National Archive Podcasts (16)

I love history at a local, national and world levels. The National Archives contain some interesting records of British Imperialism around the world. There are also important records relating to life in the united kingdom. These records can also be used by anyone who is interested in genealogy. The documents come in all forms. I like to listen to the research outcomes in the form of lectures as the archives come under greater and greater scrutiny. The files are captured in MP3 format. There is obviously a bias towards history and family history in my choices.

Professor Foot is a noted historian and academic. He is the official historian for the Second World War Special Operations Executive (SOE) and has an extensive knowledge of the background to the requirements for secrecy in government records. This is a rare opportunity to hear the views of a person who has lived with the secrecy of such records for many decades. Click Here to listen. 

How did Britons weigh up the decision to go to war in the 1930s and did things turn out as they expected? Professor David Stephenson from the London School of Economics and Political Science explains how the British Government and the British public responded differently to the rise of Fascism in Europe. Click Here to listen.

In the second part of this two part podcast a chief examiner from one of the major examination boards discuss the British policy of appeasement towards the fascist regimes of Hitler and Mussolini. Looks at how historians have grappled with it over 60 years. Click Here to listen.

Conservator Stephen Harwood looks at the invention and development of photography, describing all the major photographic processes and explaining how anyone can identify different photographic types from the earliest photogenic experiments to sophisticated gelatine-silver prints. Click Here to listen.