HistoryExtra
type: channel
link: https://www.historyextra.com
description: Home of Britain’s bestselling history magazine and award-winning podcast
date: 2026-03-16T16:29:41.000Z
update period: hourly
update frequency: 1
update base: 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00
items: Winston Churchill created the special relationship. Could Donald Trump kill it?
items: The relentless rise of the mafia: a grisly tale of extortion, execution and Don Corleone
items: How Rasputin helped doom the Romanovs
items: 16 remarkable moments in the history of the Oscars
items: "We shall never surrender": 14 quotes that have defined the past century
items: Vladimir Lenin: life of the week
items: Why Britons rejected fascism in the 1930s
items: The hidden history behind Mount Rushmore
items: What inspired the darkness of Lord of the Flies? The disturbing history behind the novel
items: I’ve just been to Europe’s weirdest theme park – and came face to face with Josef Stalin

Winston Churchill created the special relationship. Could Donald Trump kill it?
type: item
date: 2026-03-16T16:29:41.000Z
creator: James Osborne
subject: 20th Century
subject: 21st Century
subject: Cold War
subject: Period
subject: Discover / Apple News
description: From the Suez Crisis and Vietnam, to 21st-century political tensions, the alliance between Britain and the United States has been declared dead – or dying – many times
encoded: Few diplomatic partnerships have been declared to be on life support quite as often as the so-called ‘special relationship’ between the United Kingdom and the United States. The phrase refers to the theoretically unique presumption of shared understanding and cooperation that has existed between the two countries in the decades since the Second World War. But did the special relationship ever actually exist? And if it does, what exactly does it mean in the cold light of day? “This is a perennial subject of discussion,” says historian Sam Edwards, speaking on the HistoryExtra podcast. “You could probably go back to the 1960s to find the first obituary of the special relationship – the first moment where commentators were asking the question: is the special relationship done and dusted, or can it survive?” Those debates have resurfaced repeatedly whenever London and Washington DC have had public differences over foreign policy or military strategy. It’s a question that has arisen once again in March 2026, as President Trump has instigated a new wave of military operations in the Middle East, albeit without Downing Street’s unconditional support. Winston Churchill coins the phrase The term ‘special relationship’ has been in the political vocabulary for 80 years, making an entrance in the early days of the Cold War. In March 1946, Winston Churchill travelled to Fulton, Missouri to deliver a speech formally titled Sinews of Peace. Churchill was no longer the UK’s prime minister at the time – he had lost the 1945 British general election – but he remained one of the most influential political figures of the era. The Second World War had ended less than a year earlier, but tensions between the Soviet Union and western powers were already hardening along ideological faultlines. Churchill used the speech to warn about Soviet expansion across eastern Europe, and what he saw as the impending threat of communism. As Sam Edwards explains, the speech is “famous for two evocative …

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The relentless rise of the mafia: a grisly tale of extortion, execution and Don Corleone
type: item
date: 2026-03-16T15:30:47.000Z
subject: 20th Century
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Historical people
subject: Murder
description: The 20th century was a golden age for organised crime groups. Ryan Gingeras reveals how gangs from the Sicilian Mafia to Mexico’s cartels capitalised on political chaos, economic upheaval and mass migration to spread their tentacles around the world
encoded: In the early 1860s Sicily was incorporated into the Kingdom of Italy. Soon after, visitors to the island discovered what they believed was a criminal fraternity at work in Palermo and its environs. That fraternity – the ‘Mafia’ – possessed secret rites and bylaws that governed its members. Chief among their rules was the vow of silence, omertà, when it came to their interactions with the police. Many assumed this ‘honoured society’ was born out of the prisons of Palermo, a place where hardened criminals mixed with members of secret revolutionary organisations. Before 1900, Mafiosi distinguished themselves by a clear pattern of criminal behaviour. Brigand gangs who robbed travellers on the roads were bound to the Mafia. Large landowners and government officials abetted the murders, thefts and acts of extortion mafiosi committed. Yet there were aspects of what Mafia was that remained difficult to pin down. Mafiosi, Palermo’s mayor told one public enquiry, could be “anyone who has self-respect and has a certain exaggerated pride, and the inclination to not be overwhelmed but to overwhelm others, the will to appear courageous, to be ready to fight, and so on”. For people in the 19th century, what made Sicily’s Mafia significant was the threat it posed to the government in Rome. Mafiosi appeared to rule the island from the shadows. The violence associated with them was used to intimidate citizens and to demonstrate its power to the Italian capital. In the global context, the Sicilian Mafia seemed to be a part of a pattern. Other secret organisations were challenging states and empires in the hopes of winning self-rule or overthrowing governments. By the start of the 20th century, commentators outside of Italy began characterising nationalist guerrillas, anarchists and other revolutionaries as ‘mafias’ in their own right. The first generations Colloquially speaking, the word ‘mafia’ is often used as shorthand for groups involved in organised crime. But not every gang enjo…

