Andrew Roberts
Encyclopedia
Andrew Roberts is an English
historian and journalist.
, and Katie Roberts. Simon Roberts inherited Job's Dairy milk business and owned the United Kingdom contingent of Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants.
Roberts was raised in the Church of England
(Anglican) and briefly attended Cranleigh School
until he was expelled for a variety of misdemeanours. Roberts obtained a first class honours BA degree in Modern History
at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge in 1985, where he is an honorary senior scholar. Roberts began his post-graduate career in corporate finance as an investment banker and private company director with the London merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co.
, where he worked from 1985 to 1988.
He is divorced from his first wife with whom he had two children, Henry and Cassia, who live in Edinburgh
. Roberts is married to Susan Gilchrist, senior partner of the corporate communications firm Brunswick Group and a Governor of the South Bank Centre
. He lives in Belgravia
.
In 2011, he was awarded a PhD by Cambridge University.
's and Winston Churchill
's foreign secretary, the Earl of Halifax, entitled The Holy Fox, and published in 1991. Roberts provided a revisionist
account of Lord Halifax, a one-time viceroy to India and the Foreign Secretary in Prime Minister Chamberlain's government. Long charged with appeasement, along with his prime minister, Roberts asserts that Halifax in fact began to move his government away from that policy vis-à-vis Hitler's Germany, following the 1938 Munich crisis.
This work was followed by Eminent Churchillians, in 1994, a collection of essays about friends and enemies of Churchill. A large part of the book is an attack on Lord Mountbatten of Burma
and other prominent members of the elite.
In 1999, he published Salisbury: Victorian Titan, the authorised biography of the Victorian prime minister the 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, which won the Wolfson History Prize
and the James Stern Silver Pen Award for Non-Fiction. In September 2001, Napoleon and Wellington, an investigation into the relationship between the two great generals, was published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson, and was the subject of the lead review in all but one of Britain's national newspapers.
January 2003 saw the publication of Hitler and Churchill: Secrets of Leadership, which coincided with Roberts's four-part BBC2 history series. In the book, which addresses the leadership techniques of Hitler and Churchill, he delivered a rebuttal to many of the assertions made by Clive Ponting
and Christopher Hitchens
concerning Churchill.
Also in 2003, he became a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts
. In 2004, he edited What Might Have Been, a collection of twelve "What If?" essays written by distinguished historians and journalists, including Antonia Fraser
, Norman Stone
, Amanda Foreman
, Simon Sebag Montefiore
, Conrad Black
, and Anne Somerset. In 2005, Roberts published Waterloo: Napoleon's Last Gamble, which was published in America as Waterloo: The Battle for Modern Europe.
His A History of the English-Speaking Peoples Since 1900, a sequel to the four volume work
of Churchill, was published in September 2006 and won the Intercollegiate Studies OInstitute Book Award. Masters and Commanders describes how four titanic figures shaped the grand strategy of the West during the Second World War. It was published in November, 2008 and won the International Churchill Society Book Award and was shortlisted for two other military history book prizes. The Art of War is a two-volume chronological survey of the greatest military commanders in history. It was compiled by a team of historians, including Robin Lane Fox
, Tom Holland
, John Julius Norwich
, Jonathan Sumption
and Felipe Fernández-Armesto
, working under the general editorship of Roberts.
The Storm of War was published in August 2009. It is Roberts best selling title to date and reached number two in The Sunday Times bestseller list. The book was awarded British Army Military Book of the Year 2010.
In addition, since 1990, Roberts has addressed hundreds of diverse institutional and academic audiences in many countries, including a lecture to George W. Bush
at the White House.
Roberts has appeared on US television during royal funerals and weddings. He first came to prominence in the USA due to acting as an expert on the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales
in 1997, and he was later in a similar role during the CNN broadcast of the death of the Queen Mother and on the wedding of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles. In Britain in 2003, he presented The Secrets of Leadership, a four-part history series on BBC2 about the secrets of leadership which looked at the different leadership styles of Churchill, Hitler, John F. Kennedy
and Martin Luther King. Roberts is a Director of the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation in New York, a founder member of José Maria Aznar
’s Friends of Israel Initiative, and in 2010 chaired the Hessell-Tiltman Award for Non-Fiction.
