Martin Gilbert

Sir Martin John Gilbert, CBE (born October 25, 1936 in London) is a British historian and the author of over seventy books, including works on the Holocaust and Jewish history. He is best known as the official biographer of Sir Winston Churchill.

Education

Gilbert spent some of the war years in Canada as part of the British program to protect children from the German blitz. After the war he attended Highgate School before studying modern history at Magdalen College, Oxford, graduating in 1960 with a BA. One of his professors at Oxford was A.J.P. Taylor.

Career

Gilbert was approached soon after his graduation from Oxford to assist Randolph Churchill who was writing the biography of his father. When Randolph died in 1968, Gilbert took over the task, completing the final six volumes of the biography. Gilbert spent more than thirty years on the project, releasing a number of other books throughout the time. He receives no royalties for the biography, but only a small stipend.

In 1995, he received a knighthood "for services to British history and international relations" from Queen Elizabeth II. He was awarded the C.B.E. in 1990. An Honorary Fellow of Merton College, Oxford University, he lives in London. Since 2002 he has been a Distinguished Fellow of Hillsdale College, Michigan. On August 31, 2006 it was announced that he will begin a five-year term as a professor in the history department at the University of Western Ontario.

Books

Biography of Winston Churchill

(Volumes One and Two were written by Churchill's son Randolph Churchill)

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)
Winston Churchill's War Leadership (2004)
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)
Israel, A History, (1998)
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)

References