Michael Burleigh (born 3 April 1955) is an English author and historian whose primary focus is on

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

and related subjects. He has also been active in bringing history to television.

Early life

Michael Burleigh was born on 3 April 1955. He was awarded a first class honours degree in medieval and modern history from

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

in 1977, winning the Pollard, Dolley and Sir William Mayer Prizes.

Career

After a PhD in medieval history from

Bedford College, London Bedford College was in York Place after 1874 Bedford College was founded in London in 1849 as the first higher education college for women in the United Kingdom. In 1900, it became a constituent of the University of London. Having played a le ...

in 1982, he held posts at

New College, Oxford New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1379 by William of Wykeham in conjunction with Winchester College as its feeder school, New College is one of the oldest colleges at ...

, the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 milli ...

and then at

Cardiff University , latin_name = , image_name = Shield of the University of Cardiff.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms of Cardiff University , motto = cy, Gwirionedd, Undod a Chytgord , mottoeng = Truth, Unity and Concord , established = 1 ...

, where he was a distinguished research professor in modern history. He has also been Professor of History at

Washington and Lee University , mottoeng = "Not Unmindful of the Future" , established = , type = Private liberal arts university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.092 billion (2021) , president = William C. Dudley , provost = Lena Hill , city = Lexington ...

in Virginia, and Kratter Visiting Professor at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is conside ...

. In 2002 he gave the three Cardinal Basil Hume Memorial Lectures at

Heythrop College Heythrop College, University of London, was a constituent college of the University of London between 1971 and 2018, last located in Kensington Square, London. It comprised the university's specialist faculties of philosophy and theology with soc ...

, University of London. Burleigh is a member of the Academic Advisory Board of the Institut für Zeitgeschichte in Munich and a Fellow of the

Royal Historical Society The Royal Historical Society, founded in 1868, is a learned society of the United Kingdom which advances scholarly studies of history. Origins The society was founded and received its royal charter in 1868. Until 1872 it was known as the Histori ...

. He founded the journal ''Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions'' and is on the editorial boards of ''Totalitarismus und Demokratie'' and ''Ethnic and Racial Studies''. Books of his have been translated into Czech, Chinese, Croatian, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Polish and Spanish. He has also been active in bringing history to television audiences. In 1991 he won the

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...

Award for Archival Achievement for the

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

/Domino Films documentary ''Selling Murder: The Killing Films of the Third Reich''. In 1993 he gained a New York Film and Television Festival Award Bronze Medal for ''Heil Herbie: The Story of the Volkswagen Beetle'' (

/Domino Films). Burleigh is on the advisory board of the magazine '' Standpoint'' and contributes regularly. He won the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non Fiction in 2001 for ''The Third Reich: A New History'' and the Nonino International Master of His Time Prize in 2012. His ''Small Wars, Far Away Places: The Genesis of the Modern World 1945–65'' was long-listed for the Samuel Johnson Prize in 2013. He writes for three English dailies: ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ( ...

'', the ''

Daily Mail The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper and news websitePeter Wilb"Paul Dacre of the Daily Mail: The man who hates liberal Britain", ''New Statesman'', 19 December 2013 (online version: 2 January 2014) publish ...

'' and the ''

Daily Telegraph Daily or The Daily may refer to: Journalism * Daily newspaper, newspaper issued on five to seven day of most weeks * ''The Daily'' (podcast), a podcast by ''The New York Times'' * ''The Daily'' (News Corporation), a defunct US-based iPad new ...

''.

Personal life

Burleigh has been married since 1991 to Linden Burleigh. They live in South East London.

Selected works

*''Selling Murder: The Killing Films of the Third Reich''. London: Domino Films *''Prussian Society and the German Order''.

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press in the world. It is also the King's Printer. Cambridge University Pr ...

, 1984 *''Germany Turns Eastwards: A Study of Ostforschung in the Third Reich''. Cambridge University Press, 1988 *''The Racial State: Germany 1933–1945'' – with

Wolfgang Wippermann Wolfgang Wippermann (29 January 1945 – 3 January 2021) was a German historian. He served as supernumerary professor of modern history at the Friedrich Meinecke Institute of the Free University of Berlin, and also taught at the Berlin Universit ...

. Cambridge University Press, 1991 *''Death and Deliverance: Euthanasia in Germany 1900–1945''. Cambridge University Press, 1994 *''Ethics and Extermination: Reflections on Nazi Genocide''. Cambridge University Press, 1997 *''Confronting the Nazi Past''. St Martin's Press, 1995 *''The Third Reich: A New History''. Macmillan, 2000 *''Earthly Powers: Religion and Politics in Europe from the French Revolution to the Great War''. HarperCollins, 2005 *''Sacred Causes: Religion and Politics from the European Dictators to Al Qaeda''. HarperCollins, 2006 *''Blood and Rage: A Cultural History of Terrorism''. Harper Collins, 2008 *''Moral Combat: A History of World War II''. Harper, 2010 *''Small Wars, Far Away Places: The Genesis of the Modern World 1945–65''. Viking Press, 2013In the United States as ''Small Wars, Faraway Places: Global Insurrection and the Making of the Modern World, 1945–65'' *''Day of the Assassins: A History of Political Assassination''. Picador, 2021.

References

External links