The History Book Buffs
Welcome to The History Book Buffs. For reviews and chat about history books, fact and fiction, hosted by award-winning historian Roger Moorhouse, and novelist and critic Antonia Senior.
🔎 Discover new and classic titles, with two history-obsessed writers
💬 Join a community of readers who love history
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
YouTubeRecent Episodes
March 12, 2026
The Death of Trotsky | Stalin, Espionage and Assassination – with Josh Ireland
In this episode of History Book Buffs , Antonia Senior talks to historian Josh Ireland about his gripping book The Death of Trotsky , which tells the extraordinary story of how Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin hunted down his gr...
March 10, 2026
Murder or Suicide? The Cold War Death of Jan Masaryk. A Buffs in Brief special
In March 1948, Jan Masaryk , the Foreign Minister of Czechoslovakia and son of the country's founding president, was found dead beneath the window of the Foreign Ministry in Prague. Was it suicide ? Or was it murder ordered b...
March 4, 2026
Sex, Mysticism and Revolution: Rasputin at the Court of the Tsar
In this episode of History Book Buffs , Antonia Senior and Roger Moorhouse dive into the extraordinary story of Grigori Rasputin —the mystic, healer, and alleged holy man who gained an astonishing hold over Tsar Nicholas II a...
March 2, 2026
Was This the Worst Peace Treaty Ever? | Brest-Litovsk (1918)
108 years ago, Lenin signed one of the most punishing peace treaties in modern history. In this 10-minute Buffs in Brief , Antonia Senior and Roger Moorhouse examine the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk — the deal that took Russia out...
Feb. 26, 2026
Buffs in Brief #2 — The Reichstag Fire (27 February 1933). Conspiracy or Opportunity?
A burning parliament. A communist caught at the scene. Within weeks, German democracy was effectively dismantled. Was the Reichstag Fire a Nazi conspiracy — or a brilliantly exploited accident? In this ten-minute deep dive, w...
Feb. 24, 2026
OTD: Stalin thrown under a bus by Khrushchev. A Buffs in Brief special #1
Was this the most reckless speech in modern political history? In February 1956, at the 20th Congress of the Soviet Communist Party, Nikita Khrushchev delivered a four-hour address that stunned the room — and reshaped the com...