Robert Nigel Gildea (born 12 September 1952) is professor of Modern History 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 ...

and is the author of several influential books on 20th century

French history The first written records for the history of France appeared in the Iron Age. What is now France made up the bulk of the region known to the Romans as Gaul. The first writings on indigenous populations mainly start in the first century BC. Greek ...

Biography

Robert Gildea was born on 12 September 1952. He was educated at

Dulwich College Dulwich College is a 2–19 Independent school (United Kingdom), independent, Day school, day and boarding school for Single-sex education, boys in Dulwich, London, England. As a Public school (United Kingdom), public school, it began as the Col ...

and at Merton College, Oxford, before attending St Antony's for a D.Phil under the supervision of

Theodore Zeldin Theodore Zeldin (born 22 August 1933) is an Oxford scholar and thinker whose books have searched for answers to three questions: Where can a person look to find more inspiring ways of spending each day and each year? What ambitions remain un ...

. His D.Phil. research was in French provincial education. Before being appointed Fellow in Modern History at Merton in 1979, he was a lecturer at

King's College, London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public university, public research university located in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of George IV of the United Kingdom, King G ...

. For his 2002 book ''Marianne in Chains'', a study of life in provincial France during the German occupation, Gildea won the prestigious

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 ...

. The book, however, outraged members of the French academic elite through its documented claims that life in France had not been as adversely affected by the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

occupation because many French people had co-operated with the German invaders – far more so than previously believed. He was elevated to the position of Professor of Modern History from being Professor of Modern French History in September 2006, and is currently a Fellow of

Worcester College Worcester College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. The college was founded in 1714 by the benefaction of Sir Thomas Cookes, 2nd Baronet (1648–1701) of Norgrove, Worcestershire, whose coat of arms w ...

. On 10 June 2021 in a BBC Radio 4 interview he declared he was joining other concerned academics in boycotting

Oriel College Oriel College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in Oxford, England. Located in Oriel Square, the college has the distinction of being the oldest royal foundation in Oxford (a title formerly claimed by University College, w ...

for its refusal to remove the statue of Cecil Rhodes from the façade of the building, erected using money donated by Rhodes.BBC Radio 4 'Today' programme, 10 June 2021. Gildea lives in

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

with his wife, Lucy-Jean, and four children.

Bibliography

* * * * * « La génération française de 1968 : points de vue personnel et politique ». ''L’Amuse-Bouche : La revue française de Yale.'' The French-Language Journal at Yale University. 1/1 (2010): 39-48. * Review essay. * * Empires of the Mind: The Colonial Past and the Politics of the Present. Oxford University Press (2019).

References

External links

University of Oxford: Robert Gildea

Robert Gildea on WW2 at YouTube
Retrieved 3 August 2020 {{DEFAULTSORT:Gildea, Robert 1952 births Living people Academics of King's College London Alumni of Merton College, Oxford Alumni of St Antony's College, Oxford English historians Fellows of Merton College, Oxford Fellows of Worcester College, Oxford Historians of Vichy France History Today people People educated at Dulwich College

Biography

Bibliography

See also

References

External links