The Lord Roberts of Belgravia | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2023 | |
| Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal | |
| Assumed office 1 November 2022 Life peerage | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1963-01-13)13 January 1963 (age 62) Hammersmith, London, England |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Spouses |
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| Education | Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge |
| Occupation |
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| Awards | Wolfson History Prize (2000) |
| Website | andrew-roberts |
Andrew Roberts, Baron Roberts of Belgravia (born 13 January 1963),[2][3] is an Englishpopular historian and journalist.[4] He is the Roger and Martha Mertz Visiting Research Fellow at theHoover Institution atStanford University and a Lehrman Institute Distinguished Lecturer at theNew York Historical Society. He was atrustee of theNational Portrait Gallery, London, from 2013 to 2021.[5][6]
Roberts's historical research has focused mostly onEnglish-speaking nations, particularly those closely tied socially to the United Kingdom, such as the United States.[7] Roberts is known internationally for his 2009 bookThe Storm of War,[8][9] which covers socio-political factors of theSecond World War, such asAdolf Hitler'srise to power and the administrative organisation ofNazi Germany. It received the British Army Military Book of the Year Award for 2010, and achieved commercial success, reaching No. 2 onThe Sunday Times best-seller list.[8] Much of Roberts's later work, including his 2014 and 2018 biographies ofNapoleon andSir Winston Churchill, has been widely praised. Roberts's public commentary has additionally appeared in several British publications, such asThe Daily Telegraph andThe Spectator, including his support forAtlanticism withininternational relations.
Andrew Roberts was born inHammersmith, London, on 13 January 1963, the son of Kathleen (née Hillery-Collings) and Simon Roberts, a business executive.[1][10] Simon, fromCobham, Surrey, inherited the Job's Dairy milk business and also owned the Britishfranchise ofKentucky Fried Chicken. A prolific reader as a child, Roberts soon gained a passion for history, particularly for dramatic works relating to "battles, wars, assassinations and death".[3]
Roberts attendedCranleigh School in Surrey and readmodern history atGonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he was chairman of theCambridge University Conservative Association.[11] He graduated with afirst-class honoursBA degree and took aPhD in modern history.[12][13] Roberts began his career in corporate finance as an investment banker and private company director with the London merchant bankRobert Fleming & Co., where he worked from 1985 to 1988. He published his first historical book in 1991.[14]
In the context of theFirst World War, Roberts believes that thetreaty obligations imposed on theGerman Empire should have been significantly tougher. He has stated that the victorious powers of theEntente alliance should have broken up Germany into component sub-national territories akin to the disorganised situation prior to theunification of Germany in the mid-1800s.Ultranationalism was eventually "burned out of the German soul", in Roberts's opinion, at a truly devastating cost.[9]
Roberts's analysis of theSecond World War states that theNazi German government had significant advantages in military organisation and economic power early in the war. He has argued that, if someone other thanAdolf Hitler had control of the nation's military strategy, the country would likely have forgone a costly direct invasion ofSoviet territory, which occurred throughOperation Barbarossa, and instead would have swept throughMediterranean territories before trying to seal off British-controlled Middle East areas. Roberts has stated his belief that likely morale-building victories against the comparatively weak forces to the southeast could have allowed Hitler to essentially win the war.
