{"podcast":{"title":"Explaining History","slug":"explaining-history-7091240","podcast_index_feed_id":7091240,"rss_url":"https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/55836c0e-56ef-4a51-a7cc-9055cd2a39c7","website_url":"http://www.explaininghistory.org","image_url":"https://assets.pippa.io/shows/60f6d9ac4a4aff65190f9c27/1767646091904-a5aed489-f452-4f74-af70-c7f8364b8d92.jpeg","author":"Nick Shepley","episode_count":964,"summary":"How do we make sense of the modern world? We find the answers in the history of the 20th Century. For over a decade, The Explaining History Podcast has been the guide for curious minds. Host Nick Shepley and expert guests break down the world wars, the Cold War, and the rise and fall of ideologies into concise, 25-minute episodes. This isn't a dry lecture. It's a critical, narrative-driven conversation that connects the past to your present. Perfect for students, history buffs, and anyone who wants to understand how we got here. Hit subscribe and start exploring. Join us at Explaining History for daily modern history articles and news. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.","last_synced_at":"2026-09-17T04:22:06.595928+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/explaining-history-7091240"},"episode":{"title":"The Fall of Baghdad 1917","slug":"the-fall-of-baghdad-1917","published_at":"2026-09-03T15:05:29+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/explaining-history-7091240/the-fall-of-baghdad-1917","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/explaining-history-7091240","url":"http://explaininghistory.org","audio_url":"https://sphinx.acast.com/p/acast/s/explaininghistory/e/6a998cbbbe980579610d4ca5/media.mp3","summary":"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.…","meta_description":"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 Ottoma…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":1497,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/explaining-history-7091240/episodes/the-fall-of-baghdad-1917/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/explaining-history-7091240/the-fall-of-baghdad-1917.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}