Entirely Unofficial Rest is History Catalogue and Interrogator

Enlightenment & Age of Revolutions

121 Episodes 25 Series 144 Figures 85 Events 315 Books 229 Authors

Spanning the late 17th through the early 19th centuries, this era covers Enlightenment ideas, political revolutions, imperial expansion and early industrialization. Content includes multi-episode series on the American Revolution (colonial prosperity, protest and war), the 1805 Battle of Trafalgar (naval strategy, geopolitics), Captain Cook (Pacific voyages and encounters), London Week (from Roman Londinium to later landmarks and personalities), and a four-part life-and-legacy study of Lord Byron. Sample episodes address the Industrial Revolution (interview with Emma Griffin), Henry Fielding (London: People Ep. 3), Nelson-era extras on Emma Hamilton, and the summer 1792 crisis in the French Revolution. Figures, events and books discussed include Louis XVIII, Sir John Jervis, Charles Cornwallis, Le Chapelier Law (1791), Glorious First of June (1794), Jacobite Rising (1745), the Industrial Revolution, Gulliver’s Travels, and An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States.

Timeline Subway

Episodes Series Figures Events Books Authors

Episodes by year

Showing 12 of 121

2023

7 episodes

The Birth of the United States (Part 3)

American Revolution · Part 3

This episode — the third in The Rest Is History's American Revolution series — features hosts Tom Holland and Dominic S…

The Boston Tea Party (Part 2)

American Revolution · Part 2

This episode (the second in The Rest Is History's series on the American War of Independence) explores the escalation f…

Ireland: Celts, Conquest and Cromwell (Ep 1)

Ireland (S1) · Part 1

Recorded at the GPO in Dublin with guest Professor Paul Rouse, Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook trace roughly 800 year…

The Freemasons: History's Greatest Conspiracy Theory

Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook host John Dickey to discuss his book The Craft: How the Freemasons Made the Modern Wo…

Coronations: Chaos, Ceremony and Empire (Ep 3)

Coronations · Part 3

Hosts Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook conclude their multi-episode tour of British coronations, tracing the shift fro…

The First Abolitionist

This episode examines the life and activism of Benjamin Lay (1681–1759), an eccentric Quaker activist whose experiences…

RIHC: The American Revolution, Dutch history, and excessive tweeting

Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook open with light conversation about Tom's trip to the Netherlands to see the Vermeer e…

2022

5 episodes

Drink

Hosts Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook record from Berry Brothers with guest Henry Jeffries to discuss the history of …

England: Beef and Liberty

Great World Cup Saga · Part 32

This episode examines the cultural and political history of roast beef as an English national emblem. Tom Holland and D…

Cameroon: The Slave General of Peter the Great

Great World Cup Saga · Part 25

Hosts Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook present a Rest Is History World Cup special episode about Avram Petrovich Ganni…

RIHC: Treason, Trafalgar and Teaching (livestream)

This live bonus episode is an informal, wide‑ranging conversation between hosts Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook recor…

Treason in Modern Britain (Ep 2)

Hosts Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook visit the National Archives exhibition "Treason: People, Power and Plot" with N…

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Series in this era

25 series

The French Revolution - Season 2 (July 2024)

9 episodes Aired: 2024-07-28 – 2024-08-14

Nelson (S2)

8 episodes Aired: 2025-10-08 – 2025-11-05

Founding Fathers

5 episodes Aired: 2026-06-28 – 2026-07-23

Nelson (S1)

5 episodes Aired: 2024-11-18

The French Revolution - Season 3 (October 2024)

5 episodes Aired: 2024-10-13 – 2024-10-14

American Revolution

4 episodes Aired: 2023-07-03

London's Golden Age

4 episodes Aired: 2026-03-09

The French Revolution - Season 1 (March 2024)

4 episodes Aired: 2025-03-03

The Great Northern War

4 episodes Aired: 2025-05-11

Battle of Trafalgar

3 episodes Aired: 2022-10-17

Historical figures

144 tagged

Napoleon Bonaparte (Napoleon I of the French)

42 episodes

Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson

37 episodes

Louis XVI of France

28 episodes

Marie Antoinette (born Maria Antonia of Austria)

27 episodes

George III (King George)

23 episodes

Samuel Johnson

21 episodes

Maximilien Robespierre

20 episodes

Emma (Lady) Hamilton

19 episodes

George Washington

19 episodes

William Pitt (The Younger)

19 episodes

Historical events

85 tagged

French Revolution (1789–1799)

36 episodes

Napoleonic era (c. 1799–1815)

22 episodes

American Revolutionary War (American War of Independence, 1775–1783)

19 episodes

Battle of Trafalgar (1805)

19 episodes

Storming of the Bastille (14 July 1789)

19 episodes

Battle of the Nile (1798)

16 episodes

Flight to Varennes (1791, Varennes)

13 episodes

Reign of Terror (1793–1794, France)

13 episodes

Industrial Revolution

10 episodes

Insurrection and attack on the Tuileries (10 August 1792)

10 episodes

Books

315 tagged

Adventures in Time: Nelson, a Hero of the Seas

Author: Dominic Sandbrook

9 episodes

Dominion

Author: Tom Holland

7 episodes

Citizens

Author: Simon Sharma

6 episodes

A Tale of Two Cities

Author: Charles Dickens

4 episodes

Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen

Author: National Constituent Assembly (France)

4 episodes

Pride and Prejudice

Author: Jane Austen

4 episodes

Reflections on the Revolution in France

Author: Edmund Burke

4 episodes

Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic

Author: Tom Holland

4 episodes

The Revolutionary Temper

Author: Robert Danton

4 episodes

A Place of Greater Safety

Author: Hilary Mantel

3 episodes

Authors

229 tagged

Dominic Sandbrook

12 episodes

Tom Holland

10 episodes

Simon Sharma

8 episodes

Thomas Paine

6 episodes

Charles Dickens

5 episodes

Jane Austen

5 episodes

Edmund Burke

4 episodes

Hilary Mantel

4 episodes

National Constituent Assembly (France)

4 episodes

Robert Danton

4 episodes