John Charmley

John Denis Charmley FRHistS (born 9 November 1955) is a British diplomatic historian and a Professor of modern history at the University of East Anglia, where he was head of the School of History 2002 to 2012. Charmley's historical work has proved to be controversial, most notably his works on Churchill.

He was educated at Rock Ferry High School and Pembroke College, Oxford (BA, 1977; DPhil, 1982).

Charmley's scholarship on Churchill is to some extent the reverse of the standard academic opinion. He finds Churchill's early years powerful and compelling, but believes that Churchill's alternative to appeasement was unrealistic and that his actions as Prime Minister in World War II were a failure. Charmley sees the resulting collapse of the British Empire, and the rise of the United States and the Soviet Union, as disastrous. Charmley appears to suggest that Britain should have negotiated with Nazi Germany in 1940, that it would have been possible to do so honourably and that it would have safeguarded the British Empire better than the alliance with the anti-colonial U.S. President Roosevelt did. Charmley retrospectively recommends "disengaging" from the war against Germany, and letting Stalin and Hitler whittle away each other's power rather than risk Britain's resources.

Charmley also believed that the extensive government control that Churchill presided over during the war laid the groundwork for British socialism and Labour Party victories, events which he considers undesirable. Charmley sums up his feelings in Churchill: The End of Glory:

Charmley has also tried to rehabilitate Neville Chamberlain. F.M. Leventhal, in a review of Chamberlain and the Lost Peace, suggested that while Charmley's work portrayed a courageous leader with "a deep and humane desire to leave no stone unturned to avoid war," Chamberlain's inability to recognise Hitler's ambition meant that "perhaps that is why Winston Churchill's reputation remains largely untarnished, while Chamberlain's, Charmley's initiative notwithstanding, cannot be resuscitated".

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