Martin Gilbert
Encyclopedia
Sir Martin John Gilbert, CBE
, PC
(born 25 October 1936) is a British
historian
and Fellow
of Merton College, University of Oxford
. He is the author of over eighty books, including works on the Holocaust and Jewish history. Gilbert is a leading historian of the modern world, and is known as the official biographer of Sir Winston Churchill
.
to Peter and Miriam Gilbert. Nine months after the outbreak of the Second World War, he was evacuated to Canada as part of the British efforts to safeguard children
. Vivid memories of the transatlantic crossing from Liverpool to Quebec sparked his curiosity about the war in later years. After the war he attended Highgate School
, and then completed two years of National Service
in the Intelligence Corps before going on to study at Magdalen College
, Oxford
, graduating in 1960 with a first-class BA
in modern history.
One of his tutors at Oxford
was A.J.P. Taylor. After his graduation, Gilbert undertook postgraduate research at St Antony's College, Oxford
. In 1963, he married Helen Constance Robinson, with whom he had a daughter. He had two sons with his second wife, Susan Sacher, whom he married in 1974. Since 2005, he has been married to the Holocaust historian Esther Gilbert, née Goldberg. Gilbert describes himself as a proud practising Jew and a Zionist.
for help in writing a biography of his father, Sir Winston Churchill
. That same year, 1962, he was made a Fellow
of Merton College, Oxford
, and he spent the next few years combining his own research projects in Oxford with being part of Randolph's research team in Suffolk
, working on the first two volumes of the Churchill biography. When Randolph died in 1968, Gilbert was commissioned to take over the task, completing the final six main volumes of the biography. Gilbert spent twenty years on the six narrative volumes, releasing a number of other books throughout the time. Each main volume of the biography is accompanied by two or three volumes of documents, and so the biography currently runs to 24 volumes (over 25,000 pages), with another 7 document volumes still planned. In the 1960s, Gilbert compiled some of the first historical atlases. His major works include a definitive single-volume history of The Holocaust
, as well as single-volume histories of The First World War and The Second World War
. He has also written a notable three-volume series called A History of the Twentieth century. Gilbert describes himself as an "archival historian" who makes extensive use of primary sources in his work. Interviewed by the BBC on the subject of Holocaust research, Gilbert said he believes that the "tireless gathering of facts will ultimately consign Holocaust deniers to history."
In 1990, Gilbert was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire
(CBE). In 1995, he was awarded a Knighthood
"for services to British history and international relations". In 1995, he retired as a Fellow of Merton College, but was made an Honorary Fellow. In 1999 he was awarded a Doctorate by Oxford University, "for the totality of his published work". He lives in London. Since 2002, he has been a Distinguished Fellow of Hillsdale College
, Michigan
, and between 2006 and 2007 he was a professor in the history department at the University of Western Ontario
. In October 2008, he was elected to an Honorary Fellowship at Churchill College. He continues to lecture around the world on Churchill and Jewish history. Gilbert was appointed in June 2009 as a member of the British government’s inquiry into the Iraq War (headed by Sir John Chilcot
). His appointment to this inquiry was criticised in parliament by William Hague
, Claire Short, George Galloway
, and Lynne Jones
on the basis that Gilbert had once compared George W. Bush
and Tony Blair
, to Roosevelt
and Churchill. The same year, Gilbert was appointed to the Privy Council
. In January 2011, the inquiry into the Iraq War was resumed, and Gilbert continued to interrogate with Blair about his motives and decisions to the war.
sources describe him as a "fair-minded, conscientious collector of facts." Michael Foot
, reviewing a volume of Gilbert's Churchill biography in The New Statesman in 1971 praised his meticulous scholarship and wrote, "Whoever made the decision to make Martin Gilbert Churchill's biographer deserves a vote of thanks from the nation. Nothing less would suffice."
