Geoffrey Roberts

1952

Deptford, London

He specializes in Soviet diplomatic and military history of the Second World War. He is a professor of modern history at University College Cork in Ireland and was formerly head of the School of History at UCC. A pupil of Addey and Stanhope Grammar School, he left aged 16 and started his working life as a clerk with the Greater London Council. In the 1970s he was an International Relations undergraduate at North Staffordshire Polytechnic and postgraduate research student at the London School of Economics. In the 1980s he worked in the Education Department of NALGO, the public sector trade union. Roberts is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society and teaches History and International Relations at University College Cork, Ireland. He is a regular commentator on history and current affairs for British and Irish newspapers and a contributor to the History News Service, which syndicates articles to American media outlets. He has many radio and television appearances to his cr and has acted as an historical consultant for documentary series such as Simon Berthon’s highly praised Warlords, broadcast in 2005. Roberts has come under criticism from Andrew Bacevich, who claims in a review in The National Interest that Roberts is overly sympathetic towards Stalin, taking the word of the Soviet leadership uncritically in his writings, thus presenting a biased view and significantly undermining the usefulness of his scholarship. According to Jonathan Haslam, Roberts relies too heavily on edited Soviet archival documents and goes too far in his conclusions, therefore making his accounts somewhat one sided and by no means telling a full story. In an interview with George Mason University"s History News Network, following the publication of Stalin"s General: The Life of Georgy Zhukov, Roberts said: I have no difficulty in joining the condemnation of the Soviet system"s violence, terror and repression. If we don"t acknowledge the roles of ideology and aspiration in creating political systems we will be ill-prepared to face the challenges of dynamic and powerful authoritarian politics in the future.

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Works

book

The Soviet Union in World Politics: Coexistence, Revolution and Cold War, 1945-1991 (The Making of the Contemporary World) by Geoffrey Roberts (1999-01-09)

The Soviet Union in World Politics: Coexistence, Revolution and Cold War, 1945-1991 (The Making of the Contemporary World)

(The Soviet Union in World Politics provides an introducto...)

Victory at Stalingrad: The Battle That Changed History by Roberts, Geoffrey Routledge, 2002 ( Paperback ) Paperback

Victory at Stalingrad: The Battle That Changed History

( Victory at Stalingrad tells the gripping strategic and m...)

The Soviet Union and the Origins of the Second World War: Russo-German Relations and the Road to War, 1933-1941 (The Making of the Twentieth Century)

(Historians have heatedly debated the Soviet role in the o...)

The Soviet Union and the Origins of the Second World War: Russo-German

Geoffrey Roberts

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historian

Background

Geoffrey Roberts was born in Deptford, south London in 1952. His father worked as a labourer at the local power station, while his mother worked as a cleaner and tea lady.

Education

Harvard University.

Career

He specializes in Soviet diplomatic and military history of the Second World War. He is a professor of modern history at University College Cork in Ireland and was formerly head of the School of History at UCC.

A pupil of Addey and Stanhope Grammar School, he left aged 16 and started his working life as a clerk with the Greater London Council. In the 1970s he was an International Relations undergraduate at North Staffordshire Polytechnic and postgraduate research student at the London School of Economics.

In the 1980s he worked in the Education Department of NALGO, the public sector trade union.

Roberts is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society and teaches History and International Relations at University College Cork, Ireland. He is a regular commentator on history and current affairs for British and Irish newspapers and a contributor to the History News Service, which syndicates articles to American media outlets.

He has many radio and television appearances to his cr and has acted as an historical consultant for documentary series such as Simon Berthon’s highly praised Warlords, broadcast in 2005. Roberts has come under criticism from Andrew Bacevich, who claims in a review in The National Interest that Roberts is overly sympathetic towards Stalin, taking the word of the Soviet leadership uncritically in his writings, thus presenting a biased view and significantly undermining the usefulness of his scholarship.

According to Jonathan Haslam, Roberts relies too heavily on edited Soviet archival documents and goes too far in his conclusions, therefore making his accounts somewhat one sided and by no means telling a full story.

In an interview with George Mason University"s History News Network, following the publication of Stalin"s General: The Life of Georgy Zhukov, Roberts said:

I have no difficulty in joining the condemnation of the Soviet system"s violence, terror and repression. If we don"t acknowledge the roles of ideology and aspiration in creating political systems we will be ill-prepared to face the challenges of dynamic and powerful authoritarian politics in the future.

Achievements

He has won many academic awards and prizes, including a Fulbright Scholarship to Harvard University and a Government of Ireland Senior Research Fellowship. The Soviet Union was responsible for some of the most epic achievements and most gross misdeeds of our age. But if you believe force and oppression were the only factors driving the Soviet Union then you will never understand why the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics lasted so long and achieved so much, not least the victory over Hitler.