Geoffrey Roberts

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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 was professor of modern history at University College Cork in Ireland and head of the School of History at UCC.

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]

Roberts is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society,^[3] and taught 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.^[4] He is a commentator on history and current affairs for British and Irish newspapers^[which?] and a contributor to the History News Service.^{[citation needed]} He has appeared on radio and TV,^{[citation needed]} and has acted as an historical consultant for documentary series such as Simon Berthon's Warlords, broadcast in 2005.^{[citation needed]}

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.^[5] 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.^[6][7]

Published work[]

• The Unholy Alliance: Stalin’s Pact with Hitler, 1989. ISBN 978-0253351173
• 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[]

External links[]

• Official Site
• Articles by Geoffrey Roberts