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How Rasputin helped doom the Romanovs
type: item
date: 2026-03-16T08:00:17.000Z
creator: Danny Bird
subject: 20th Century
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Victorian
description: Antony Beevor tells the story of Grigori Rasputin, the peasant healer who captivated Russia's last tsar and his consort, embroiling the Romanov dynasty in scandal and its own destruction
encoded: The life of Grigori Rasputin, the Siberian peasant healer who wielded influence over the family of Russia’s last tsar, has fascinated the world for more than a century. Historian Antony Beevor speaks to Danny Bird about the man behind the myth and rumour, charting Rasputin’s humble origins in Siberia, his hold over Nicholas II and Alexandra, and his dramatic assassination at the hands of the imperial couple’s own relatives.

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16 remarkable moments in the history of the Oscars
type: item
date: 2026-03-15T19:00:13.000Z
creator: Ellie Cawthorne
subject: 20th Century
subject: 21st Century
subject: General Modern
subject: Period
subject: TV interest
description: When was the first Academy Awards? How many Oscars did Titanic win in 1998? Why did Will Smith slap Chris Rock? Here's everything you needed to know about the history of the most notable event in the film industry calendar...
encoded: The Academy Awards were first held in 1929, and each year the film industry awards gold-plated statuettes – commonly called Oscars – in a glittering and star-studded ceremony. Officially the Academy Award of Merit, everyone knows the golden knight holding a sword and standing on a reel of film as Oscar. Cedric Gibbons, art director at movie studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, gets the credit for designing the statuette but not for naming it. Read more | The best historical movies of all time There are three theories. Hollywood journalist Sidney Skolsky always maintained he thought it up as a less-grandiose antidote to the pretentiousness of the award ceremony. Meanwhile, actor Bette Davis claimed she once remarked the statuette’s backside resembled that of her husband, Harmon Oscar Nelson. The most likely winner, however, is Margaret Herrick, a librarian at the Academy, who said the knight (not just his rear) looked like her uncle Oscar. But how much do you really know about the history of the awards themselves, and the dramatic moments that have played out on the biggest night of the Hollywood calendar? The history of the Oscars: 16 key moments 1929: The first ceremony takes place Founded by Louis B Mayer, head of MGM studios, in 1927, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was intended as a non-profit organisation with the goal of advancing the film industry. The first Academy Award ceremony took place two years later at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, on 16 May 1929. Tickets for the private dinner cost $5 and the presentation ceremony hosted by Douglas Fairbanks (actor and first president of the Academy) lasted just 15 minutes. The film industry was undergoing a dramatic change at the time, with the revolutionary introduction of new sound technology. Although hugely popular ‘talkies’ such as The Jazz Singer (1927) had been released before the first Academy Awards, they were not considered, because it was seen as unfair to compare them to silent movies. Read more …

