twitter:

@TheRestHistory

@holland_tom

@dcsandbrook

Email: [email protected]

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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?

A Goalhanger Films & Left Peg Media production

Produced by Jack Davenport

Exec Producer Tony Pastor

Twitter:

@TheRestHistory

@holland_tom

@dcsandbrook

Email: [email protected]

See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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 make a difference?

Or was Swift right when he said: ?It is the folly of too many, to mistake the echo of a London coffee-house for the voice of the kingdom.?

A Goalhanger Films & Left Peg Media production

Produced by Jack Davenport

Exec Producer Tony Pastor

Twitter:

@TheRestHistory

@holland_tom

@dcsandbrook

Email: [email protected]

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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 in a land war in Asia. That?s our starter for ten.

A Goalhanger Films & Left Peg Media production

Produced by Jack Davenport

Exec Producer Tony Pastor

Twitter:

@TheRestHistory

@holland_tom

@dcsandbrook

Email: [email protected]

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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 enduring tale that still resonates to this day.

A Goalhanger Films & Left Peg Media production

Produced by Jack Davenport

Exec Producer Tony Pastor

Twitter:

@TheRestHistory

@holland_tom

@dcsandbrook

Email: [email protected]

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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 and a country governed by the most divisive prime minister in post-war British history made 1981 a year to forget.

Amidst the gloom was the wedding of Prince Charles to Lady Diana and the greatest Ashes fightback England cricket fans had ever seen.

So what can we learn from a closer analysis of 1981?

A Goalhanger Films & Left Peg Media production

Produced by Jack Davenport

Exec Producer Tony Pastor

Twitter: #TheRestIsHistory

@holland_tom

@dcsandbrook

Email: [email protected]

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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 down on the excesses of Christmas? Dominic Sandbrook and Tom Holland suggest things now are not as bad as we thought.

A Goalhanger Films & Left Peg Media production

Produced by Jack Davenport

Exec Producer Tony Pastor

Twitter: @TheRestHistory #TheRestisHistory

Email: [email protected]

@holland_tom

@dcsandbrook

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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 the disgraced Richard Nixon? Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook draw parallels between the modern White House, the 1970s and ancient Rome.

A Goalhanger Films & Left Peg Media production

Produced by Jack Davenport

Exec Producer Tony Pastor

Twitter: @TheRestHistory #TheRestIsHistory

Email: [email protected]

@holland_tom

@dcsandbrook

See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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 history though to Spain in the 1930s and Yugoslavia in the 1990s to work out what it takes for neighbour to murder neighbour.

A Goalhanger Films & Left Peg Media production

Produced by Jack Davenport

Exec Producer Tony Pastor

Twitter: @TheRestHistory #TheRestIsHistory

Email: [email protected]

@holland_tom

@dcsandbrook

See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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 ranging stroll through the annals of time, from Nero to Nixon, with a bit of Trump thrown in for good measure.

A Goalhanger Films & Left Peg Media production

Produced by Jack Davenport

Exec Producer Tony Pastor

Twitter: @TheRestHistory #RestIsHistory

Email: [email protected]

@holland_tom

@dcsandbrook

See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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 West no longer has civil wars and whether Richard Nixon was more like Caligula or Claudius.  

They're distilling the entirety of human history, or, as much as they can fit into about thirty minutes.

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