According to Roberts, the other key strategic mistake was theGerman declaration of war against the United States, which was announced only four days after thePearl Harbor attacks despite the fact that the Nazi regime had no legal obligation to take such an action. Roberts has stated that, after the declaration, Germany could not keep the US war-making economic machine at bay.[9] Thus, in his view, the "mistakes, delusions, and exaggerated self-confidence complexes that thefascist government fostered proved its undoing."[15]
Roberts has additionally stated that he viewsJoseph Stalin's control of theSoviet Armed Forces as having been disastrous to the allied efforts against theAxis powers. He has commented that Stalin's obsessive tactics of killing his own men for ideological reasons cost him thousands upon thousands of troops. He claimed that in theBattle of Stalingrad alone, Soviet forces killed the equivalent of two fulldivisions of their own personnel.[9]
In terms of more recent history, Roberts has whole-heartedly embracedThatcherism. He has remained a staunch backer of British Prime MinisterMargaret Thatcher and her socio-political legacy.[3] In Roberts's opinion, Thatcher's insight to push Britain into a path in which it kept out of theeuro currency concept, while still having strong ties to various European economies and otherwise engaging in international trade, has been validated by theEurozone crisis in the aftermath of theGreat Recession. After the British prime ministerTony Blair of theLabour Party resigned, Roberts assessed him as an "exemplary war leader" with his "vigorous prosecution of theWar against Terror", which would leave him regarded as a "highly successful prime minister".[16] In the2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, Roberts backed the "Leave" vote.[17]
Roberts supports a strong American military and has generally argued in favour of close relations between theAnglosphere nations. As an advocate for the general principle of democratic pluralism, he has argued that "[s]neered at for being 'simplistic' in his reaction to 9/11, Bush's visceral responses to the attacks of a fascistic, totalitarian death cult will be seen as having been substantially the right ones" in the long run. In many writings, he has come out in support ofneo-conservative influenced socio-political viewpoints.[3]
During the buildup to theIraq War, Roberts supported the proposed invasion, arguing that anything less would be tantamount to appeasement, comparing Tony Blair to Winston Churchill in his "astonishing leadership". He additionally argued that acting againstSaddam Hussein was in line with the "Pax Americanarealpolitik that has kept the Great Powers at peace since the Second World War, despite the collapse of Communism".[18]
In 2003 Roberts wrote: "For Churchill, apotheosis came in 1940; for Tony Blair, it will come when Iraq is successfully invaded and hundreds of weapons of mass destruction are unearthed from where they have been hidden by Saddam's henchmen."[19] When suchweapons were not found, Roberts still defended the invasion for larger strategic reasons,[20] while arguing that his past views were based on credible assessments from intelligence services as well as other sources.[21]
Roberts endorsedKemi Badenoch in the2024 Conservative Party leadership election.[22]
The first of Roberts's books was a biography ofthe Earl of Halifax,Foreign Secretary toNeville Chamberlain andWinston Churchill, entitledThe Holy Fox, and published in 1991.[14] Roberts provides ahistorical revisionism account of Lord Halifax, a one-timeviceroy of India and the foreign secretary in Chamberlain's government. Halifax has been charged withappeasement, along with Chamberlain, but Roberts argues that Halifax began to move his government away from that policy vis-à-visNazi Germany following the 1938Munich Crisis.[citation needed] This work was followed in 1994 byEminent Churchillians, a collection of essays about friends and enemies of Churchill.[14] A large part of the book is an attack onAdmiral of the Fleetthe Earl Mountbatten of Burma, and other prominent members of theelite. The title is an obvious allusion to the famous and similarly combative book of biographiesEminent Victorians.[citation needed]
In 1995 Roberts publishedThe Aachen Memorandum, athriller novel based on Britain and its relationship with a fictionalisedEuropean Union.[citation needed] In 1996, Roberts offered his "personal view" of theSuez crisis in anOpen Media production for BBC TV.Radio Times described the programme: "Forty years afterEden's decision to deploy troops against the Egyptians, Andrew Roberts argues that the former prime minister should be congratulated, not chastised, for fighting to protect British assets."[23]
In 1999 Roberts publishedSalisbury: Victorian Titan, a biography of theVictorian-era prime ministerthe Marquess of Salisbury. The historianMichael Korda praised the work as "a masterpiece about one of the greatest and most able Tory political figures of the Victorian age".[15] The book additionally won theWolfson History Prize and the James Stern Silver Pen Award for Non-Fiction.[14] In September 2001Napoleon and Wellington, an investigation into the relationship between the two generals, was published byWeidenfeld and Nicolson, and was the subject of the lead review in all but one of Britain's national newspapers.[citation needed]
