HistoryExtra https://www.historyextra.com/author/dannybird Fri, 11 Sep 2026 10:20:24 GMT en hourly 1 Was Napoleon III the world's first populist leader? https://www.historyextra.com/membership/was-napoleon-iii-the-worlds-first-populist-leader/ Fri, 11 Sep 2026 10:20:11 GMT https://www.historyextra.com/membership/was-napoleon-iii-the-worlds-first-populist-leader/ Historian Edward Shawcross traces the strange path of Louis-Napoleon, from mocked pretender in exile to Emperor of the French Napoleon III's family was, in the words of historian Edward Shawcross, “the most cutthroat mafioso soap opera in the world”. Exiled to Switzerland as a boy and disowned by his own father, he spent years as a laughing stock of French politics, twice arrested trying to seize power.

Here, in conversation with Danny Bird, Edward traces Louis-Napoleon's strange path from mocked pretender in exile to Emperor of the French, and explores whether Napoleon III can really be regarded as an early populist dictator.

]]> Frida Kahlo: life of the week https://www.historyextra.com/membership/frida-kahlo-life-of-the-week/ Tue, 25 Aug 2026 10:17:24 GMT https://www.historyextra.com/membership/frida-kahlo-life-of-the-week/ Historian Patience Schell explores how trauma, politics and extraordinary artistic vision transformed Frida Kahlo into one of the most influential cultural figures of the modern age The arresting gaze, the stark monobrow, the intricate ribbons woven through the dark hair – Frida Kahlo's unmistakable image is recognised around the world today. Yet the woman behind the vivid self-portraits was far more complex than the icon she became.

In conversation with Danny Bird, historian Patience Schell explores how trauma, politics and extraordinary artistic vision transformed Kahlo into one of the most influential cultural figures of the modern age.

]]> Yuri Gagarin: life of the week https://www.historyextra.com/membership/yuri-gagarin-life-podcast/ Tue, 11 Aug 2026 08:51:10 GMT https://www.historyextra.com/membership/yuri-gagarin-life-podcast/ Asif Siddiqi tells the extraordinary story of the first human being to venture into space and orbit planet Earth Yuri Gagarin’s journey from a Nazi-occupied Soviet village into outer space make him one of the most famous people on Earth.

In this episode, historian Asif Siddiqi tells Danny Bird about the life behind the legend, revealing how Gagarin came to embody the USSR’s postwar ambitions and why his winning smile still evokes the optimism of humanity’s first steps into the cosmos.

]]> Alan Turing's greatest achievement wasn't cracking Enigma https://www.historyextra.com/membership/alan-turing-greatest-achievement-cracking-enigma-video/ Fri, 17 Jul 2026 09:03:43 GMT https://www.historyextra.com/membership/alan-turing-greatest-achievement-cracking-enigma-video/ Alan Turing is remembered for cracking the Enigma code during the Second World War – but his greatest legacy may have come afterwards… After his vital work helped to shorten the Second World War, Alan Turing turned his attention to an even more extraordinary question: can machines think?

More than 70 years before today's explosion in artificial intelligence, Turing imagined computers that could learn from experience, proposed what became known as the 'Turing Test', and helped lay the foundations for the digital world we now live in.

In this video, HistoryExtra's Danny Bird explores the remarkable life of one of the 20th century's greatest scientific minds – from his groundbreaking work at Bletchley Park to his pioneering research into computing, machine intelligence and biology.

We also examine the tragic persecution he faced as a gay man in post-war Britain, and how his reputation was transformed after his death.

Listen to the full podcast interview with David Kenyon

View Green Video on the source website]]> Pablo Picasso: life of the week https://www.historyextra.com/membership/pablo-picasso-life-of-the-week/ Tue, 07 Jul 2026 07:58:22 GMT https://www.historyextra.com/membership/pablo-picasso-life-of-the-week/ Sue Roe explores the life of Pablo Picasso – the revolutionary artist whose genius, turbulent romances and restless reinvention transformed modern art From his birth in 1881 to his death in 1973, Pablo Picasso lived a life as revolutionary as his art. A child prodigy who transformed modern art, his story is one of genius, reinvention, scandal and relentless creativity. In this episode, Danny Bird speaks to Sue Roe about the passions and upheavals that shaped the pioneer behind Cubism and masterpieces such as Guernica.

They explore Picasso’s rise from the bohemian streets of Paris to global fame, his turbulent relationships with the women who inspired his work, and the restless imagination that defined him until the very end.

Find out more about Picasso’s masterpiece Guernica, the Spanish Civil War and the history behind the atrocity that inspired him to paint it.

