Explaining History

MI6 and the First World War – The Birth of the Secret State

In this episode of the Explaining History Podcast, we explore the origins of MI6 – the Secret Intelligence Service – during the First World War, drawing on Keith Jeffery's official history of the organisation.

Intelligence history matters, not because of the romantic glamour of espionage, but because of the place secret organisations occupy in the social and political history of the twentieth century. Britain's secret state did not emerge fully formed. It was improvised, contested, and shaped by the crises of global war – and by the personal tragedy of the man who built it.

In this episode, we examine the earliest years of the Secret Intelligence Service under Commander Mansfield Cumming – the original "C" of spy fiction fame. When the First World War broke out, the Secret Service was a fledgling organisation, born in a period of anti-German hysteria and fears about spies and infiltration. It had no clear place in the hierarchy of Whitehall. Cumming spent the first months of the war navigating between the War Office, the Admiralty and the Foreign Office – briefing each in turn, seeking approval for spending, and defending his institutional autonomy against successive military attempts to absorb his service.

We trace the chaotic, fluid movements of personnel in the opening months of the war, as the pressures of total war moved men around "like counters." We also examine Cumming's own tragedy – a motor accident in France that killed his only son and cost him part of a leg. The story grew, as stories do, into legend: Compton Mackenzie's embellished account of Cumming hacking off his own foot with a penknife to free himself. The reality was more prosaic – but the consequences were not. Cumming's incapacity brought the Secret Service more closely under War Office control and prompted GHQ in France to establish its own independent intelligence service.

**Topics covered:**
- The origins of MI6 and the Secret Intelligence Service
- Mansfield Cumming, the first "C"
- The interdepartmental battle for control of intelligence
- The War Office, Admiralty and Foreign Office
- The chaos and flux of wartime Whitehall
- Cumming's motor accident and the death of his son
- The growth of the secret state in wartime
- The mythology of intelligence work

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*Keith Jeffery's official history of MI6 is available from all good bookshops. Please consider buying from an independent retailer.*

*If you enjoy the podcast, please consider supporting us – we are migrating from Patreon to Substack. Details in the show notes.*
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In this solo episode of the Explaining History Podcast, we examine the recent electoral victory of the Alternative for Germany (AFD) in the state of Saxony-Anhalt – and what it tells us about the global resurgence of the far right.
The AFD's crushing victory has alarmed commentators around the world. An openly fascist party emerging in Germany has a special and terrifying significance. But as veteran left intellectual Tariq Ali argues in a powerful Substack essay, this is not an isolated phenomenon. It is part of a global trend – and it is a direct consequence of the failures of neoliberalism and the "extreme centre."
Ali writes that the election results "are not a huge surprise." The so-called firewall created by the extreme centre parties of the German elite has only aided the AFD's growth. The Christian Democratic Union, which won 37% in 2021, is now down to 18.5%. Meanwhile, Die Linke has won more votes than the Social Democratic Party, and the Sahra Wagenknecht Party has crossed the 5% threshold.
The problem, Ali argues, is that the political and economic elites insist "that no reforms are possible and the current form of capitalism is fixed indefinitely." Telling people that an economic system that erodes their living standards year after year is the only option has created a vacuum that the far right is only too happy to fill.
We also explore the historical context: the incomplete reckoning with Europe's fascist past, the failure of post-war denazification, and the erosion of the social democratic contract that once made Germany and other European countries resistant to extremism.
Topics covered:
The AFD's victory in Saxony-Anhalt
Tariq Ali's analysis of the rise of the far right
The failure of the "extreme centre"
Neoliberalism and the erosion of living standards
The collapse of the post-war social democratic contract
Europe's incomplete reckoning with fascism
The global nature of far-right resurgence
If you enjoy the podcast, please consider supporting us – we are migrating from Patreon to Substack. Details in the show notes.
Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share.
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# Episode Description

In this solo episode of the Explaining History Podcast, we tackle one of the most persistent problems in how we teach and understand the civil rights movement: the "happy ever after" narrative.

For many years, students have been taught that the struggles of the 1950s and 60s culminated in victory – that the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act somehow "solved" racism in America. This is, of course, nonsense. History doesn't work like that. The civil rights movement achieved significant gains, but the idea that racism was somehow "sorted" in 1968 is deeply misleading.

Drawing on Kevin Verney's excellent book *The Debate on Black Civil Rights in America*, we explore the historiographical challenges of writing about the post-1968 period. Historians are naturally cautious about passing judgment on recent decades, which means the story of African American life since 1980 is often reduced to a few paragraphs about the emergence of a black middle class – and, bizarrely, a section on performers like Michael Jackson and Will Smith.

We examine the debate around Jesse Jackson's presidential campaigns, the argument over whether race or class is the primary division in American society, and the continuing crisis of inner-city poverty and police violence that the "happy ever after" narrative conveniently ignores.