Gilbert's portrayal of Churchill's supportive attitudes to Jews (in his book Churchill and the Jews) has been criticised, for example by Piers Brendon
. Also, Tom Segev
writes that although Gilbert's coffee-table book The Story of Israel is written with "encyclopedic clarity," Segev is critical of the absence of figures from Arab sources. In Israel's Border Wars, historian Benny Morris
disputed that Gilbert's accounting of Israeli casualties from Fedayeen
attacks in the 1950s was inflated.
, who also edited the two companions to volume one. Gilbert's first work as official biographer was to supervise the posthumous publication of the three companions to volume two, but these were published in Randolph Churchill's name, and indeed, Randolph had already compiled most of the material in his lifetime)
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
, PC
Privy Council of the United Kingdom
Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, usually known simply as the Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the Sovereign in the United Kingdom...
(born 25 October 1936) is a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
and Fellow
Research fellow
The title of research fellow is used to denote a research position at a university or similar institution, usually for academic staff or faculty members. A research fellow may act either as an independent investigator or under the supervision of a principal investigator...
of Merton College, University of Oxford
Merton College, Oxford
Merton College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the 1260s when Walter de Merton, chancellor to Henry III and later to Edward I, first drew up statutes for an independent academic community and established endowments to...
. He is the author of over eighty books, including works on the Holocaust and Jewish history. Gilbert is a leading historian of the modern world, and is known as the official biographer of Sir 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...
.
Education and personal life
Gilbert was born in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
to Peter and Miriam Gilbert. Nine months after the outbreak of the Second World War, he was evacuated to Canada as part of the British efforts to safeguard children
Evacuations of civilians in Britain during World War II
Evacuation of civilians in Britain during the Second World War was designed to save the population of urban or military areas in the United Kingdom from aerial bombing of cities and military targets such as docks. Civilians, particularly children, were moved to areas thought to be less at risk....
. Vivid memories of the transatlantic crossing from Liverpool to Quebec sparked his curiosity about the war in later years. After the war he attended Highgate School
Highgate School
-Notable members of staff and governing body:* John Ireton, brother of Henry Ireton, Cromwellian General* 1st Earl of Mansfield, Lord Chief Justice, owner of Kenwood, noted for judgment finding contracts for slavery unenforceable in English law* T. S...
, and then completed two years of National Service
National service
National service is a common name for mandatory government service programmes . The term became common British usage during and for some years following the Second World War. Many young people spent one or more years in such programmes...
in the Intelligence Corps before going on to study at Magdalen College
Magdalen College, Oxford
Magdalen College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2006 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £153 million. Magdalen is currently top of the Norrington Table after over half of its 2010 finalists received first-class degrees, a record...
, Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
, graduating in 1960 with a first-class BA
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
in modern history.
One of his tutors at Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
was A.J.P. Taylor. After his graduation, Gilbert undertook postgraduate research at St Antony's College, Oxford
St Antony's College, Oxford
St Antony's College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England.St Antony's is the most international of the seven all-graduate colleges of the University of Oxford, specialising in international relations, economics, politics, and history of particular parts of the...
. In 1963, he married Helen Constance Robinson, with whom he had a daughter. He had two sons with his second wife, Susan Sacher, whom he married in 1974. Since 2005, he has been married to the Holocaust historian Esther Gilbert, née Goldberg. Gilbert describes himself as a proud practising Jew and a Zionist.
Career
After two years of postgraduate work, he was approached by Randolph ChurchillRandolph Churchill
Major Randolph Frederick Edward Spencer-Churchill, MBE was the son of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and his wife Clementine. He was a Conservative Member of Parliament for Preston from 1940 to 1945....
for help in writing a biography of his father, Sir 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...
. That same year, 1962, he was made a Fellow
Research fellow
The title of research fellow is used to denote a research position at a university or similar institution, usually for academic staff or faculty members. A research fellow may act either as an independent investigator or under the supervision of a principal investigator...
of Merton College, Oxford
Merton College, Oxford
Merton College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the 1260s when Walter de Merton, chancellor to Henry III and later to Edward I, first drew up statutes for an independent academic community and established endowments to...