Roberts is a judge on the Elizabeth Longford Historical Biography Prize. He chaired the Conservative Party's Advisory Panel on the Teaching of History in Schools in 2005, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He has also been elected a Fellow of the Napoleonic Institute and an Honorary Member of the International Churchill Society (UK). He is a Trustee of the Margaret Thatcher Archive Trust and of the Roberts Foundation.
's foreign policy, saying that Blair displayed "astonishing leadership" and compared him to Winston Churchill
in the 1930s. In 2003, he wrote "for Churchill, apotheosis came in 1940; for Tony Blair, it will come when Iraq is successfully invaded and hundreds of weapons of mass destruction are unearthed from where they have been hidden by Saddam's henchmen", and commented on the human cost of the Iraq War, saying that Britain has "lost fewer soldiers than on a normal weekend on the Western Front". He defended the use of waterboarding
by the Central Intelligence Agency
, writing that "sometimes the defense of liberty requires making some pretty unpalatable decisions".
He has said that the Iraq War is being fought by the English speaking peoples as "an existential war for the survival of their way of life" and that "this struggle against Islamofascism is the fourth world war" [the Cold War
being the third world war] in which "the English-speaking peoples find themselves in the forefront of protecting civilization", just as they were against the Nazis.
drew attention to some historical, geographical, and typographical errors and provided a generally scathing review of the book.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
historian and journalist.
Background
Roberts was born in London, England, the son of Simon (a business executive) from Cobham, SurreyCobham, Surrey
Cobham is a town in the Borough of Elmbridge in Surrey, England, about south-west of central London and north of Leatherhead. Elmbridge has been acclaimed by the Daily Mail as the best place to live in the UK, and Cobham is a prosperous part of the London commuter belt...
, and Katie Roberts. Simon Roberts inherited Job's Dairy milk business and owned the United Kingdom contingent of Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants.
Roberts was raised in the Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
(Anglican) and briefly attended Cranleigh School
Cranleigh School
Cranleigh School is an independent English boarding school in the village of Cranleigh, Surrey. It was founded in 1865 as a boys' school and started to admit girls in the early 1970s. It is now co-educational. The current headmaster is Guy de W...
until he was expelled for a variety of misdemeanours. Roberts obtained a first class honours BA degree in Modern History
Modern history
Modern history, or the modern era, describes the historical timeline after the Middle Ages. Modern history can be further broken down into the early modern period and the late modern period after the French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution...
at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge in 1985, where he is an honorary senior scholar. Roberts began his post-graduate career in corporate finance as an investment banker and private company director with the London merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co.
Robert Fleming & Co.
Robert Fleming & Co. was an asset manager and merchant bank founded in Dundee, Scotland, in 1873. In 1909 the firm moved its headquarters to London. It was sold to Chase Manhattan Bank for over $7 billion in 2000....
, where he worked from 1985 to 1988.
He is divorced from his first wife with whom he had two children, Henry and Cassia, who live in Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
. Roberts is married to Susan Gilchrist, senior partner of the corporate communications firm Brunswick Group and a Governor of the South Bank Centre
South Bank Centre
Southbank Centre is a complex of artistic venues in London, UK, on the South Bank of the River Thames between County Hall and Waterloo Bridge. It comprises three main buildings , and is Europe’s largest centre for the arts. It attracts more than three million visitors annually...
. He lives in Belgravia
Belgravia
Belgravia is a district of central London in the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Noted for its immensely expensive residential properties, it is one of the wealthiest districts in the world...
.
In 2011, he was awarded a PhD by Cambridge University.
Authorship
The first of Roberts' books was the biography of Neville ChamberlainNeville Chamberlain
Arthur Neville Chamberlain FRS was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940. Chamberlain is best known for his appeasement foreign policy, and in particular for his signing of the Munich Agreement in 1938, conceding the...