]]> Emma Goldman: life of the week https://www.historyextra.com/membership/emma-goldman-life-of-the-week-podcast/ Tue, 23 Jun 2026 08:22:15 GMT https://www.historyextra.com/membership/emma-goldman-life-of-the-week-podcast/ Ruth Kinna charts the revolutionary life of the pioneering anarchist, advocate of free love, feminism and early LGBTQ+ rights activist Anarchist, feminist, revolutionary: 19th-century activist and writer Emma Goldman emigrated from the Russian empire to the United States as a teenager, and spent decades challenging power and convention.

In this episode, Ruth Kinna tells Danny Bird about Goldman's extraordinary story – which intersects with American labour disputes, the Russian Revolution, and the Spanish Civil War – and her contributions to the causes of freedom and social change that still resonate today.

]]> How did communism conquer China? https://www.historyextra.com/membership/how-did-communism-conquer-china-podcast/ Wed, 13 May 2026 09:28:21 GMT https://www.historyextra.com/membership/how-did-communism-conquer-china-podcast/ Frank Dikötter unpicks the heroic myth of the plucky Chinese Communist Party's rise to power, arguing instead that Moscow's decades-long manoeuvring brought the world's most populous country into the Soviet camp in 1949 How did a tiny band of guerrillas come to rule a quarter of humanity? And was the outcome of the Chinese Civil War really the ‘heroic’ popular uprising that the People’s Republic portrays? In this episode of the HistoryExtra podcast, Danny Bird speaks to Frank Dikötter about the surprising reality behind the rise of the Communist Party of China – from its marginal beginnings in the 1920s and the myth of the Long March, to the decisive role of Stalin and the Soviet invasion of Manchuria in 1945.

Together they explore how violence, propaganda and military conquest – rather than mass popular support – culminated in the raising of the red flag over the Forbidden City in 1949.

]]> Niccolò Machiavelli: life of the week https://www.historyextra.com/membership/niccolo-machiavelli-life-of-the-week-podcast/ Tue, 05 May 2026 09:05:45 GMT https://www.historyextra.com/membership/niccolo-machiavelli-life-of-the-week-podcast/ Alexander Lee discusses Machiavelli's tumultuous life and times – how his surname became one of history's most sinister adjectives From obscure beginnings to torture, exile, and desperate reinvention, the biography of Renaissance diplomat and author Niccolò Machiavelli reads like political theatre at its most brutal.

In this episode, Alexander Lee speaks to Danny Bird about the man behind the myth. He presents Machiavelli as an 'everyman', who loved his family and friends, sang poetry, drank, gambled, and wrote by night, producing one of the most contentious books ever: The Prince. Long condemned as a manual for tyrants, might it instead be better to see it as a clear-eyed guide to political survival in unstable times?

]]> Was Elizabeth II's reign a golden age? https://www.historyextra.com/membership/was-elizabeth-iis-reign-a-golden-age/ Wed, 29 Apr 2026 10:11:27 GMT https://www.historyextra.com/membership/was-elizabeth-iis-reign-a-golden-age/ By the end of Elizabeth II's reign in 2022 – the longest in Britain’s history – the nation and its place in the world was markedly different. Sir David Cannadine guides Danny Bird through the contours of the Second Elizabethan Age. When the late Queen acceded to the throne in 1952, Britain, though left bankrupt and reeling from the Second World War, was still a major global power.

By the end of Elizabeth II's reign in 2022 – the longest in Britain’s history – the nation and its place in the world was markedly different. Sir David Cannadine guides Danny Bird through the contours of the Second Elizabethan Age – from 'de-Victorianisation' to deindustrialisation – and the ways in which the monarchy responded to such dizzying change.

]]> Stalin's murderous vendetta against Trotsky https://www.historyextra.com/membership/stalin-murderous-vendetta-against-trotsky-podcast/ Fri, 10 Apr 2026 09:44:52 GMT https://www.historyextra.com/membership/stalin-murderous-vendetta-against-trotsky-podcast/ Josh Ireland tells the story of Stalin's decades-long persecution of one of the Bolshevik Revolution's most famous leaders, Leon Trotsky Mexico City, August 1940: a study door closes, an ice axe is raised and the Bolshevik Revolution’s greatest exile meets his grisly end. But what led to this dramatic moment?

Danny Bird speaks to Josh Ireland about Josef Stalin’s mortal enemy and the story behind their deadly rivalry. From his affair with artist Frida Kahlo to the pitiless destruction of his family, Josh explains how this is a story of exile, obsession and the long reach of totalitarian power.

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