The History of the Twentieth Century

The Second World War offered African Americans new opportunities and new political clout.

The United States had its Manhattan Project. Germany had its rockets.

By 1944, the United States had developed the facilities to produce U-235 and plutonium in sufficient quantities. The last problem was how to design and build a bomb that would detonate an atomic explosion when you wanted it, but not before.

The war made life in the Soviet Union very difficult. Even by Soviet standards, the government took an unprecedented degree of control over the allocation of labor and of food. Despite food shortages, there was no mass opposition as there had been in 1917.

The British had to deal with many more shortages of food and fuel and consumer goods than did Americans. And they had to worry about the Luftwaffe.

The war put Americans in the unfamiliar position of enduring limits on what they could buy or eat, even how much they could drive their cars.

The Allies invade southern France, close the Falaise pocket, and the German line collapses. Soon the Allies are advancing on Paris.

When Patton's Third Army broke through the front line, the Germans had a serious problem.

The Polish Home Army makes a last-ditch effort to assert the authority of the government in exile, while Romania successfully switches sides.

Hitler exacts retribution for the assassination attempt against him, while in France, the Americans break out of Normandy.

Bloody inconclusive fighting in Normandy, and the Democratic Party nominates Roosevelt for a fourth term.

There had been grumbling about Hitler in the Army since 1938, but by 1944 a group of officers were determined to get rid of him and overthrow the Nazi government.

The Soviet summer offensive of 1944, "Operation Bagration," costs the German Army virtually an entire army group.

In 1944, Franklin Roosevelt's health began to fail, while Stalin made good on his pledge to begin a Soviet offensive in June.

The China and Burma fronts remained relatively quiet for two years. That changed in 1944.

In this episode, we conclude the story of the American occupation of Saipan, while US commanders ponder the question of where to strike next.

When the Americans attacked Saipan, the Japanese saw a final opportunity to force that decisive battle they'd been yearning for. 

The initial Normandy invasions were moderately successful. Casualties were lighter than feared. But D-Day was not the end; it was only the beginning.

We conclude our look at the Normandy invasion by examining events at Sword, Juno, Gold, and especially Omaha Beaches.

In this episode we look at the Normandy amphibious landings generally, then focus on the US assault on Utah Beach.

The Normandy landings began at dawn on June 6, 1944, but the night before three Allied airborne divisions were dropped into Normandy to help prepare the way for the amphibious landings.

The German military was occupying many European countries, which put British and American bomber commanders in the awkward position of bombing nations that were supposedly their allies.

In this Christmas bonus episode, I answer listener questions.

In May 1944, Allied forces in Italy began an offensive that finally broke the Gustav Line. Soon Americans were marching into Rome. At the same time, Allied forces in Britain were making final preparations for the invasion of France.

In this episode, we look at some of the preparations both sides' militaries were making for the coming invasion of France, as well as the tricky problem the Allies faced in keeping Charles de Gaulle on board.

As America geared up for war, and then entered the war, African Americans fought to claim a role in the battle against fascism.

During the interwar period, African Americans pushed back against the US military's explicit racism.

Boogie-woogie went mainstream in America during the war, as evidenced by the music of Glenn Miller and the Andrews Sisters.

The Americans were on the offensive in the Southwest Pacific, and after Tarawa, in the Central Pacific. As they advanced, Japanese military leaders scrambled to find a way to stop the Americans.

As soon as Allied leaders chose Normandy as the site of the Operation Overlord invasion, British intelligence set to work convincing the Germans that the invasion would be somewhere else.

The Allied campaign in Italy stalled, and British and American leaders were searching for a way to break the stalemate on the peninsula. Winston Churchill suggested an amphibious invasion behing enemy lines.

The war era (1939-45) saw the beginning of the end of the big band era. Part of this decline was due to two key strikes in the music industry.

The Holocaust should not be viewed as strictly a Nazi project or even a German project. Millions of people across Europe share responsibility for those crimes.

When Hitler learned that the Hungarian government was attempting to make a separate peace with the Allies, he ordered the German military to occupy Hungary, which was also the home of the largest surviving Jewish community in Axis-occupied Europe.

The US tries out a new strategy against Japan, but the American public is shocked by the cost. 

A look at some prominent blues singers, plus Judy Garland and her most famous role, as Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz.

The Allies hoped their invasion of the Italian mainland would lead to a rapid occupation of Italy, but the Germans put up a defense that slowed their advance to a crawl.

The German Army continued to retreat westward over the winter of 1943-44, abandoning most of Ukraine. Red Army pressure was relentless, not giving the Germans any opportunity to establish a strong defensive line.

The Big Three--Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill--met and conferred together for the first time in November 1943. It was the most important meeting of world leaders since the Paris Peace Conference of 1919.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, created in 1924 by the merger of three film production companies, quickly rose to become the most successful studio of the era. The record box office for the 1939 film Gone with the Wind represents the studio at its height.

The Japanese "Zero" fighter plane played an important role in Japan's amazing victories early in the Pacific war. But by 1943, the Zero (and its pilots) were falling behind their Allied counterparts.

Continuing from the previous episode, we examine events in multiple theaters in August-September 1943

An eventful period in July-August 1943, when there were major developments on the Eastern Front, in the Mediterranean, and in the Pacific.

The history of Paramount Pictures, one of the oldest and most prominent film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age.

The end of the Battle of Kursk did not mean the end of the Red Army advance. The Germans withdrew, but the Red Army just kept coming.

Hundreds of thousands died in Leningrad during the winter of 1941-42, but with spring came new hope. Composer Dmitri Shostakovich's latest symphony became a patriotic anthem, and not only in the USSR.

As war raged around the globe, the city of Leningrad suffered under a German siege that lasted 872 days.

In this episode, we look at Twentieth Century-Fox, John Ford, Shirley Temple, John Wayne, and Alfred Hitchcock.

Resistance against the Nazis could take many forms.

Some of the biggest successes (and biggest failures) of European resistance movements and their guides in Britain.