The Rest Is History

The Rest Is History

Take a deep dive into History’s biggest moments with Tom Holland & Dominic Sandbrook. Explore the stories of History’s most brutal rulers, deadly battles, and world-changing events. From the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, the Nazi conquest of Europe, and Hitler’s evil master plan for world domination, to the French Revolution, the sinking of the Titanic, or the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, Tom and Dominic bring the past to life with gripping storytelling and expert analysis, as they unpack the high-drama moments that shaped our world. Join The Rest Is History Club: Unlock the full experience of the show – with exclusive bonus episodes, ad-free listening, early access to every series and live show tickets, a members-only newsletter, discounted books from the show, and access to our private Discord chatroom. Sign up directly at therestishistory.com. For more Goalhanger Podcasts, head to www.goalhanger.com.

Episodes

604. Greek Myths: Sex, Drugs & Tragedy (Part 3)

September 28, 2025 • 64 mins
Who was Dionysus, the son of Zeus, and Greek god of ecstasy, revelry and madness? Why was he so central to the ancient Greeks? What is the story of the Bacchae, the play in which a young man is ripped apart by the handmaidens of the goddess Artemis? What did it mean to be a Bacchae, one of the followers of Dionysus, and what shocking acts did it entail? Why were female cults like this believed to be integral to the survival of Athe...
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603. Greek Myths: The Riddle of the Sphinx (Part 2)

September 24, 2025 • 65 mins
What is the story behind the writing of Oedipus, the notorious king of Thebes who murdered his father and unwittingly married his mother? Was it based on a real historical event? What are Oedipus’ cursed mythic origins in Thebes? Who was Sophocles, the legendary Greek playwright? Why was the play a product of 5th century Athens; its rivalries with other greek city states such as Thebes, a raging plague, and the tyrant Pericles? Wha...
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602. Greek Myths: Zeus, King of the Gods (Part 1)

September 21, 2025 • 61 mins
What are the mythic origins of Zeus, King of the Olympians, and the other Greek gods? From what period did the earliest of the Greek myths derive? Who was Hesiod - alongside Homer, the greatest of the Greek poets, and the father of European literature - who first recorded Zeus’ story? When was the golden age of Greek myth? Who were the Titans, and why were they consigned to the fiery pit of Tartarus? Did different regions of Greece...
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601. Scandal in the White House

September 17, 2025 • 71 mins
Who was Grover Cleveland, and why is he one of the most controversial American Presidents of all time? Why was the run up to his first term, in 1884 at the height of the Gilded Age, so pivotal to American politics? How did he rocket to the heights of political power? What dark secrets began swirling about his disreputable past, and character? Did he really seduce a young widow by the name of Maria Crofts Halpin, impregnate her, and...
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600. CHATHAM HIGH STREET

September 14, 2025 • 61 mins
Why is Chatham High-street both futuristic and riddled with the past? Why was it a magnet for historical figures such as King John, Charles II, Nelson and Charles Dickens, and the location for some of the most totemic moments in British history? Is it really a melting pot of every epoch - from the Roman invasion of Britain, to the Napoleonic Wars, and to the Second World War - and therefore the most historically significant high-st...
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599. The First World War: Downfall of the Habsburgs (Part 6)

September 10, 2025 • 61 mins
After endeavouring to wreak their revenge on Serbia, what would be the greatest hammer blow to the Austro-Hungarian Empire during the First World War? With Leviv having fallen apocalyptically to the Russian hordes, what had gone so wrong? How might the war have been brought to an end before Christmas of 1914? And, with the darkness gathering around the Austrian defences, could the great fortress of Przemyśl hold out against the Rus...
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598. The First World War: The Eastern Front Explodes (Part 5)

September 5, 2025 • 70 mins
While the Western front was raging following the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, what was unfolding on the Eastern Front? Why was it an even bloodier and more brutal arena than the West? As Austria took on its great antagonist - the spark of the entire war - Serbia, why were its early campaigns constantly blighted by disaster? What terrible mistake did Russia, with its behemoth of an army, make? How would its dramatic war ...
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597. The First World War: The Massacre of the Innocents (Part 4)

September 3, 2025 • 55 mins
What happened at the crucial, bloody, Battle of Ypres in October 1914? How did the battle come about? Why did the Germans and the British fight each other so brutally and for so long to take Ypres? What made the fighting so particularly violent? How were the British able to repel the relentless German onslaught time after time? What was the famous “Kindermord” - “the Massacre of the Innocents” - in the German army, and how true was...
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596. The First World War: The Miracle on the Marne (Part 3)

August 31, 2025 • 67 mins
What extraordinary events saw the French - already on the brink of defeat - take on the formerly formidable German army in a remarkable counter-offensive on the 4th of September, in France, in a clash that would later become known as the Miracle on the Marne? Why was this such a decisive moment in the events of the First World War How did it relate to the famous Schlieffen plan? Did it really see the French charging into battle in ...
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595. The First World War: The Battle of the Frontiers (Part 2)

