Alan Bullock - Wikipedia Alan Bullock From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to navigation Jump to search For the Scottish rugby player, see Alan Bulloch. The Right Honourable The Lord Bullock FBA Bullock in 1969 Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University In office 1969–1973 Preceded by Kenneth Turpin Succeeded by Sir John Habakkuk 1st Master of St Catherine's College, Oxford In office 1962–1981 Personal details Born 13 December 1914 Died 2 February 2004 (2004-02-03) (aged 89) Alma mater Wadham College, Oxford Alan Louis Charles Bullock, Baron Bullock, FBA (13 December 1914 – 2 February 2004) was a British historian. He is best known for his book Hitler: A Study in Tyranny (1952) which was the first comprehensive biography of Adolf Hitler and influenced many other major biographies of Hitler. Contents 1 Early life and career 2 Hitler: A Study in Tyranny 3 Other works 4 Later works 5 Honours 6 See also 7 References 8 Further reading 8.1 Primary sources Early life and career[edit] Bullock was born in Trowbridge in Wiltshire, England where his father worked as a gardener and a Unitarian preacher.[1] He was educated at Bradford Grammar School and Wadham College, Oxford where he read classics and modern history. After graduating in 1938, he worked as a research assistant for Winston Churchill, who was writing his History of the English-Speaking Peoples. He was a Harmsworth Senior Scholar at Merton College, Oxford from 1938 to 1940.[2] During World War II, Bullock worked for the European Service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). After the war, he returned to Oxford as a history fellow at New College. He was the censor of St Catherine's Society (1952-1962) and then founding master of St Catherine's College, Oxford (1962-1981),[3][4] a college for undergraduates and graduates, divided between students of the sciences and the arts. He was credited with massive fundraising efforts to develop the college. Later, he was the first full-time Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University.[5] Hitler: A Study in Tyranny[edit] Main article: Hitler: A Study in Tyranny In 1952, Bullock published Hitler: A Study in Tyranny, the first comprehensive biography of Adolf Hitler, which he based on the transcripts of the Nuremberg Trials. This book dominated Hitler scholarship for many years. The book characterised Hitler as an opportunistic Machtpolitiker ("power politician"). In Bullock's opinion, Hitler was a "mountebank", an opportunistic adventurer devoid of principles, beliefs or scruples whose actions throughout his career were motivated only by a lust for power. Bullock's views led in the 1950s to a debate with Hugh Trevor-Roper who argued that Hitler did possess beliefs, albeit repulsive ones, and that his actions were motivated by them. Bullock's Guardian obituary commented that "Bullock's famous maxim 'Hitler was jobbed into power by backstairs intrigue' has stood the test of time."[6] When reviewing Hitler and Stalin in The Times in 1991, John Campbell wrote of Hitler: A Study in Tyranny: "Although written so soon after the end of the war and despite a steady flow of fresh evidence and reinterpretation, it has not been surpassed in nearly 40 years: an astonishing achievement."[7][8] In subsequent works, Bullock to some extent changed his mind about Hitler. His later writings show the dictator as much more of an ideologue, who pursued the ideas expressed in Mein Kampf (and elsewhere) despite their consequences. This has become a widely accepted view of Hitler, particularly in relation to the Holocaust.[citation needed] Taking note of the shift in interest among professional historians towards social history in the 1960s, Bullock agreed that in general, deep long-term social forces are decisive in history, but not always, for there are times when the Great Man is in his views decisive. In revolutionary circumstances, "It is possible for an individual to exert a powerful even a decisive influence on the way events develop and the policies that are followed."[9] Other works[edit] Bullock's other works included The Humanist Tradition in the West (1985), and The Life and Times of Ernest Bevin, a three-volume biography of British Labour Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin.[10] He was also editor of The Harper Dictionary of Modern Thought (1977), a project he suggested to the publisher when he found he could not define the word "hermeneutics". He had earlier co-edited with Maurice Shock a collection on The Liberal Tradition: From Fox to Keynes.[11] In the mid-1970s, Bullock used his committee skills to produce a report which proved to be influential in the classroom: A Language for Life, about reading and the teaching of English, was published in 1975.