Topics covered:
- The "happy ever after" problem in civil rights historiography
- The challenge of writing about recent history
- Jesse Jackson and the debate over black political leadership
- Race vs. class in post-civil rights America
- William Julius Wilson and the "declining significance of race"
- Inner-city poverty and institutionalised racism
- The limitations of liberal reform

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*If you enjoy the podcast, please consider supporting us – we are migrating from Patreon to Substack. Details in the show notes.*
Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share.
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In this episode of the Explaining History Podcast, we continue our exploration of Eugene Rogan's masterful The Fall of the Ottomans, examining the fall of Baghdad to British forces in March 1917 – a victory that transformed Britain's position in the Middle East and revealed the imperial ambitions that would shape the post-war world.
The British capture of Baghdad was far from inevitable. The catastrophic surrender at Kut in April 1916 had left the War Cabinet deeply risk-averse. General Robertson, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, feared that occupying Baghdad would leave British forces isolated and vulnerable to a resurgent Ottoman army. He warned against being "compelled later to fall back for any reason because of the objectionable political effect that such a retirement might produce."

But pressure came from multiple directions. The Commander-in-Chief in India argued that seizing Baghdad would "greatly increase prestige in the Islamic East" – a crucial consideration given British fears of Muslim insurrection in India. And the Russians were proposing a spring offensive that might see them reach Baghdad first, which would "nullify the Sykes-Picot agreement." Oil, too, was already a factor – Mosul was understood to be the most reliable source of oil in the region.
General Maud, whose superstition led him to launch his offensive on the 13th of December with the 13th Division in the vanguard, pushed forward despite London's caution. The Ottomans, recognising that Baghdad could not be defended, evacuated the city. As they withdrew, they destroyed military installations – wireless masts, cranes, water tanks, and the pontoon bridge across the Tigris. Looting erupted, and the American consul, Oscar Heiser, rode out to find the British advance guard.
Maud's proclamation – drafted by Sir Mark Sykes, co-author of the Sykes-Picot Agreement – declared that the British came "not as conquerors or enemies, but as liberators." But the people of Baghdad were not convinced. As one Iraqi schoolboy recalled, "the people of Baghdad and of Iraq as a whole saw with their own eyes how the English treated the Iraqis as slaves or captives."
Topics covered:

The British War Cabinet's caution after Kut
The Russian threat and the Sykes-Picot Agreement
The strategic importance of oil
General Maud's superstitious command
The Ottoman evacuation of Baghdad
The destruction of Ottoman infrastructure
Looting and the restoration of order
Maud's proclamation and Iraqi scepticism
Britain's imperial ambitions in the Middle East
Eugene Rogan's The Fall of the Ottomans is available from all good bookshops. Please consider buying from an independent retailer.
If you enjoy the podcast, please consider supporting us – we are migrating from Patreon to Substack. Details in the show notes.
Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share.
▸ Support the Show & Get Exclusive Content
Become a Patron: patreon.com/explaininghistory
▸ Join the Community & Continue the Conversation
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Website: explaininghistory.org

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The Fall of Baghdad

In this solo episode of the Explaining History Podcast, we continue our exploration of Eugene Rogan's masterful The Fall of the Ottomans, examining the British campaign to capture Baghdad in 1917 – a victory that helped redeem the catastrophic humiliation of Kut.
The surrender at Kut in April 1916 had been one of the worst disasters in British military history. Thousands of British and Indian soldiers, starved into submission, were marched into captivity and then worked to death building Ottoman railways. The British government was deeply wary of any further advances in Mesopotamia. But the Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force, smarting from the stigma of defeat, was determined to score a victory.
Drawing on Rogan's narrative, we trace the campaign from the cautious advance on the Tigris to the fall of Baghdad. General Maud, a commander who had been wounded in France and was the last man off the beach at Gallipoli, was determined to break the Ottoman defences. Despite orders from London that barred an advance on the city, Maud pushed forward – driven in part by a superstitious belief that 13 was his lucky number.
The Ottoman Sixth Army, worn down by illness, desertion, and casualties, was desperately understrength. Halil Pasha had been forced to redeploy forces to confront a Russian threat on the Persian frontier, leaving Baghdad dangerously exposed. When the British finally broke through at the Shumran Bend, the Ottoman retreat became a rout – pursued by British gunboats that wreaked havoc on exhausted and demoralised Turkish soldiers.
The recapture of Kut was a symbolic victory. But the fall of Baghdad, which followed shortly after, was the first major British victory in the Middle East – a triumph that had eluded them since the beginning of the war.
Topics covered:
The disaster at Kut and its aftermath
General Maud's command and his superstitious beliefs
The Russian threat on the Persian frontier
The battle for Kut (December 1916 – February 1917)
The breakthrough at Shumran Bend
The Ottoman retreat and the naval pursuit
The symbolic recapture of Kut
British fears of Muslim insurrection in India
Eugene Rogan's The Fall of the Ottomans is available from all good bookshops. Please consider buying from an independent retailer.
If you enjoy the podcast, please consider supporting us – we are migrating from Patreon to Substack. Details in the show notes.
Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share.
▸ Support the Show & Get Exclusive Content
Become a Patron: patreon.com/explaininghistory
▸ Join the Community & Continue the Conversation
Facebook Group: facebook.com/groups/ExplainingHistoryPodcast
Substack: theexplaininghistorypodcast.substack.com
▸ Read Articles & Go Deeper
Website: explaininghistory.org

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.