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Norman Stone (8 March 1941 – 19 June 2019)
was a
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
historian and author. He was Professor of European History
in the Department of
International Relations
International relations (IR), sometimes referred to as international studies and international affairs, is the scientific study of interactions between sovereign states. In a broader sense, it concerns all activities between states—such a ...
at
Bilkent University
Bilkent University ( tr, Bilkent Üniversitesi) is a private university located in Ankara, Turkey. It was founded by Prof. İhsan Doğramacı in 1984, with the aim of creating a center of excellence in higher education and research. It is constan ...
, having formerly been a professor at the
University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
, a lecturer at the
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...
, and an adviser to British
Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first female British prime ...
. He was a board member of the Center for Eurasian Studies (AVIM),
and devoted some of the last years of his life to promoting
Armenian genocide denial
Armenian genocide denial is the claim that the Ottoman Empire and its ruling party, the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), did not commit genocide against its Armenian citizens during World War I—a crime documented in a large body o ...
.
Early life and education
Stone was born in
Kelvinside,
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
, the son of Mary Robertson (née Pettigrew, died 1991), a schoolteacher, and Norman Stone, a
flight lieutenant and
Spitfire
The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft used by the Royal Air Force and other Allied countries before, during, and after World War II. Many variants of the Spitfire were built, from the Mk 1 to the Rolls-Royce Grif ...
pilot in World War II who fought in the
Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain, also known as the Air Battle for England (german: die Luftschlacht um England), was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defende ...
. He attended
the Glasgow Academy
The Glasgow Academy is a coeducational independent day school for pupils aged 3–18 in Glasgow, Scotland. In 2016, it had the third-best Higher level exam results in Scotland. Founded in 1845, it is the oldest continuously fully independent ...
on a scholarship for the children of deceased servicemen – his father having been killed in a training accident in 1942 – and graduated from
Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge
Gonville and Caius College, often referred to simply as Caius ( ), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1348, it is the fourth-oldest of the University of Cambridge's 31 colleges and one of t ...
, with
first class honours
The British undergraduate degree classification system is a grading structure for undergraduate degrees or bachelor's degrees and integrated master's degrees in the United Kingdom. The system has been applied (sometimes with significant variati ...
in Part II of the History tripos (1959–62).
Following his undergraduate degree, Stone did research in Central European history in
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
and
Budapest
Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
(1962–65), studying archives on the Austro-Hungarian Army from the years before 1914. During this period he spent three months imprisoned in Bratislava, having been caught trying to smuggle a Hungarian dissident in his car boot across the Iron Curtain at the Czech–Austrian border.
Career
Cambridge
Stone did not complete his doctorate,
having been offered a
research fellow
A research fellow is an academic research position at a university or a similar research institution, usually for academic staff or faculty members. A research fellow may act either as an independent investigator or under the supervision of a pr ...
ship by Gonville and Caius College, where he later became an assistant lecturer in
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
and
German History
The Germani tribes i.e. Germanic tribes are now considered to be related to the Jastorf culture before expanding and interacting with the other peoples.
The concept of a region for Germanic tribes is traced to time of Julius Caesar, a Roman gen ...
(1967), and a full lecturer (1973). In 1971, he transferred from Caius to
Jesus College.
While Stone was well regarded as a teacher, over time he increasingly neglected his duties.
Oxford
Stone was appointed in 1984 as Professor of Modern History at Oxford University, England.
Stone's tenure at Oxford was not without controversy.
Petronella Wyatt wrote that Stone "loathed the place as petty and provincial, and for its adherence to the Marxist-determinist view of history."
During his period at Oxford Stone gained a reputation for groping female students.
Stone published a column in ''
The Sunday Times
''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, w ...
'' between 1987 and 1992, and was also employed by the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
, the ''
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
The ''Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung'' (; ''FAZ''; "''Frankfurt General Newspaper''") is a centre-right conservative-liberal and liberal-conservativeHans Magnus Enzensberger: Alter Wein in neuen Schläuchen' (in German). ''Deutschland Radio'', ...
'', and ''
The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
''.
Stone became
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first female British prime ...
's
foreign policy advisor on Europe,
as well as her speechwriter.
In May 1994 Stone gave a half-hour ''
Opinions
An opinion is a judgment, viewpoint, or statement that is not conclusive, rather than facts, which are true statements.
Definition
A given opinion may deal with subjective matters in which there is no conclusive finding, or it may deal with ...
'' lecture televised on Channel 4 and subsequently published in ''
The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...