's and Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
's foreign secretary, the Earl of Halifax, entitled The Holy Fox, and published in 1991. Roberts provided a revisionist
Historical revisionism
In historiography, historical revisionism is the reinterpretation of orthodox views on evidence, motivations, and decision-making processes surrounding a historical event...
account of Lord Halifax, a one-time viceroy to India and the Foreign Secretary in Prime Minister Chamberlain's government. Long charged with appeasement, along with his prime minister, Roberts asserts that Halifax in fact began to move his government away from that policy vis-à-vis Hitler's Germany, following the 1938 Munich crisis.
This work was followed by Eminent Churchillians, in 1994, a collection of essays about friends and enemies of Churchill. A large part of the book is an attack on Lord Mountbatten of Burma
Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma
Admiral of the Fleet Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas George Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, KG, GCB, OM, GCSI, GCIE, GCVO, DSO, PC, FRS , was a British statesman and naval officer, and an uncle of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh...
and other prominent members of the elite.
In 1999, he published Salisbury: Victorian Titan, the authorised biography of the Victorian prime minister the 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, which won the Wolfson History Prize
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...
and the James Stern Silver Pen Award for Non-Fiction. In September 2001, Napoleon and Wellington, an investigation into the relationship between the two great generals, was published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson, and was the subject of the lead review in all but one of Britain's national newspapers.
January 2003 saw the publication of Hitler and Churchill: Secrets of Leadership, which coincided with Roberts's four-part BBC2 history series. In the book, which addresses the leadership techniques of Hitler and Churchill, he delivered a rebuttal to many of the assertions made by Clive Ponting
Clive Ponting
Clive Ponting is a British writer, former academic and former senior civil servant. He is the author of a number of revisionist books on British and world history...
and Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Eric Hitchens is an Anglo-American author and journalist whose books, essays, and journalistic career span more than four decades. He has been a columnist and literary critic at The Atlantic, Vanity Fair, Slate, World Affairs, The Nation, Free Inquiry, and became a media fellow at the...
concerning Churchill.
Also in 2003, he became a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts
Royal Society of Arts
The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce is a British multi-disciplinary institution, based in London. The name Royal Society of Arts is frequently used for brevity...
. In 2004, he edited What Might Have Been, a collection of twelve "What If?" essays written by distinguished historians and journalists, including Antonia Fraser
Antonia Fraser
Lady Antonia Margaret Caroline Fraser, DBE , née Pakenham, is an Anglo-Irish author of history, novels, biographies and detective fiction, best known as Antonia Fraser...
, Norman Stone
Norman Stone
Norman Stone is a British academic, historian, author and is currently a Professor in the Department of International Relations at Bilkent University, Ankara...
, Amanda Foreman
Amanda Foreman (biographer)
Amanda Lucy Foreman is a British/American biographer and historian.-Family:Her father was the renowned screenwriter and film producer Carl Foreman who had to move to England in order to work after being blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studios during the McCarthyism of the 1950s...
, Simon Sebag Montefiore
Simon Sebag Montefiore
Simon Jonathan Sebag Montefiore is a British historian and writer.-Family history:Simon's father, a doctor, is descended from a famous line of wealthy Sephardic Jews who became diplomats and bankers all over Europe...
, Conrad Black
Conrad Black
Conrad Moffat Black, Baron Black of Crossharbour, OC, KCSG, PC is a Canadian-born member of the British House of Lords, and a historian, columnist and publisher, who was for a time the third largest newspaper magnate in the world. Lord Black controlled Hollinger International, Inc...
, and Anne Somerset. In 2005, Roberts published Waterloo: Napoleon's Last Gamble, which was published in America as Waterloo: The Battle for Modern Europe.
His A History of the English-Speaking Peoples Since 1900, a sequel to the four volume work
A History of the English-Speaking Peoples
A History of the English-Speaking Peoples is a four-volume history of Britain and its former colonies and possessions throughout the world, written by Winston Churchill, covering the period from Caesar's invasions of Britain to the beginning of the First World War...
of Churchill, was published in September 2006 and won the Intercollegiate Studies OInstitute Book Award. Masters and Commanders describes how four titanic figures shaped the grand strategy of the West during the Second World War. It was published in November, 2008 and won the International Churchill Society Book Award and was shortlisted for two other military history book prizes. The Art of War is a two-volume chronological survey of the greatest military commanders in history. It was compiled by a team of historians, including Robin Lane Fox
Robin Lane Fox
Robin Lane Fox is an English historian, currently a Fellow of New College, Oxford and University of Oxford Reader in Ancient History.-Life:Lane Fox was educated at Eton and Magdalen College, Oxford....