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"We shall never surrender": 14 quotes that have defined the past century
type: item
date: 2026-03-13T15:54:08.000Z
creator: Dr Seán Lang
subject: 20th Century
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Civil rights
subject: Historical people
subject: Wartime Britain
description: Words have the power to alter the course of history. They can harden the resolve of an entire nation or people, encapsulate the ideals of a movement, and evoke joy – or provoke anger – long after they have been said. Here, Dr Seán Lang explores 14 of the most influential quotes of the past 100 years
encoded: <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2026/03/RooseveltGettyImages-464783507-622899f-e1773405930967.jpg" width="1500" height="1000" alt="Franklin D. Roosevelt sits at a desk in an official setting, with papers, a microphone, glasses, and an ashtray arranged in front of him, heavy curtains framing the background." title="President Franklin D Roosevelt prepares for his inaugural speech, 1933. The former New York governor had won the presidency based on his promised ‘New Deal’, which lasted until the Second World War (Image by Getty Images)" /> 1. “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself” Franklin D Roosevelt, 1933 The United States lay devastated by the Great Depression, an economic collapse without precedent that destroyed the country’s global image as a land of opportunity and reduced millions of Americans to poverty and destitution. The governor of New York, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, had run for and won the presidency on the promise of a massive recovery programme, dubbed the ‘New Deal’, but he knew he could do nothing unless the American people first regained their self-belief. In his inaugural address on 4 March 1933, Roosevelt reassured them that they had nothing to fear, except fear itself – “nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror, which paralyses needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.” The New Deal lasted throughout the 1930s until World War II set the country back towards full employment. Through the programme of reforms, regulations and projects, Roosevelt understood the power of words. He explained policies simply and clearly to radio listeners in his ‘fireside chats’, reassuring Americans that they had what it would take to improve their own lives and that the government would help. Roosevelt was elected an unprecedented four times, but it was that first inaugural message that set the tone for his time in office and helped give back the US its self-belief. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production…

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Vladimir Lenin: life of the week
type: item
date: 2026-03-10T08:00:46.000Z
creator: Danny Bird
subject: 20th Century
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Victorian
subject: Life of the week (podcast series)
description: Lara Douds discusses the life, ideas and legacy of Vladimir Lenin – the revolutionary who reshaped the 20th century
encoded: Few people had as much impact on the course of the 20th century as Vladimir Lenin – from his years as an émigré across the capitals of western Europe, to his role in the October Revolution of 1917 and the inception of the world’s first self-described ‘socialist’ state. In this episode, historian Lara Douds speaks to Danny Bird about the revolutionary leader, from his radical theories and his elevation in some quarters to a saintlike figure, to his contested legacy in Putin’s Russia and around the world.

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Why Britons rejected fascism in the 1930s
type: item
date: 2026-03-09T08:00:36.000Z
creator: Spencer Mizen
subject: 20th Century
subject: Membership
subject: Period
description: While dictators such as Hitler and Stalin were on the rise, interwar Britain chose a more moderate path – Alwyn Turner explains why
encoded: The 1920s and 30s were golden decades for extremism. Across Europe, dictators including Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini goose-stepped their way into power, but in Britain, it was a different story. Here, in conversation with Spencer Mizen, Alwyn Turner explains why – with a little help from the football pools, the Women's Institute and the Lambeth Walk – parliamentary democracy reigned supreme. If you'd like to hear more from Alwyn, you can listen to him discuss 1950s Britain on the HistoryExtra podcast. Go beyond the podcast.

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The hidden history behind Mount Rushmore
type: item
date: 2026-03-04T08:00:03.000Z
creator: Elinor Evans
subject: 20th Century
subject: Membership
subject: Period
description: What do four giant faces carved into a mountainside really tell us about the United States? Historian Matthew Davis unearths the deeper story behind Mount Rushmore – from Indigenous displacement to nationalist ambition
encoded: Mount Rushmore is one of the most iconic images in US history – but its story is far more complex and controversial than that of a simple sculpture. In this episode, historian Matthew Davis joins Elinor Evans to discuss his latest book, A Biography of a Mountain, which delves into the layers of myth and meaning behind the granite. Davis explains how the Black Hills – sacred to the Lakota Nation – were seized in violation of treaties, and how sculptor Gutzon Borglum, a man with ties to the Ku Klux Klan, came to carve the faces of four presidents on to a mountainside.