, and he spent the next few years combining his own research projects in Oxford with being part of Randolph's research team in Suffolk
Suffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...
, working on the first two volumes of the Churchill biography. When Randolph died in 1968, Gilbert was commissioned to take over the task, completing the final six main volumes of the biography. Gilbert spent twenty years on the six narrative volumes, releasing a number of other books throughout the time. Each main volume of the biography is accompanied by two or three volumes of documents, and so the biography currently runs to 24 volumes (over 25,000 pages), with another 7 document volumes still planned. In the 1960s, Gilbert compiled some of the first historical atlases. His major works include a definitive single-volume history of The Holocaust
The Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
, as well as single-volume histories of The First World War and The Second World War
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. He has also written a notable three-volume series called A History of the Twentieth century. Gilbert describes himself as an "archival historian" who makes extensive use of primary sources in his work. Interviewed by the BBC on the subject of Holocaust research, Gilbert said he believes that the "tireless gathering of facts will ultimately consign Holocaust deniers to history."
In 1990, Gilbert was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(CBE). In 1995, he was awarded a Knighthood
Knight Bachelor
The rank of Knight Bachelor is a part of the British honours system. It is the most basic rank of a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not as a member of one of the organised Orders of Chivalry...
"for services to British history and international relations". In 1995, he retired as a Fellow of Merton College, but was made an Honorary Fellow. In 1999 he was awarded a Doctorate by Oxford University, "for the totality of his published work". He lives in London. Since 2002, he has been a Distinguished Fellow of Hillsdale College
Hillsdale College
Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Michigan, United States, is a co-educational liberal arts college known for being the first American college to prohibit in its charter all discrimination based on race, religion, or sex; its refusal of government funding; and its monthly publication, Imprimis...
, Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
, and between 2006 and 2007 he was a professor in the history department at the University of Western Ontario
University of Western Ontario
The University of Western Ontario is a public research university located in London, Ontario, Canada. The university's main campus covers of land, with the Thames River cutting through the eastern portion of the main campus. Western administers its programs through 12 different faculties and...
. In October 2008, he was elected to an Honorary Fellowship at Churchill College. He continues to lecture around the world on Churchill and Jewish history. Gilbert was appointed in June 2009 as a member of the British government’s inquiry into the Iraq War (headed by Sir John Chilcot
John Chilcot
The Rt. Hon. Sir John Chilcot, GCB, PC is a Privy Counsellor and former civil servant. His appointment as chair of an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the March 2003 invasion of Iraq and its aftermath was announced in June 2009....
). His appointment to this inquiry was criticised in parliament by William Hague
William Hague
William Jefferson Hague is the British Foreign Secretary and First Secretary of State. He served as Leader of the Conservative Party from June 1997 to September 2001...
, Claire Short, George Galloway
George Galloway
George Galloway is a British politician, author, journalist and broadcaster who was a Member of Parliament from 1987 to 2010. He was formerly an MP for the Labour Party, first for Glasgow Hillhead and later for Glasgow Kelvin, before his expulsion from the party in October 2003, the same year...
, and Lynne Jones
Lynne Jones
Lynne Mary Jones is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Birmingham Selly Oak from 1992 until the dissolution of parliament in April 2010.-Early life:...
on the basis that Gilbert had once compared 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....
and Tony Blair
Tony 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...
, to Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
and Churchill. The same year, Gilbert was appointed to the Privy Council
Privy Council of the United Kingdom
Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, usually known simply as the Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the Sovereign in the United Kingdom...
. In January 2011, the inquiry into the Iraq War was resumed, and Gilbert continued to interrogate with Blair about his motives and decisions to the war.
