David Reynolds, (born 17 February 1952) is a British historian. He is Emeritus Professor of International History at

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

and a Fellow of

Christ's College, Cambridge Christ's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college includes the Master, the Fellows of the College, and about 450 undergraduate and 250 graduate students. The c ...

Biography

Reynolds attended school at

Dulwich College Dulwich College is a 2-18 private, day and boarding school for boys in Dulwich, London, England. As a public school, it began as the College of God's Gift, founded in 1619 by Elizabethan actor Edward Alleyn, with the original purpose of ...

on a scholarship, and studied history at

Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Gonville and Caius College, commonly known as Caius ( ), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1348 by Edmund Gonville, it is the fourth-oldest of the University of Cambridge's 31 colleges and ...

(BA, PhD), and

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

(Chaote and Warren Fellowships). He has held visiting posts at Harvard,

Nebraska Nebraska ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Ka ...

and

Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...

universities, as well as at

Nihon University , abbreviated as , is a private research university in Japan. Its predecessor, Nihon Law School (currently the Department of Law), was founded by Yamada Akiyoshi, the Minister of Justice, in 1889. The university's name is derived from the Ja ...

in Tokyo and

Sciences Po Sciences Po () or Sciences Po Paris, also known as the Paris Institute of Political Studies (), is a public research university located in Paris, France, that holds the status of ''grande école'' and the legal status of . The university's unde ...

in Paris. Reynolds was awarded the Wolfson History Prize, 2005, and elected a Fellow of the

British Academy The British Academy for the Promotion of Historical, Philosophical and Philological Studies is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the sa ...

in 2005. His research and writing specialise in the two

world war A world war is an international War, conflict that involves most or all of the world's major powers. Conventionally, the term is reserved for two major international conflicts that occurred during the first half of the 20th century, World War I ...

s and the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

. He served as Chairman of the History Faculty at Cambridge in 2013-15 and retired from University teaching in 2019. In 2022, a number of his former PhD students presented him with a ''Festschrift'' published in the journal ''Diplomacy & Statecraft''. He has served on academic advisory boards for the redevelopment of the

Imperial War Museum The Imperial War Museum (IWM), currently branded "Imperial War Museums", is a British national museum. It is headquartered in London, with five branches in England. Founded as the Imperial War Museum in 1917, it was intended to record the civ ...

First World War Galleries (2011-14) and Second World War Galleries (since 2016). In 2021, he succeeded Roger Knight as President of

Cambridge University Cricket Club Cambridge University Cricket Club, established in 1820, is the representative cricket club for students of the University of Cambridge. The club was recognised as holding first-class cricket, first-class status until 2020. The university played ...

Documentaries

Reynolds has made thirteen documentaries on 20th-century history for the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

, most recently the three-part BBC2 series '' Long Shadow'', based on his award-winning book about the legacies and memory of 1914–18 and a trilogy of films about the Big Three allies in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

: '' World War Two: 1941 and the Man of Steel'', ''World War Two: 1942 and Hitler's Soft Underbelly'' and ''World War Two: 1945 and the Wheelchair President''. All these films have been directed by

Russell Barnes Russell Barnes (born 1968) is a British television producer and director, known primarily for documentaries about science and contemporary history. He was educated at Bedford Modern School and studied history at Christ's College, Cambridge. Ru ...

. Reynolds was also the writer and presenter of the award-winning ninety-part series ''

America, Empire of Liberty ''America, Empire of Liberty'' is the title of a radio series and book by British historian David Reynolds about US history. The title is taken from Thomas Jefferson's speeches (he used the phrase " Empire of Liberty" at least twice). Radio seri ...

'', broadcast on BBC Radio 4.

Personal life

Reynolds is married, with one son and three grandchildren.

Awards and honours

*2004 Wolfson History Prize, ''In Command of History'' *2005 Fellow of the

*2014

Hessell-Tiltman Prize The PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize is awarded to the best work of non-fiction of historical content covering a period up to and including World War II, and published in the year of the award. The books are to be of high literary merit, but not primari ...

, ''The Long Shadow''

Books

*1981: ''The Creation of the Anglo-American Alliance, 1937–1941: a Study in Competitive Co-operation'' (1981) University of North Carolina Press (Awarded the Bernath Prize by the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, 1982) *1988: ''An Ocean Apart: the Relationship between Britain and America in the 20th Century'' – co-author

David Dimbleby David Dimbleby (born 28 October 1938) is an English journalist and former presenter of current affairs and political programmes, best known for having presented the BBC topical debate programme '' Question Time''. He is the son of broadcaster ...