January 2003 saw the publication ofHitler and Churchill: Secrets of Leadership.[14] In the book, which addresses the leadership techniques of Hitler and Churchill, he delivered a rebuttal to many of the assertions made byClive Ponting andChristopher Hitchens concerning Churchill.[citation needed] An accompanying television series based around Roberts'sHitler and Churchill ran onBBC2,[14] with its first episode being broadcast on 7 March 2013.[19] Roberts remarked that he felt grateful for the BBC's support of his work and their unwillingness to cut corners when it came to exploring history in detail, quipping as well about the group's wardrobe policy, "Courtesy of this programme, I now have two Armani suits upstairs."[11]
Also in 2003, Roberts became aFellow of the Royal Society of Arts.[14] In 2004 he editedWhat Might Have Been, a collection of twelve "What If?" essays written by historians and journalists, includingRobert Cowley,Antonia Fraser,Norman Stone,Amanda Foreman,Simon Sebag Montefiore,Conrad Black, andLady Anne Somerset.[14] In 2005 Roberts publishedWaterloo: Napoleon's Last Gamble, which was published in America asWaterloo: The Battle for Modern Europe.[14]
HisA History of the English-Speaking Peoples Since 1900, a sequel tothe four-volume work of Churchill's biography, was published in September 2006,[14] and won the Intercollegiate Studies Institute Book Award.[24]Masters and Commanders describes how four figures shaped the strategy of the West during the Second World War.[citation needed] It was published in November 2008 and won theInternational Churchill Society Book Award and was shortlisted for two other military history book prizes.[14]The Art of War is a two-volume chronological survey of the greatest military commanders in history. It was compiled by a team of historians, includingRobin Lane Fox,Tom Holland,John Julius Norwich,Jonathan Sumption, andFelipe Fernández-Armesto, working under the general editorship of Roberts.[citation needed]
The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War came out in August 2009. A detailed look at the history of events behind theSecond World War and various key elements within it such as the nature ofNazi Germany's rule, the book received large popular success[9] and reached number two inThe Sunday Times bestseller list. It additionally earned the British Army Military Book of the Year Award for 2010.[8]
In terms of critical response,The Storm of War has also received a wide variety of praise in publications such asThe Daily Beast, where Korda lauded it as written "superbly well" and stated that Roberts's "scholarship is superb",[15] andThe Wall Street Journal, where the historian Jonathan W. Jordan said that Roberts "splendidly weaves a human tragedy into a story".[25] Support also came from figures such as the American political commentatorPeter Robinson and the English historianPaul Johnson. In the book Roberts aims to paint a concise yet highly detailed picture of the conflict in which he argues thatJoseph Stalin and Hitler both took terrible actions due to their repressiveideologies, throwing thousands and thousands of lives away in the process, yet the eventual defeat of theAxis powers constituted a moral triumph of democratic pluralism overauthoritarianism that led the way to a better future.[9]
In 2014 Roberts wroteNapoleon the Great (the American edition is titledNapoleon: A Life), which was awarded the 2015Los Angeles Times Book Prize for best biography. In this biography, Roberts seeks to evoke Napoleon's tremendous energy, both physical and intellectual, and the attractiveness of his personality, even to his enemies. The book argues against many long-held historical opinions, including the myth of a great romance withJoséphine de Beauharnais. She took a lover immediately after their marriage, as Roberts shows, and Napoleon in fact had three times as many mistresses as he acknowledged. Roberts goes through fifty-three of Napoleon's sixty battlefields, and he additionally evaluates a gigantic new French edition of Napoleon's letters, aiming to create a complete re-evaluation of the man.[26]
LikeThe Storm of War, Roberts's life of Napoleon received critical praise from a wide range of publications. In October 2014 the journalistJeremy Jennings wrote forStandpoint that, "Napoleon could have had few biographers more dedicated to their subject." Jennings additionally labelled the book a "richly detailed and sure-footed reappraisal of the man, his achievements—and failures—and the extraordinary times in which he lived".[26] The book earned thePrix du Jury des Grands Prix de la Fondation Napoléon for 2014, an award given by the historical organisationFondation Napoléon.[27]
Praise additionally came from the historianJay Winik: "With his customary flair and keen historical eye, Andrew Roberts has delivered the goods again. This could well be the best single volume biography of Napoleon in English for the last four decades. Atour de force that belongs on every history-lover's bookshelf!"[28] as well as fromDonald Adamson inNapoleon atElba.[29] The author of historical fictionBernard Cornwell has described the book as "[s]imply dynamite. ... [Napoleon was] a mass of contradictions and Roberts's book encompasses all the evidence to give a brilliant portrait of the man. The book, as it needs to be, is massive, yet the pace is brisk and it's never overwhelmed by the scholarly research, which was plainly immense ... Roberts suggests looking at Europe for the Emperor's monument, but this magnificent biography is not a bad place to start."[30]