Praise and criticism
Many laud Gilbert's books and atlases for their meticulous scholarship, and his clear and objective presentation of complex events. His book on World War I is described as a majestic, single-volume work incorporating all major fronts - domestic, diplomatic, military- for "a stunning achievement of research and storytelling." VaticanHoly See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
sources describe him as a "fair-minded, conscientious collector of facts." Michael Foot
Michael Foot
Michael Mackintosh Foot, FRSL, PC was a British Labour Party politician, journalist and author, who was a Member of Parliament from 1945 to 1955 and from 1960 until 1992...
, reviewing a volume of Gilbert's Churchill biography in The New Statesman in 1971 praised his meticulous scholarship and wrote, "Whoever made the decision to make Martin Gilbert Churchill's biographer deserves a vote of thanks from the nation. Nothing less would suffice."
Gilbert's portrayal of Churchill's supportive attitudes to Jews (in his book Churchill and the Jews) has been criticised, for example by Piers Brendon
Piers Brendon
Piers Brendon is a British writer, known for historical and biographical works. He was educated at Shrewsbury School, Shropshire, and Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he read History. He earned his Ph.D for his thesis, Hurrell Froude and the Oxford Movement, which was published, with much...
. Also, Tom Segev
Tom Segev
Tom Segev is an Israeli historian, author and journalist. He is associated with Israel's so-called New Historians, a group challenging many of the country's traditional narratives.-Early life:Segev was born in Jerusalem in 1945...
writes that although Gilbert's coffee-table book The Story of Israel is written with "encyclopedic clarity," Segev is critical of the absence of figures from Arab sources. In Israel's Border Wars, historian Benny Morris
Benny Morris
Benny Morris is professor of History in the Middle East Studies department of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in the city of Be'er Sheva, Israel...
disputed that Gilbert's accounting of Israeli casualties from Fedayeen
Fedayeen
Fedayeen is a term used to describe several distinct militant groups and individuals in West Asia at different times in history. It is sometimes used colloquially to refer to suicide squads, especially those who are not bombers.-Overview:...
attacks in the 1950s was inflated.
Biography of Winston Churchill
(Volumes One and Two were written by Churchill's son Randolph ChurchillRandolph Churchill
Major Randolph Frederick Edward Spencer-Churchill, MBE was the son of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and his wife Clementine. He was a Conservative Member of Parliament for Preston from 1940 to 1945....
, who also edited the two companions to volume one. Gilbert's first work as official biographer was to supervise the posthumous publication of the three companions to volume two, but these were published in Randolph Churchill's name, and indeed, Randolph had already compiled most of the material in his lifetime)
- Winston S Churchill: Volume Three: The Challenge of War: 1914-1916, (1971)
- Winston S Churchill: Volume Four: The Stricken World 1917-1922, (1975)
- Winston S Churchill: Volume Five: Prophet of Truth 1922-1939, (1979)
- Winston S Churchill: Volume Six: Finest Hour 1939-1941, (1983)
- Winston S Churchill: Volume Seven: Road to Victory 1941-1945, (1986)
- Winston S Churchill: Volume Eight: Never Despair 1945-1965, (1988)
Companion Volumes to Biography
- Winston S Churchill: Volume Three, Documents (in two volumes), (1972)
- Winston S Churchill: Volume Four, Documents (in three volumes), (1977)
- Winston S Churchill, The Exchequer Years, 1922–1929, Documents, (1979)
- Winston S Churchill, The Wilderness Years, 1929–1935, Documents, (1981)
- Winston S Churchill, The Coming of War, 1936–1939, Documents, (1982)