, Tom Holland
Tom Holland (author)
-Biography:Holland was born near Oxford and brought up in the village of Broadchalke near Salisbury, England. His younger brother is the historian and novelist James Holland...
, John Julius Norwich
John Julius Norwich
John Julius Cooper, 2nd Viscount Norwich CVO — known as John Julius Norwich — is an English historian, travel writer and television personality.-Early life:...
, Jonathan Sumption
Jonathan Sumption
Jonathan Philip Chadwick Sumption, OBE, QC is a UK barrister and medieval historian. On 4 May 2011 it was announced that he had been appointed to the United Kingdom Supreme Court, to be sworn in at a date agreed between him and Lord Phillips, President of the Supreme Court.He is known for his...
and Felipe Fernández-Armesto
Felipe Fernández-Armesto
Felipe Fernández-Armesto is a British historian and author of several popular works of history.He was born in London, his father was the Spanish journalist Felipe Fernández Armesto and his mother was Betty Millan de Fernandez-Armesto, a British-born journalist and co-founder and editor of The...
, working under the general editorship of Roberts.
The Storm of War was published in August 2009. It is Roberts best selling title to date and reached number two in The Sunday Times bestseller list. The book was awarded British Army Military Book of the Year 2010.
Journalism and lecturing
The second strand of Roberts published output are articles in leading national newspapers, most notably, the Daily Mail, The Daily Telegraph and their Sunday editions and also the Daily Express and The Sunday Times.In addition, since 1990, Roberts has addressed hundreds of diverse institutional and academic audiences in many countries, including a lecture to George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
at the White House.
Roberts has appeared on US television during royal funerals and weddings. He first came to prominence in the USA due to acting as an expert on the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales
Diana, Princess of Wales
Diana, Princess of Wales was the first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales, whom she married on 29 July 1981, and an international charity and fundraising figure, as well as a preeminent celebrity of the late 20th century...
in 1997, and he was later in a similar role during the CNN broadcast of the death of the Queen Mother and on the wedding of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles. In Britain in 2003, he presented The Secrets of Leadership, a four-part history series on BBC2 about the secrets of leadership which looked at the different leadership styles of Churchill, Hitler, John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
and Martin Luther King. Roberts is a Director of the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation in New York, a founder member of José Maria Aznar
José María Aznar
José María Alfredo Aznar López served as the Prime Minister of Spain from 1996 to 2004. He is on the board of directors of News Corporation.-Early life:...
’s Friends of Israel Initiative, and in 2010 chaired the Hessell-Tiltman Award for Non-Fiction.
Roberts is a judge on the Elizabeth Longford Historical Biography Prize. He chaired the Conservative Party's Advisory Panel on the Teaching of History in Schools in 2005, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He has also been elected a Fellow of the Napoleonic Institute and an Honorary Member of the International Churchill Society (UK). He is a Trustee of the Margaret Thatcher Archive Trust and of the Roberts Foundation.
Support for Iraq War, the "Fourth World War" and Islamofascism
During the build up to the Iraq War Roberts supported the proposed invasion, arguing that anything less would be tantamount to appeasement. He strongly supported Tony BlairTony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
's foreign policy, saying that Blair displayed "astonishing leadership" and compared him to Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
in the 1930s. In 2003, he wrote "for Churchill, apotheosis came in 1940; for Tony Blair, it will come when Iraq is successfully invaded and hundreds of weapons of mass destruction are unearthed from where they have been hidden by Saddam's henchmen", and commented on the human cost of the Iraq War, saying that Britain has "lost fewer soldiers than on a normal weekend on the Western Front". He defended the use of waterboarding
Waterboarding
Waterboarding is a form of torture in which water is poured over the face of an immobilized captive, thus causing the individual to experience the sensation of drowning...
by the Central Intelligence Agency
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
, writing that "sometimes the defense of liberty requires making some pretty unpalatable decisions".
