Since being founded in 1912, the School of History has been dedicated to producing research that is both world-class and impactful. Not just for academic purposes, but because our research is intrinsic to our teaching.
Professor Julian Jackson won the prestigious The American Library in Paris Book Award for the biography, A Certain Idea of France: The Life of Charles de Gaulle. The biography received a huge amount of coverage in the media and was also met with huge critical acclaim. As well as The American Library in Paris award, Julian was also awarded the Duff Cooper Prize for History, the Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography and the Franco-British Society Literary Prize.
Julian has written extensively on de Gaulle in the past and for the biography, he made full use of the former French President’s archives.
He said: “De Gaulle’s influence is greater than similar political figures in the UK such as Churchill because he still casts a shadow. Churchill does not really have influence today, he is a memory of a great moment in history – as is de Gaulle for the role he played as leader of the Free French during the German Occupation of France – but de Gaulle also created the constitution that France still has today.
“De Gaulle’s Fifth Republic, whose institutions are being used to great effect by President Macron, fundamentally changed France’s political culture.
“The French president has more power than any other head of state in Europe and indeed the president of the United States and that is a result of the constitution that de Gaulle created in 1958. If there is one lasting legacy of de Gaulle it is the constitution that France still has today,” said Professor Jackson.
Dr Martyn Frampton is a renowned historian of the Troubles in Ireland as well as of Islamist extremism. His scholarship and knowledge of these areas have seen him comment on the nature of terrorism and government policy responses to this pressing issue.
In 2016, Martyn led a project that produced the most extensive survey to date of British Muslim views across the UK, and, in 2017, he directed a major study into the scope and availability of extremist material online.
Martyn is also the author of The Muslim Brotherhood and the West: A History of Enmity and Engagement.