The History Hour Episodes Episode guide
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The book that warned of an end to civilisation
Environmental warnings from 1972, El Salvador, East German punks and the Chippendales.
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The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan
The Soviet-Afghan war, the invention of chemotherapy, and Cirque du Soleil.
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The Romanian revolution
In December 1989 a wave of protests finally deposed communist dictator Nicolae Ceau葯escu.
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The Awakenings
A medical experiment that brought the catatonic back to life; and an IRA siege in the 70s
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The Cuban writer who defied Castro
The life and death of Reinaldo Arenas, plus Henry Moore and tracking down Pablo Escobar
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The man who gave his voice to Stephen Hawking
The scientist who pioneered synthesised speech. Plus the first US AIDS case. .
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I saw the soldiers who killed El Salvador's priests
An atrocity in El Salvador, the first Taser, and building the Delhi metro
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Rescuing migrants in the Mediterranean
Rescuing migrants in the Mediterranean; the demolition of the Ayodha mosque; Wilfred Owen
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Britain's secret propaganda war
'Fake news' in WW2, why Indian police blinded detainees and the Berlin Wall rock concert
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'Jane' - the underground abortion service
The secret 1960s US abortion network and the battle to protect the Barrier Reef.
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The fall of the Berlin Wall
A look at events across Europe in 1989 that led to the wall coming down in Germany.
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An environmental history special
A pioneer of climate change science, UK's nuclear accident, the man who fed the world
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Black British history
Some landmark moments in British Black history to mark Black History Month in the UK.
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The birth of the People's Republic of China
70 years of communist China, we hear from Mao's friends, followers and critics.
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Fighting the Islamic State group online
The Mosul historian who battled IS online, plus growing up black under Hitler
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The Cambridge spy network
The distinguished British art historian exposed as a former Soviet spy.
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Conflict timber in Liberia's civil war
How the timber industry fuelled a brutal civil war in West Africa.
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The outbreak of World War Two
Eyewitness account of the Nazi invasion of Poland and the first all-female peacekeepers.
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The Kindertransport children
Children fleeing the Nazis, a breakthrough in criminal forensics, plus Nina Simone
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The return of the wolf
Restoring the wolf in the US, the liberation of Paris and El Salvador's lost children
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The division of Kashmir
How Kashmir was separated, the warnings about 9/11, Carlos the Jackal and Dr Seuss.
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The mass exodus of Algeria's 'Pieds Noirs'
Why French returnees from the colony of Algeria were ostracised after independence.
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The anti-nuclear protesters who won
The protest which stopped the construction of a nuclear reprocessing plant in Germany.
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When Tunisia led on women's rights
Liberation for Tunisia's women in the 1950s; gay and lesbian fake marriages in China
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Exploring space
To mark the Apollo 11 Moon landing, personal accounts of landmarks in space exploration.
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Kenya's ivory inferno
Highlighting the threat from poaching, solving the common cold, plus China and the tampon
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Surviving Cambodia's 'Killing Fields'
Life under the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s, kidnapped by the Contras and the first Walkman.
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The Stonewall riot
The riot that inspired the gay rights movement; genocide against the Kurds; and Catch-22
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The assassination of Medgar Evers
An American civil rights hero, a Chinese online star and the psychoanalyst CG Jung
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The first anti-psychotic drug
A mental health breakthrough, the end of the Kosovan war, and a trailblazing gay wedding.