''. That newspaper later reviewed the lecture as "Little England has never had such great lines: there were the Germans (They want to be good Europeans because it stops them being bad Germans), and the Scandinavians (They only unite around the principle of finding the goody-goody Swedes very irritating)... But as he led us through the corridors of EC lunacy, you saw the point: only through a Lewis Carroll mirror could you meet such grotesques as the Gatt kings: Not so long ago a cow cost more than a student. Nowadays, a non-cow costs even more ... On 1 September 1939, the League (of Nations) ignored Hitler's invasion of Poland because it was embarrassing, it moved instead to discuss the standardisation of level-crossings."
Turkey
In 1997, Stone retired from his chair at Oxford and left to teach at the department of International Relations at
Bilkent University
Bilkent University ( tr, Bilkent Üniversitesi) is a private university located in Ankara, Turkey. It was founded by Prof. İhsan Doğramacı in 1984, with the aim of creating a center of excellence in higher education and research. It is constan ...
,
Ankara
Ankara ( , ; ), historically known as Ancyra and Angora, is the capital of Turkey. Located in the central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5.1 million in its urban center and over 5.7 million in Ankara Province, maki ...
.
As an example of Stone's wit and acute understanding,
shares in his obituary paper the answer Stone gave when asked why he had moved: "in the depth of my being, I'm a Scotsman and feel entirely at home in an enlightenment that has failed".
In 2005 Stone transferred to
Koç University
Koç University ( tr, Koç Üniversitesi) is a non-profit private university in Istanbul, Turkey. It started education in temporary buildings in İstinye in 1993, and moved to its current Rumelifeneri campus near Sarıyer in 2000. Koç University ...
,
Istanbul
)
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code = 34000 to 34990
, area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side)
, registration_plate = 34
, blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD
, blank_i ...
. He later returned to Bilkent University to teach for the 2007–2008 academic year. He guest lectured at
Boğaziçi University
Boğaziçi University ( tr, Boğaziçi Üniversitesi), also known as Bosphorus University, is a major research university in Istanbul, Turkey. Its main campus is located on the European side of the Bosphorus strait. It has six faculties and tw ...
, Istanbul. After moving to Turkey, Stone became a frequent contributor to ''
Cornucopia
In classical antiquity, the cornucopia (), from Latin ''cornu'' (horn) and ''copia'' (abundance), also called the horn of plenty, was a symbol of abundance and nourishment, commonly a large horn-shaped container overflowing with produce, flowers ...
'', a magazine about the history and culture of Turkey. In 2010, Stone published a book on Turkish history, from the 11th century to the present day, ''Turkey: A Short History''.
Views
Stone was criticised for an obituary he wrote in 1983 for the ''
London Review of Books'' of
E. H. Carr,
denouncing Carr's support of the Soviet Union, which some felt bordered on the defamatory.
In 1990 Stone was one of the historians behind the setting up of the History Curriculum Association. The Association advocated a more knowledge-based history curriculum in schools. It expressed "profound disquiet" at the way history was being taught in the classroom and claimed that the integrity of history was threatened.
Stone questioned the use of the word
genocide
Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the Lat ...
in connection with the deaths of approximately 1.5 million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire during World War One, arousing significant controversy. In 2004, he took part in a notable letter exchange on the pages of ''
The Times Literary Supplement
''The Times Literary Supplement'' (''TLS'') is a weekly literary review published in London by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp.
History
The ''TLS'' first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to ''The Times'' but became a separate publication ...
'', where he strongly criticized
Peter Balakian's 2003 book ''
The Burning Tigris'', saying that Balakian "should stick to the poems". Stone praised
Guenter Lewy
Guenter Lewy (born 22 August 1923) is a German-born American author and political scientist who is a professor emeritus of political science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His works span several topics, but he is most often associa ...
,
Bernard Lewis
Bernard Lewis, (31 May 1916 – 19 May 2018) was a British American historian specialized in Oriental studies. He was also known as a public intellectual and political commentator. Lewis was the Cleveland E. Dodge Professor Emeritus of Near ...
and France-based scholar Gilles Veinstein, all of whom do not believe a genocide took place.
In 2009, he argued: "The myth of
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...
is dangerous. Was it a sensible strategy in 1944 and 1945 to bomb Germany to bits? It was very bad realpolitik, whatever its moral purpose."
In his obituary of Stone in ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', the historian
Richard J. Evans
Sir Richard John Evans (born 29 September 1947) is a British historian of 19th- and 20th-century Europe with a focus on Germany. He is the author of eighteen books, including his three-volume ''The Third Reich Trilogy'' (2003–2008). Evans was ...
stated that unlike
or
A.J.P. Taylor
Alan John Percivale Taylor (25 March 1906 – 7 September 1990) was a British historian who specialised in 19th- and 20th-century European diplomacy. Both a journalist and a broadcaster, he became well known to millions through his televi ...
,
''Stone's provocations were little more than the voicing of his own personal political prejudices, and so had little or no effect on the way we think about the past".
