Entirely Unofficial Rest is History Catalogue and Interrogator

Contemporary Era (Post-1991)

161 Episodes 28 Series 123 Figures 41 Events 438 Books 313 Authors

The post-1991 contemporary era (1991–present) episodes examine politics, culture, sport and public health. Series include American Crusades (Christianity and US foreign policy and warfare), Australian Prime Ministers (federal leadership across the 20th–21st centuries), Disease (the history and impact of infectious disease), Great World Cup Saga (national histories framed by the FIFA World Cup) and Historical Love Island (which historical figures would fare in contemporary dating scenarios). Episodes treat topics such as historical fiction, dragons in culture, civil-war patterns and World Cup politics. Figures discussed include George Lucas, Kemi Batenock, Penny Mordaunt, Robert Reich, David Stockman, Nicholas Fraser, Satnam Sanghera and Anthony Scaramucci. Events covered include the 2014 World Cup, 2012 London opening ceremony, the 2001 UK election, the 2024 US presidential election, the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition, Redfern Park speech and Russia’s early-1990s privatization; books cited include Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, Britannia Unchained, Benjamin Barber’s Jihad vs. McWorld and Cormac McCarthy’s The Road.

Timeline Subway

Episodes Series Figures Events Books Authors

Episodes by year

Showing 12 of 161

2022

10 episodes

Putin's Russia (Episode 4)

The End of the Soviet Union · Part 4

This is the fourth and final episode of a four-episode Rest Is History series on recent Russian history. Tom Holland an…

The Fall of the Soviet Empire (Episode 2)

The End of the Soviet Union

Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook discuss the collapse of the Soviet Union, tracing developments from the late 1980s th…

RIHC: Zelenskyy, le Carré and Tom's drive from Hamburg to Berlin

This bonus episode is a wide-ranging, informal conversation between Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook. They open discus…

ARCHIVE: Ukraine and the United Kingdom

This episode, originally recorded in June 2021 and re-uploaded in February 2022, is a special on Anglo‑Ukrainian relati…

Ukraine and Russia

This special edition episode is a rapid historical sweep through Ukrainian history prompted by recent Russian actions. …

God and the American Empire

American Crusades · Part 2

Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook host Professor Andrew Preston to discuss the role of religion in American history and…

Disease vs. the rise of civilisation (Part 1)

Disease · Part 1

This episode is an interview with historian Kyle Harper about his book Plagues Upon the Earth. Harper traces the deep h…

RIHC: Reputations (Livestream)

Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook discuss how reputations are made, unmade and revised across history. They open with G…

RIHC: Ian Paisley vs. Otto von Habsburg, horse riding in the Wild West, and why Margaret Thatcher went into politics

This bonus episode features Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook responding to listener feedback from their recent run of …

RIHC: History and the Cinema (live show)

This is a Rest Is History live bonus episode recorded at the Odeon Leicester Square in front of a large audience. Tom H…

2021

2 episodes

31 Dec: Jean-Bédel Bokassa and the memory of pandemics

12 (or 13) Days of Christmas · Part 8

In this year-end episode (31 December 2021) Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook continue their "12 Days of Christmas" min…

25 Dec: Coronation of Charlemagne and the collapse of the Soviet Union

12 (or 13) Days of Christmas · Part 2

This Christmas Day episode of The Rest Is History (the first of a 12 Days of Christmas mini-series) features Tom Hollan…

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Series in this era

28 series

Great World Cup Saga

4 episodes Aired: 2022-11-17 – 2022-11-29

The End of the Soviet Union

4 episodes Aired: 2022-03-07

12 (or 13) Days of Christmas

3 episodes Aired: 2021-12-25

Historical Love Island

2 episodes Aired: 2022-07-11 – 2022-07-13

Oil

2 episodes Aired: 2022-03-24

Queen's Platinum Jubilee

2 episodes Aired: 2022-05-30

Silicon Valley

2 episodes Aired: 2021-11-27

Titanic

2 episodes Aired: 2024-03-11 – 2024-03-13

World Cup of Prime Ministers

2 episodes Aired: 2021-11-27

Afghanistan

1 episode Aired: 2021-11-27

Historical figures

123 tagged

Vladimir Putin

28 episodes

Donald Trump

17 episodes

Tony Blair

16 episodes

George W. Bush (George Walker Bush / George Walker Bush)

13 episodes

Boris Johnson

12 episodes

Diana, Princess of Wales

11 episodes

Queen Elizabeth II

11 episodes

Boris Yeltsin (Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin)

9 episodes

Charles III (King of the United Kingdom)

9 episodes

Gordon Brown

9 episodes

Historical events

41 tagged

Brexit (2016 referendum and aftermath)

15 episodes

September 11 attacks (11 September 2001)

13 episodes

Collapse of the Soviet Union (1991)

11 episodes

Russian invasion of Ukraine (2022– )

11 episodes

Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation (2014)

9 episodes

COVID-19 pandemic

9 episodes

Iraq War (2003 invasion of Iraq)

8 episodes

2022 FIFA World Cup (Qatar)

6 episodes

Scottish independence referendum (2014)

6 episodes

Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee (2022)

5 episodes

Books

438 tagged

Dominion

Author: Tom Holland

18 episodes

Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic

Author: Tom Holland

15 episodes

Persian Fire: The First World Empire and the Battle for the West

Author: Tom Holland

8 episodes

Pax: War and Peace in Rome's Golden Age

Author: Tom Holland

7 episodes

Tom Brown's School Days

Author: Thomas Hughes

5 episodes

Blood Meridian

Author: Cormac McCarthy

4 episodes

Flashman (series )

Author: George MacDonald Fraser

4 episodes

In the Shadow of the Sword

Author: Tom Holland

4 episodes

Nineteen Eighty-Four

Author: George Orwell

4 episodes

Bleak House

Author: Charles Dickens

3 episodes

Authors

313 tagged

Tom Holland

32 episodes

Dominic Sandbrook

11 episodes

Traditional Attribution or Various

8 episodes

Charles Dickens

7 episodes

George MacDonald Fraser

7 episodes

Robert Harris

7 episodes

Cormac McCarthy

5 episodes

Thomas Hughes

5 episodes

Francis Fukuyama

4 episodes

Robert Graves

4 episodes