Ian Kershaw
| Sir Ian Kershaw | |
|---|---|
Kershaw at the 2012 Leipzig Book Fair
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| Born |
29 April 1943 Oldham, Lancashire, England |
| Residence | Manchester |
| Nationality | British |
| Alma mater |
University of Liverpool Merton College, Oxford |
| Occupation | Historian, author |
| Known for | Studies of German social history, especially Alltagsgeschichte, and for advancing the "Working Towards the Führer" concept |
| Spouse(s) | Dame Betty Kershaw |
| Children | 2 |
Sir Ian Kershaw, FBA (born 29 April 1943) is a British historian and author whose work has chiefly focused on the social history of 20th century Germany. He is regarded by many as one of the world's leading experts on Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany, and is particularly noted for his monumental biographies of Hitler.
He was the leading disciple of the late German historian Martin Broszat, and (until his retirement) professor at the University of Sheffield. Kershaw has called Broszat an "inspirational mentor" who did much to shape his understanding of National Socialist Germany. Kershaw served as historical adviser on numerous BBC documentaries, notably The Nazis: A Warning from History and War of the Century. He taught a module titled 'Germans against Hitler'.
His wife, Dame Betty Kershaw, was professor of nursing and dean of the School of Nursing Studies at the University of Sheffield.
Kershaw was born in Oldham, Lancashire, England, to Joseph Kershaw and Alice Robinson. He was educated at Counthill Grammar School, St Bede's College, Manchester, the University of Liverpool (BA) and Merton College, Oxford (D.Phil). He was originally trained as a medievalist but turned to the study of modern German social history in the 1970s. At first, he was mainly concerned with the economic history of Bolton Abbey. As a lecturer in medieval history at Manchester, Kershaw learnt German to study the German peasantry in the Middle Ages. In 1972, he visited Bavaria and was shocked to hear the views of an old man he met in a Munich café who told him: "You English were so foolish. If only you had sided with us. Together we could have defeated Bolshevism and ruled the earth!"—adding in for good measure that "The Jew is a louse!" As a result of this incident, Kershaw became keen to learn how and why ordinary people in Germany could support the Nazi ideology (National Socialism or Nazism).
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