[6][12] Bullock also appeared as a political pundit, particularly during the BBC's coverage of the 1959 British general election.[13] Later works[edit] Late in his life, Bullock published Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives (1991), a massive work which he described in the introduction as "essentially a political biography, set against the background of the times in which they lived".[14] He showed how the careers of Hitler and Joseph Stalin fed off each other to some extent. Bullock comes to a thesis that Stalin's ability to consolidate power in his home country and, unlike Hitler, not to over-extend himself enabled him to retain power longer than Hitler. It was awarded the 1992 Wolfson History Prize. American historian Ronald Spector, writing in The Washington Post, praised Bullock's ability to write about the development of Nazism and Soviet Communism without either abstract generalization or irrelevant detail. "The writing is invariably interesting and informed and there are new insights and cogent analysis in every chapter," he wrote.[7] Nachmani says Hitler and Stalin: come out as two blood-thirsty, pathologically evil, sanguine tyrants, who are sure of the presence of determinism, hence having unshakeable beliefs that Destiny assigned on them historical missions—the one to pursue a social industrialized revolution in the Soviet Union, the other to turn Germany into a global empire.[15] Honours[edit] Bullock was decorated with the award of the Chevalier, Legion of Honour in 1970, and knighted in 1972, becoming Sir Alan Bullock and on 30 January 1976 he was created a life peer as Baron Bullock, of Leafield in the County of Oxfordshire.[16] His writings always appeared under the name "Alan Bullock". In May 1976, Bullock was awarded an honorary degree from the Open University as Doctor of the University.[17] See also[edit] Historiography of Adolf Hitler List of Adolf Hitler books William L. Shirer Louis Leo Snyder References[edit] ^ "Alan Louis Charles Bullock biography - British historian". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 21 May 2015. ^ Levens, R.G.C., ed. (1964). Merton College Register 1900–1964. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. p. 289. ^ Europa Publications (2003). The International Who's Who: 2004. Psychology Press. p. 244. ISBN 978-1-85743-217-6. ^ "St Catherine's Society". british-history.ac.uk. Retrieved 11 December 2018. ^ "Previous Vice-Chancellors". University of Oxford, UK. Retrieved 13 July 2011. ^ a b Frankland, Mark. Lord Bullock of Leafield, The Guardian. 3 February 2004. ^ a b https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1129&dat=20040205&id=4XIxAAAAIBAJ&sjid=kHADAAAAIBAJ&pg=6679,3413064 ^ John Campbell, 'The lesson of two evils', The Times Saturday Review (22 June 1991), p. 21. ^ Alan Bullock, Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives (1991) p 976 ^ Keith G. Robbins (1996). A Bibliography of British History: 1914-1989. Oxford University Press. p. 31. ISBN 978-0-19-822496-9. ^ Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1967. ^ R. C. S. Trahair (1994). From Aristotelian to Reaganomics: A Dictionary of Eponyms With Biographies in the Social Sciences. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 93. ISBN 978-0-313-27961-4. ^ Video on YouTube ^ Alan Bullock, Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives (London: HarperCollins, 1991; New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1991; second revised edition, New York: Vintage Books, 1993. ^ Nachmani, p. 783. ^ "No. 46815". The London Gazette. 3 February 1976. p. 1679. ^ "Honorary Graduate Cumulative List" (PDF). Open University. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 October 2014. Retrieved 7 October 2014. Further reading[edit] Caston, Geoffrey. "Alan Bullock: historian, social democrat and chairman." Oxford Review of Education 32.1 (2006): 87-103. Nachmani, Amikam. "Alan Bullock, 1914–2004: 'I Only Write Enormous Books'." Diplomacy and Statecraft 16.4 (2005): 779-786 online. Rosenbaum, Ron, Explaining Hitler: the search for the origins of his evil, New York: Random House, 1998. ISBN 0-679-43151-9. Primary sources[edit] Bullock, Alan. Hitler, A Study in Tyranny (Abridged edition 1971) Bullock, Alan. Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives (1991) Academic offices Preceded by None Master of St Catherine's College, Oxford 1962–1981 Succeeded by Sir Patrick Nairne Preceded by Kenneth Turpin Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University 1969–1973 Succeeded by Sir John Habakkuk v t e Winners of the Wolfson History Prize 1970s Michael Howard / Keith Thomas (1972) W. L. Warren / Frances Yates (1973) Moses Finley / Theodore Zeldin (1974) Frances Donaldson / Olwen Hufton (1975) Nikolaus Pevsner / Norman Stone (1976) Denis Mack Smith / Simon Schama (1977) Alistair Horne (1978) Richard Cobb / Quentin Skinner / Mary Soames (1979) 1980s Robert Evans / F. S. L. Lyons (1980) J. W. Burrow (1981) John McManners (1982) Martin Gilbert / Kenneth Rose (1983) Antonia Fraser / Maurice Keen (1984) Richard Davenport-Hines / John Grigg (1985) J. H. Elliott / Jonathan Israel (1986) Rees Davies / John Pemble (1987) Richard Evans / Paul Kennedy (1988) Richard A. Fletcher / Donald Cameron Watt (1989) 1990s Colin Platt (1990) John Bossy / Alan Bullock (1991) Linda Colley / Robert Skidelsky (1992) Robert Bartlett / Barbara Harvey (1993) Fiona MacCarthy / John C. G. Röhl (1994) H. C. G. Matthew (1995) Orlando Figes (1996) John Brewer / Patricia Hollis (1997) Antony Beevor / Amanda Vickery (1998) Joanna Bourke / Andrew Roberts (1999) 2000s Ian Kershaw / Mark Mazower / Roy Porter (2000) Barry Cunliffe / Jerry White (2001) William Dalrymple / Robert Gildea (2002) Frances Harris / Julian T. Jackson / Diarmaid MacCulloch (2003) Richard Overy / David Reynolds (2004) Evelyn Welch / Christopher Wickham (2005) Christopher Clark / Vic Gatrell / Adam Tooze (2006) John Darwin / Rosemary Hill (2007) Mary Beard / Margaret M. McGowan (2008) Dominic Lieven / Jonathan Sumption (2009) 2010s Ruth Harris / Nicholas Thomas (2010) Susie Harries / Alexandra Walsham (2011) Susan Brigden / Christopher Duggan (2012) Cyprian Broodbank / Catherine Merridale (2013) Richard Vinen / Alexander Watson (2014) Robin Lane Fox / Nikolaus Wachsmann (2015) Christopher de Hamel (2016) Peter Marshall (2017) Mary Fulbrook (2018) Authority control BIBSYS: 90097416 BNE: XX1158673 BNF: cb118945106 (data) CANTIC: a11530157 CiNii: DA01115915 GND: 118184490 ISNI: 0000 0001 1453 2698 LCCN: n50045577 LNB: 000036448 NDL: 00924963 NKC: jn19981000363 NLA: 35781155 NLI: 000026369 NLK: KAC200702686 NLP: A10418891 NSK: 000005577 NTA: 067985424 PLWABN: 9810638789605606 SELIBR: 285999 SUDOC: 026758792 Trove: 1084331 VIAF: 100225455 WorldCat Identities: lccn-n50045577 Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Alan_Bullock&oldid=998477074" Categories: 1914 births 2004 deaths People from Trowbridge People educated at Bradford Grammar School Alumni of Wadham College, Oxford Crossbench life peers English biographers Historians of Nazism Knights Bachelor Fellows of New College, Oxford Masters of St Catherine's College, Oxford Vice-Chancellors of the University of Oxford Social Democratic Party (UK) politicians 20th-century English historians Fellows of the British Academy Alumni of Merton College, Oxford Hidden categories: Use British English from March 2012 Use dmy dates from July 2020 All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from July 2011 Wikipedia articles with BIBSYS identifiers Wikipedia articles with BNE identifiers Wikipedia articles with BNF identifiers Wikipedia articles with CANTIC identifiers Wikipedia articles with CINII identifiers Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers Wikipedia articles with ISNI identifiers Wikipedia articles with LCCN identifiers Wikipedia articles with LNB identifiers Wikipedia articles with NDL identifiers Wikipedia articles with NKC identifiers Wikipedia articles with NLA identifiers Wikipedia articles with NLI identifiers Wikipedia articles with NLK identifiers Wikipedia articles with NLP identifiers Wikipedia articles with NSK identifiers Wikipedia articles with NTA identifiers Wikipedia articles with PLWABN identifiers Wikipedia articles with SELIBR identifiers Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers Wikipedia articles with Trove identifiers Wikipedia articles with VIAF identifiers Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers Navigation menu Personal tools Not logged in Talk Contributions Create account Log in Namespaces Article Talk Variants Views Read Edit View history More Search Navigation Main page Contents Current events Random article About Wikipedia Contact us Donate Contribute Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file Tools What links here Related changes Upload file Special pages Permanent link Page information Cite this page Wikidata item Print/export Download as PDF Printable version Languages العربية Български Deutsch Español Esperanto Français Bahasa Indonesia Latina مصرى Nederlands 日本語 Norsk bokmål Polski Português Shqip Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Suomi Svenska Українська 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 5 January 2021, at 15:28 (UTC). 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