August 27, 2025 • 60 mins
What was Britain's first military move following the outbreak of the First World War? Where did the French launch their initial attack on the Germans? Whose army was the biggest and best of all the participants in the war? And, what unfolded at the pivotal Battle of the Ardennes in August 1914, on the frontiers of France, between the Germans and the French, and what would be the consequences of the outcome for the war as a whole? ...
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594. The First World War: The Invasion of Belgium (Part 1)

August 24, 2025 • 60 mins
Following the declaration of war in 1914, how did the outbreak of the First World War unfold? What were the earliest military engagements of this terrible, totemic event? Who were its key political players and how did they respond? What was the attitude to the war in Germany? Were the allies unified from this early stage, or were they suspicious and frozen by indecision? And, how did the Germans, with the mightiest army in all the ...
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593. The Fight of the Century

August 20, 2025 • 57 mins
Why did two men - John Heenan and and Tom Sayers - illegally meet in a field in Hampshire, in 1860, to brutally fight one another, captivating Britain in the process? What can the fight tell us about the nature of Britishness in the 19th century? Was this the birth of boxing? Who won the infamous boxing match? And, how did the fight change the course of British sport, forever? In this week’s episode, Tom and Dominic are joined ...
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592. Mad Victorian Sport

August 17, 2025 • 56 mins
How and when was football invented, and what are the origins of football clubs? What is the connection between public hangings, highwaymen, and early sporting events? Which is the most historically important sporting ground in the world? When was the first cricket test match played? What are the origins of rugby? Who was Richard Manks - the Lionel Messi of the Victorian period - and what did he achieve? And, what is the history of ...
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591. The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln: Manhunt for the Killer (Part 2)

August 13, 2025 • 67 mins
How was President Abraham Lincoln murdered on Good Friday 1865, at Ford’s Theatre, just five days after Robert E. Lee’s surrender? Who was John Wilkes Booth, the racist actor with southern sympathies, who assassinated him? How did he escape before the shocked eyes of the packed theatre, and evade his captors to go on the run? Would they get him in the end? And, what were the long term repercussions of Lincoln’s assassination for th...
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590. The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln: Death at the Theatre (Part 1)

August 10, 2025 • 62 mins
After passing the 13th amendment, in the closing weeks of the brutal American Civil War, what did president Abraham Lincoln - recently re-elected - do next to inflame his detractors? Crippled with guilt for the death and destruction of the war, was he indeed a unionist tyrant? What did Lincoln decide to do with the defeated rebel states? And, with time ticking for Lincoln’s life, who was John Wilkes Booth, the racist actor bent on ...
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589. Mary, Queen of Scots: Downfall (Part 6)

August 6, 2025 • 66 mins
Following the murder of her husband, Lord Darnley, how did Mary Queen of Scots - thought to have conspired for his death - navigate the most precarious situation of her young life so far? Would she marry again, and if so whom? Why was she forced to flee her enemies dressed as a man, and would she escape the threat of imprisonment? Could she look to her fellow cousin, Elizabeth I, for aid, or face the Virgin Queen’s condemnation? A...
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588. Mary, Queen of Scots: The Mystery of the Exploding Mansion (Part 5)

August 3, 2025 • 60 mins
How and why was Mary Queen of Scots’ traitorous husband, Lord Darnley, murdered, and by whom…? Was Mary complicit? Why was his death one of the greatest mysteries in all British history? And, with Mary’s situation growing increasingly precarious, and allies few and far between, to whom would Mary turn next? Join Tom and Dominic as they unravel, tantalisingly, the build up to and enactment of Lord Darnley’s mysterious murder, in th...
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587. Mary, Queen of Scots: Murder Most Foul (Part 4)

July 30, 2025 • 54 mins
Why did Mary Queen of Scots’ second marriage to the volatile Lord Darnley threaten to send Scotland into civil war? In what way did she essentially declare war upon her powerful cousin, Elizabeth I? Who was the hotheaded James Hepburn, the Earl of Bothwell, and why would he come to play such a devastating role in Mary’s life? Could Mary survive unburnt if the religious tensions smouldering at the heart of Scotland, erupted into a b...
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586. Mary, Queen of Scots: The Battle for Scotland (Part 3)

July 27, 2025 • 64 mins
Following the death of her husband, the King of France, was the glamorous Mary welcomed back to Scotland, her kingdom since infancy, with open arms or deep suspicion? Did she handle the precarious situation in which she found herself well, or recklessly? Did the majority of Scottish nobles side with Mary, or plot to usurp her in the shadows? When her eye turned on the crown of her wealthier neighbour, England, how did its reigning ...
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585. Mary, Queen of Scots: The Royal Rivals (Part 2)

July 23, 2025 • 60 mins
What was life like in the glittering French court, for the young and newly married Mary Queen of Scots? What momentous destiny was her formidable mother, Mary of Guise, planning for her? How did Mary become, in 1559, not only the queen of Scotland, but also of France, and - according to her Catholic French supporters - the queen of England? What would Mary do when unexpectedly widowed in a distant court of vipers? And, what did her...
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