Geoffrey Roberts

Geoffrey Roberts (born 1952) is a British historian of the Second World War. He specializes in Soviet diplomatic and military history of the Second World War.[1] He is a professor of modern history at University College Cork in Ireland and was formerly head of the School of History at UCC.

For the New Zealand military aviator and airline manager, see Geoffrey Roberts (airline manager).
Geoffrey Roberts
Born1952 (age 67–68)
Deptford, London
Academic work
Main interestsSoviet History

Early life and career

Geoffrey Roberts was born in Deptford, south London in 1952. As undergraduate he studied International Relations at North Staffordshire Polytechnic and was a postgraduate research student at the London School of Economics.[2]

As of the 21st century, Roberts is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society,[3]and teaches History and International Relations at University College Cork, Ireland.[4] Academic awards won by Roberts include a Fulbright Scholarship to Harvard University and a Government of Ireland Senior Research Fellowship.[5] He is a commentator on history and current affairs for British and Irish newspapers and a contributor to the History News Service. He has appeared on radio and TV, and has acted as an historical consultant for documentary series such as Simon Berthon's Warlords, broadcast in 2005.

Criticism

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.[6] 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.[7][8]

Published work

He returned to academic life in the 1990s following the publication of his first book The Unholy Alliance: Stalin’s Pact with Hitler, 1989. Other books and articles followed, including:

  • The Soviet Union and the Origins of the Second World War, 1995. ISBN 0312126034
  • The Soviet Union in World Politics, 1945-1991, 1998. ISBN 0415192463
  • Victory at Stalingrad: The Battle That Changed History, 2002. ISBN 0582771854
  • Stalin’s Wars: From World War to Cold War, 1939-1953, Yale University Press, 2006. ISBN 0300112041
  • Molotov: Stalin's Cold Warrior, 2012. ISBN 9781574889451
  • Stalin's General: The Life of Georgy Zhukov, 2012. ISBN 9781400066926
  • Churchill and Stalin: Comrades-in-Arms during the Second World War, 2020 ISBN 978-1781590492

References
  1. Pechatnov, Vladimir (2008). Review of Stalin’s Wars: From World War to Cold War, 1939–1953. Journal of Cold War Studies 10 (3), 179-181.
  2. http://www.2018-2019.eurias-fp.eu/fellows/geoffrey-roberts
  3. https://files.royalhistsoc.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/27142705/RHS-Fellows-R.pdf
  4. http://publish.ucc.ie/researchprofiles/A019/groberts
  5. http://publish.ucc.ie/researchprofiles/A019/groberts
  6. Bacevich, Andrew J. (2007). Man of Steel, Re-forged Archived 2010-06-13 at the Wayback Machine
  7. Haslam, Jonathan (1997). Review: Soviet-German Relations and the Origins of the Second World War: The Jury Is Still Out The Journal of Modern History 69.4: 785-797.
  8. Haslam, Jonathan (2008). Review of Geoffrey Roberts, Stalin's Wars: From World War to Cold War, 1939–1953. The Journal of Modern History 80 (4), 968-970.
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