Stone described
John Keegan
Sir John Desmond Patrick Keegan (15 May 1934 – 2 August 2012) was an English military historian, lecturer, author and journalist. He wrote many published works on the nature of combat between prehistory and the 21st century, covering land, ...
's ''The Second World War'' as his preferred book on WWII, saying: 'There have been many and varied, and sometimes splendid, books on The Second World War, but my own preference is John Keegan's ''The Second World War'' (1990)'.
Writing
Stone's book of greatest note is ''The Eastern Front 1914-1917'' (1975) which won the
Wolfson History Prize
The Wolfson History Prizes are literary awards given annually in the United Kingdom to promote and encourage standards of excellence in the writing of history for the general public. Prizes are given annually for two or three exceptional works ...
.
He also wrote ''Hitler'' (1980), ''Europe Transformed'' 1878-1919 (1983), which won the Fontana History of Europe Prize, and ''World War I: A Short History'' (2007).
Personal life
While in Vienna in the 1960s, Stone met (Marie) Nicole Aubry, the niece of the
finance minister
A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation.
A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", ...
in
"Papa Doc" Duvalier's
Haiti dictatorship. They married on 2 July 1966 and had two sons,
Nick
Nick may refer to:
* Nick (given name)
* A cricket term for a slight deviation of the ball off the edge of the bat
* British slang for being arrested
* British slang for a police station
* British slang for stealing
* Short for nickname
Place ...
(born 1966), a thriller writer, and Sebastian (born 1972). Stone and his first wife divorced in 1977.
On 11 August 1982, he married Christine Margaret Booker (née Verity), a leading member of the
British Helsinki Human Rights Group.
They had a son,
Rupert (born 1983), and remained married until her death on 15 November 2016. According to Evans, he suffered from alcoholism.
Stone owned a house in the
Galata neighbourhood of Istanbul,
and divided his time between Turkey and England. He spent the last years of his life in
Budapest
Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
.
Published works
*''The Eastern Front, 1914-1917'' (1975);
*''Hitler'' (1980);
Hodder and Stoughton
Hodder & Stoughton is a British publishing house, now an imprint of Hachette.
History
Early history
The firm has its origins in the 1840s, with Matthew Hodder's employment, aged 14, with Messrs Jackson and Walford, the official publishe ...
*''Europe Transformed, 1878-1919'' (1983), ; 2nd ed. (1999);
*''The Makers of English History'' (1987), (ed.)
Weidenfeld and Nicolson
Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd (established 1949), often shortened to W&N or Weidenfeld, is a British publisher of fiction and reference books. It has been a division of the French-owned Orion Publishing Group since 1991.
History
George Weidenfeld ...
*''Czechoslovakia: Crossroads and Crises, 1918-88'' (1989);
*''The Times Atlas of World History'' (1989); (ed.)
*''The Other Russia'' (1990); (with
Michael Glenny)
*''Turkey in the Russian Mirror'', in Ljubica Erickson and Mark Erickson (ed.), ''Russia: War, Peace and Diplomacy. Essays in Honour of John Erickson'', London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2005, pp. 86–100.
*''Islam in Turkey'', in
Caroline Y. Robertson-von Trotha
Caroline Y. Robertson-von Trotha (born 22 February 1951 in Glasgow, Scotland) is a Scottish sociology, sociologist and cultural studies, cultural scientist, working in Germany.
Biography and career
After the unexpected death of her father Ro ...
(ed.), ''Europa in der Welt – die Welt in Europa'' (= Kulturwissenschaft interdisziplinär/Interdisciplinary Studies on Culture and Society, Vol. 1), Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2006, pp. 139–145.;
*''World War One: A Short History'' (2007);
Penguin Press
*''The Atlantic and Its Enemies: A Personal History of the Cold War'' (2010);
Allen Lane
*''Turkey: A Short History'' (2010), ;
Thames & Hudson
*''World War Two: a Short History'' (2013),
Allen Lane/
Basic Books
*''Hungary: a Short History'' (2019),
Profile Books
Profile Books is a British independent book publishing firm founded in 1996. It publishes non-fiction subjects including history, biography, memoir, politics, current affairs, travel and popular science.
Profile Books is distributed in the UK ...
References
External links
"Russia - Getting Too Strong for Germany"Interviewwith Stone on "New Books in History"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stone, Norman
1941 births
2019 deaths
Alumni of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge
Deniers of the Armenian genocide
Bilkent University faculty
British military historians
Fellows of Jesus College, Cambridge
Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge
Fellows of Worcester College, Oxford
People educated at the Glasgow Academy
Writers from Glasgow
Scottish expatriates in Hungary
Scottish expatriates in Turkey
20th-century Scottish historians
20th-century British educators
21st-century British educators
21st-century Scottish historians