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What inspired the darkness of Lord of the Flies? The disturbing history behind the novel
type: item
date: 2026-03-01T20:00:09.000Z
creator: Danny Bird
subject: 20th Century
subject: Cold War
subject: Period
subject: Second World War
subject: Trends-Entertainment
description: The first TV adaptation of William Golding’s haunting 1954 novel Lord of the Flies premiered on BBC One in February 2026. This disturbing and mesmeric four-part series of the modern classic challenges viewers to ponder human nature. Here, we look at the history of Golding’s dystopian masterpiece, and the real-life events that inspired him to write it
encoded: William Golding wrote Lord of the Flies in the shadow of the 1930s’ ideological polarisation, the Second World War and the Holocaust. These had convinced him that evil was not an aberration but was deeply ingrained in the human condition. He recognised that the Nazis had not simply imposed their murderous regime through sheer force alone, but that millions of everyday people had acquiesced or enthusiastically gone along with it. And though many in the postwar years assured themselves that they’d never have participated in its savagery, Golding was less sanguine. Read more | The myth of the innocent bystander: conformity and complicity in Nazi Germany “My book was to say: you think that the war is over and an evil thing destroyed. You are safe because you are naturally kind and decent,” he wrote while reflecting on the success of Lord of the Flies. “But I know why the thing rose in Germany. I know it could happen in any country.” As the most destructive conflict in history gave way to the Cold War and the mounting threat of nuclear annihilation, Golding’s bleak verdict seemed apposite. In later years, he maintained that “man produces evil as a bee produces honey.” Who was William Golding? Golding was born in 1911 in Newquay, Cornwall and raised in Marlborough, Wiltshire. He trained as a teacher, gaining first-hand insights into boys’ hierarchies and social rituals – knowledge that would later inform the tribalism in Lord of the Flies. Serving in the Royal Navy during the Second World War, he took part in the D-Day landings at Gold Beach in June 1944. The experience was formative, as he witnessed the machinery and the immense destructive capacity of modern warfare. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2026/02/WilliamGolding1983-2a64892-e1772205569790.jpg" width="1500" height="1500" alt="Black-and-white portrait of author William Golding in 1983, showing the Nobel laureate with a full white beard and wispy hair, wearing a collared jacket…

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I’ve just been to Europe’s weirdest theme park – and came face to face with Josef Stalin
type: item
date: 2026-03-01T15:30:45.000Z
subject: 20th Century
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Communism
subject: Historical people
subject: Second World War battles
description: There aren’t many theme parks that place statues of Soviet leaders next to Snow White and her seven dwarfs, but you’ll find one in southern Lithuania. Keith Lowe takes us on a tour of one of Europe’s most bizarre – and controversial – tourist attractions
encoded: I am standing in a clearing in a Lithuanian forest, surrounded by guard towers and electrified fences. To all intents and purposes, it looks like I’m in a Soviet prison camp. Up above me a loudspeaker barks out orders in Russian. I hurry along a corridor of barbed wire. Up ahead, peeping ominously through the trees, I can see the barrel of an anti-aircraft gun. But all is not as it seems. It doesn’t take long to realise that the loudspeaker is playing some sort of recording on a loop. The guards in the towers are not real either, but poorly disguised mannequins in theatre costume. And who are they guarding? Beneath them, in the barbed wire enclosure, is a row of Communist statues and half a dozen grazing llamas. Further along there are emus, cockatoos, a depressed-looking brown bear, and some statues of mass murderers. As for the gun, when I reach it, I discover that the only thing it is guarding is a children’s playground. Rifles and roundabouts, cockatoos and cattle-trucks, Lenin and llamas: welcome to Grūtas Park, Europe’s weirdest open-air museum. Its combination of terror and kitsch is so controversial that it almost got shut down. I first came here in 2018 as part of my research for a study of Second World War monuments. But I felt compelled to return, because I still can’t quite believe that this place actually exists. A brutal past Grūtas Park has its roots in Lithuania’s very troubled history. Like several of its Baltic neighbours, Lithuania began the 20th century as part of Russia and only gained its independence in the chaotic aftermath of the First World War. Just over 20 years later, at the beginning of the Second World War, it was invaded by Soviet troops all over again. Then came the Nazis, followed once again by the Soviets three years later – and with each new invasion came new brutality. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2026/02/42Y7B3TJ-ac517fe-e1772189389657.jpg" width="1500" height="1000" alt="A black‑and‑white…

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