. Hodder & Stoughton (Linked to BBC/PBS TV series.) *1991: ''Britannia Overruled: British Policy and World Power in the 20th Century''. Longman *1994: ''Allies at War: the Soviet, American and British Experience 1939–1945'' (Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute Series on Diplomatic and Economic History). (Co-edited with Warren F. Kimball and A. O. Chubarian). Palgrave Macmillan *1994: ''The Origins of the Cold War in Europe: International Perspectives'' (editor). Yale University Press *1995: ''Rich Relations: the American Occupation of Britain, 1942–1945''. Random House (Awarded the US Society for Military History's Distinguished Book Award, 1996) *2000: ''One World Divisible: a Global History since 1945''.. Allen Lane *2001:
From Munich to Pearl Harbor: Roosevelt's America and the Origins of the Second World War
'. Ivan R. Dee *2004: ''In Command of History: Churchill Fighting and Writing the Second World War''. Random House (Awarded the Wolfson History Prize, 2004) *2005: '' Christ's: a Cambridge College Over Five Centuries'' (editor). Macmillan *2006: ''From World War to Cold War: Churchill, Roosevelt, and the International History of the 1940s''. Oxford University Press *2007: ''Summits: Six Meetings That Shaped the Twentieth Century''. Allen Lane *2008: ''FDR's World: War, Peace, and Legacies''. (Co-edited with David B. Woolner and Warren F. Kimball) Palgrave Macmillan *2009: ''America, Empire of Liberty: A New History''. David Reynolds *2013: ''The Long Shadow: The Great War and the Twentieth Century''. Simon & Schuster UK ; W. W. Norton, 2014 US (Awarded the

, 2014) *2016: ''Transcending the Cold War: Summits, Statecraft, and the Dissolution of Bipolarity in Europe, 1970–1990''. (Co-edited with Kristina Spohr) Oxford University Press *2018: ''The Kremlin Letters: Stalin's Wartime Correspondence with Churchill and Roosevelt,'' with

Vladimir Pechatnov Vladimir (, , pre-1918 orthography: ) is a masculine given name of Slavic origin, widespread throughout all Slavic nations in different forms and spellings. The earliest record of a person with the name is Vladimir of Bulgaria (). Etymology ...

. Yale University Press (Awarded the Link-Kuehl Prize by the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, 2020) *2019: ''Island Stories: Britain and its History in the Age of Brexit'' HarperCollins *2023: ''Mirrors of Greatness: Churchill and the Leaders Who Shaped Him'' HarperCollins

Broadcasting (as writer and presenter)

*2004: ''Churchill's Forgotten Years'' – BBC 4/BBC 2 *2004: ''The Improbable Mr Attlee'' – BBC 4 *2008: ''Summits'' – three-part series: (1) Munich, 1938; (2) Vienna, 1961; (3) Geneva, 1985 – BBC 4 *2008: ''Armistice'' – BBC2 (Grierson Award: Best Historical Documentary, runner-up) *2008–09: ''America, Empire of Liberty'' –

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

(90-part series, accompanying the writer's 2009 book)America, Empire of Liberty
''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

'' – the author talks about the radio series. (

Voice of the Listener & Viewer The Voice of the Listener & Viewer (VLV), originally just Voice of the Listener, is an independent, membership-based charity, free from political and sectarian affiliations, championing public service broadcasting and speaking for listeners and v ...

Award for the Best New Radio Programme of 2008; Sony Radio Academy Award, Nomination, 2009; Orwell Prize, Shortlist, 2010) *2010: ''

Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as the 36th vice president under P ...

in the Den'' – BBC 4 *2011: '' World War Two: 1941 and the Man of Steel'' – BBC 4 (Grierson Award: Best Historical Documentary, Nomination) *2012: ''World War Two: 1942 and Hitler's Soft Underbelly'' – BBC 4 *2014: ''The Long Shadow'' – three-part series: (1) Remembering and Understanding; (2) Ballots and Bullets; (3) Us and Them – BBC 2 *2015: ''World War Two: 1945 and the Wheelchair President'' – BBC 4 *2016: ''Verdun: The Sacred Wound''

(2-part series: (1) The Battle; (2) Loss and Legacy) *2017: ''Balfour's Promised Land''

- on the centenary of the Balfour Declaration *2022: ''FDR's Four Freedoms''

- Archive on Four, 2 Dec. 2022, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001fm6c

References

External links

Professor David Reynolds
- Fellows of the

* *Lecture: , via the official channel of

Gresham College Gresham College is an institution of higher learning located at Barnard's Inn Hall off Holborn in Central London, England that does not accept students or award degrees. It was founded in 1597 under the Will (law), will of Sir Thomas Gresham, ...

, UK {{DEFAULTSORT:Reynolds, David Living people English historians English television presenters Alumni of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Harvard University alumni Fellows of Christ's College, Cambridge University of Nebraska–Lincoln faculty University of Oklahoma faculty Harvard University staff Fellows of the British Academy People educated at Dulwich College 1952 births Members of the University of Cambridge faculty of history Wolfson History Prize winners