In announcing in 2013 that it would present a three-part television series based on Roberts's analysis of Napoleon's life and legacy,BBC Two declared in its press release that "Roberts sets out to shed new light on the emperor... an extraordinary, gifted military commander and a mesmeric leader whose private life was littered with disappointments and betrayals."[31] The series has had mixed reviews.The Daily Telegraph declared it "unconvincing", saying that "there was no getting away from Roberts's regular lapses into hero-worship", and "Roberts's remarks on the refreshing qualities of dictatorship made me wonder if he had taken leave of his senses".[32]
In 2018 Roberts produced a biography of Churchill entitledChurchill: Walking with Destiny. Dovetailing with Roberts's previous work on the Second World War and its related major figures, the book received praise from a number of publications. For theFinancial Times, Toni Barber wrote: "Anecdotes sparkle like gems throughout Roberts's book, an exhaustive but fluent text that draws on a wider range of sources than the typical Churchill biography."[33] InThe Observer,Andrew Rawnsley included the book among the 'Books of the Year' and said that "Roberts triumphed over my scepticism with his riveting account of the extraordinary life of the most remarkable individual to have lived at No 10."[34]
ForThe New York Times,Richard Aldous commented: "All told, it must surely be the best single-volume biography of Churchill yet written."[35] TheNational Book Review said that the book was "widely praised as the best single-volume biography of Winston Churchill ever written", and added that Roberts "draws on previously unavailable journals and notes for the robust, engrossing, and nuanced history of the great British leader."[36]
Roberts has created short works on a variety of subjects, his published columns appearing in popular periodicals such asThe Daily Telegraph andThe Spectator, amongst others.[8] Since 2014 he has featured in several short lecture videos published by theAmerican conservative advocacy groupPragerU.[37]
Since 1990 Roberts has addressed hundreds of institutional and academic audiences in many countries, including a lecture to the former US presidentGeorge W. Bush at theWhite House. A monarchist, Roberts describedPrince Philip upon his death in 2021 as "undoubtedly... one of the reasons that the overwhelming majority of Britons today feel blessed that their country is a monarchy".[38] He has appeared on US television during royal funerals and weddings. He first came to prominence in the United States for his expert commentary on the funeral ofDiana, Princess of Wales, in 1997, and he was later in a similar role during theCNN broadcast of the death ofQueen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and on the wedding ofCharles, Prince of Wales, andCamilla Parker Bowles.[39] In 2003 he presentedThe Secrets of Leadership, a four-part history series onBBC Two about the secrets of leadership which looked at the different leadership styles of Churchill, Hitler,John F. Kennedy, andMartin Luther King Jr. Roberts is a director of theHarry Frank Guggenheim Foundation in New York City, a founder member ofJosé Maria Aznar's Friends of Israel Initiative, and chaired the Hessell-Tiltman Award for Non-Fiction in 2010.[39]
Roberts is a judge on theElizabeth Longford Historical Biography Prize. Elected aFellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2001,[40] he chaired theConservative Party'sAdvisory Panel on the Teaching of History in Schools in 2005. He has also been elected a Fellow of the Napoleonic Institute and an Honorary Member of theInternational Churchill Society. He is a trustee of the Margaret Thatcher Archive Trust and of the Roberts Foundation.[39] During the autumn of 2013, Roberts served as the inauguralMerrill Family visiting professor in history atCornell University. He taught a course entitled "Great European Leaders of the 19th and 20th Centuries and their Influence on History."[41] He has additionally spoken in many other American universities such as theUniversity of Montana.[8] In 2016 Roberts was elected aFellow of the Royal Historical Society.[42]
Although Roberts's 2006 workA History of the English-Speaking Peoples since 1900 won critical acclaim from some sections of the media,[43][44]The Economist drew attention to some historical, geographical, and typographical errors, as well as presenting a generally scathing review. It referred to the work as "a giant political pamphlet larded with its author's prejudices".[7] More generally,Reba Soffer described him in 2009 as "devoted ... to public, polemical conservatism as well as to historical revisionism".[45] Roberts has been accused of celebrating western colonialism and imperialism in his books.[46]
Roberts is divorced from his first wife, Camilla Henderson, with whom he had two children.[3][47] Roberts is married to Susan Gilchrist,[48] chief executive officer of the corporate communications firmBrunswick Group LLP and chairman of theSouth Bank Centre. Lord and Lady Roberts live in London.[14]
Roberts has worked withthink tank organisations such as theCentre for Policy Studies and theCentre for Social Cohesion. He has additionally maintained personal friendships with several British political and social figures such asDavid Cameron,Michael Gove, andOliver Letwin.[3] In February 2016 he was appointed president of theCambridge University Conservative Association.[14]
It was announced on 14 October 2022 inBoris Johnson's2022 Political Honours that Roberts would be elevated to thepeerage as alife baron.[49] On 1 November 2022 he was createdBaron Roberts of Belgravia,in the City of Westminster.[50]
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| Preceded by | Gentlemen Baron Roberts of Belgravia | Followed by |