- The Churchill War Papers, Volume One: Winston S Churchill, 'At The Admiralty': September 1939-May 1940, (1993)
- The Churchill War Papers, Volume Two: Winston S Churchill, 'Never Surrender': May–December 1940, (1995)
- The Churchill War Papers, Volume Three: Winston S Churchill, 'The Ever-Widening War': 1941, (2000)
Other books on Winston Churchill
- Winston Churchill, (1966), a short biography for use in Schools
- Churchill: Great Lives Observed, (1967)
- Churchill: A Photographic Portrait, (1974)
- Churchill: An Illustrated Biography, (1979)
- Churchill's Political Philosophy, (1981)
- Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years, (1981)
- Churchill, A Life, (1991)
- In Search of Churchill, (1994)
- Winston Churchill and Emery Reves, Correspondence 1937-1964 (editor), (1997)
- Churchill at War: His 'Finest Hour' in Photographs, 1940-1945, (2003)
- Continue to Pester, Nag and Bite (2004) retitled Winston Churchill's War Leadership
- Churchill and America (2005)
- Will of the People (2006)
- Churchill and the Jews (2007)
Other biographies and history books
- Britain and Germany Between the Wars (editor), (1964)
- The Appeasers (with Richard Gott), (1965)
- The European Powers 1900-1945, (1965)
- Plough My Own Furrow: The Life of Lord Allen of Hurtwood (editor), (1965)
- Recent History Atlas, 1860-1960, (1965)
- The Roots of Appeasement, (1966)
- Servant of India (editor), (1966), A Study of Imperial Rule in India from 1905-1910 as told through the correspondence and diaries of Sir James Dunlop-Smith, Private Secretary to the Viceroy of India
- Lloyd George: Great Lives Observed (editor), (1968)
- British History Atlas, (1968)
- American History Atlas, (1968)
- Jewish History Atlas, (1969)
- The Second World War, (1970), for use in schools
- First World War Atlas, (1971)
- Russian History Atlas, (1972)
- Sir Horace Rumbold: Portrait of a Diplomat, 1869-1941, (1973)
- The Arab-Israeli Conflict: Its History in Maps, (1974)
- The Jews of Arab Lands: Their History in Maps, (1976)
- The Jews of Russia: Their History in Maps and Photographs, (1976)
- Jerusalem Illustrated History Atlas, (1977)
- Exile and Return: The Emergence of Jewish Statehood, (1978)
- The Holocaust, Maps and Photographs, (1978), for use in schools
- Final Journey: The Fate of the Jews of Nazi Europe, (1979)
- Children's Illustrated Bible Atlas, (1979)
- Auschwitz and the Allies, (1981)
- Atlas of the Holocaust, (1982)
- Jews of Hope, The Plight of Soviet Jewry Today, (1984)
- Jerusalem: Rebirth of a City, (1985)
- The Holocaust: The Jewish Tragedy, (1986)
- Shcharansky: Hero of Our Time, (1986)
- The Second World War, (1989)
- Atlas Of British Charities, (1993)
- The Day the War Ended: May 8, 1945, (1995)
- Jerusalem in the Twentieth Century, (1996)
- The Boys, Triumph Over Adversity, (1996)
- First World War, (2002)
- A History of the Twentieth Century, Volume One: 1900-1933, (1997)
- Holocaust Journey: Travelling in Search of the Past, (1997)
- A History of the Twentieth Century, Volume Two, 1933-1951, (1999)
- A History of the Twentieth Century, Volume Three, 1952-1999 (1999)
- Never Again: A History of the Holocaust, (2000)
- From The Ends of the Earth: The Jews in the Twentieth Century, (2001)
- History of the Twentieth Century, (2001), condensed version of his three volume history
- Letters to Auntie Fori: The 5,000-Year History of the Jewish People and their Faith, (2002)
- The Righteous: The Unsung Heroes of the Holocaust, (2002)
- D-Day, (2004)
- Kristallnacht: Prelude to Destruction, (2006)
- The Somme: Heroism and Horror in the First World War, (2006)
- The Story of Israel, (2008)
- Atlas of the Second World War, (2009)
- In Ishmael's House: A History of the Jews in Muslim Lands,Yale University Presse, New Haven, CT 2010 ISBN 978-0-300167153
External links
- Martin Gilbert Online
- One on One with Sir Martin Gilbert: Hindsight and aforethought interview with Ruthie Blum, Jerusalem Post, Feb. 22, 2007.
- Official biography at Iraq Inquiry site