He has said that the Iraq War is being fought by the English speaking peoples as "an existential war for the survival of their way of life" and that "this struggle against Islamofascism is the fourth world war" [the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
being the third world war] in which "the English-speaking peoples find themselves in the forefront of protecting civilization", just as they were against the Nazis.
Criticisms
Roberts' work A History of the English-Speaking Peoples since 1900 was critically acclaimed in some sections of the media but The EconomistThe Economist
The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...
drew attention to some historical, geographical, and typographical errors and provided a generally scathing review of the book.
Publications
- The Holy Fox: A Biography of Lord Halifax, London : Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1991 ISBN 0-297-81133-9.
- Eminent Churchillians, London : Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1994 ISBN 0-297-81247-5; Simon & Schuster, 1994, ISBN 9780671769406
- The Aachen Memorandum, London : Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1995 ISBN 0-297-81619-5.
- Salisbury: Victorian Titan, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1999, ISBN 9780297817130
- The House of Windsor, Berkeley, Calif. : University of California Press, 2000, ISBN 0-520-22803-0.
- Hitler and Churchill: Secrets of Leadership, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2003, ISBN 9780297843306
- What Might Have Been, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2004, ISBN 9780297848776
- A History of the English Speaking Peoples since 1900, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2006, ISBN 9780297850762
- Masters and Commanders: How Roosevelt, Churchill, Marshall and Alanbrooke Won the War in the West (2008), Allen Lane, ISBN 978-0-713-99969-3 (UK edition); Masters and Commanders: How Four Titans Won the War in the West, 1941-1945 (2009), Harper, ISBN 978-0061228575 (US edition).
- The Art of War: Great Commanders of the Ancient and Medieval World, Quercus, 2008, ISBN 9781847245151
- The Art of War: Great Commanders of the Modern World Since 1600, Quercus, 2009, ISBN 9781847245168; HarperCollins, 2011, ISBN 9780061228599
Contributor
- Virtual History (1997) One Essay
- What If? (1999) One Essay
- The Kings and Queens of England (2000) One Chapter
- The Railway King: A Biography of George Hudson (2001) Introduction
- Historian’s Holiday (2001) Introduction
- What If? Volume 2 (2001) One Essay
- Protestant Island (2001) Introduction
- Spirit of England (2001) Introduction
- The Secret History of P.W.E. (2002) Introduction
- Rich Dust (2002) Introduction
- A History of the English-Speaking Peoples (2002) Introduction
- Spirit of England (2002) Preface
- Historian's Holiday (2002) Preface
- What Ifs of American History? (2003) One Essay
- The Multicultural Experiment (2003) One Chapter
- British Military Greats (2004) One Chapter
- Lives for Sale (2004) One Chapter
- Hitler's Death: Russia's Last Great Secret from the Files of the KGB (2005) Foreword
- Liberty and Livelihood (2005) One Chapter
- The Eagle’s Last Triumph (2006) Introduction
- The Eagle's Last Triumph : Napoleon's Victory at Ligny, June 1815 (2006) Foreword
- Postcards from the Russian Revolution (2008) Introduction
- Postcards of Political Icons (2008) Introduction
- Postcards from Checkpoint Charlie (2008) Introduction
- A Week at Waterloo (2008) Introduction
- The Future of National Identity (2008) One Chapter
- Postcards from the Trenches (2008) Introduction
- Postcards from Utopia: The Art of Political Propaganda (2009) Introduction
- Postcards of Lost Royals (2009) Introduction
- Napoleon Bonaparte by Georges Lefevre(2010) Introduction
- Letters from Vicky: The Letters of Queen Victoria to Vicky, Empress of Germany 1858-1901 (2011) Introduction and Selection
- A History of the World in 100 Weapons (2011) Introduction
External links
- 'The Dark Side of Andrew Roberts' from the Independent newspaper
- BBC Article by Roberts about Hitler and Churchill
- The History Man Who Loves to Party, Oliver Marre, The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, 26 July 2009 - Andrew Roberts is the social historian (Evening Standard)