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2014 News

2014

REF2014

REF 2014 Results

The results of the 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF) were announced on Wednesday 18 December. Taking into account the proportion of its eligible staff submitted for assessment, LSE History (Economic History and International History) was ranked sixth out of 83 submissions to the REF History panel for the percentage of its research outputs rated 'world leading '(4*) or 'internationally excellent' (3*) and ninth for its submission as a whole. On the basis of the combination of quality of publications and number of staff submitted, a measure of research power, LSE History ranks 4th in the UK. More information on LSE's impressive performance can be found here.

Dr Heather Jones on RTÉ Radio 1's History Show

On 7 December 2014, Dr Heather Jones recommended history books to be given on Christmas morning in RTÉ Radio 1's History Show. Other participants if the show were Anne McLellan; novelist and scholar, Alan Titley; and RTE's Richard Downes. Listen to the podcast here.

NixonKissingerAndTheShah

Nixon, Kissinger, and the Shah one of the best books of 2014 according to FT

Financial Times selects Dr Roham Alvandi's book, Nixon, Kissinger, and the Shah, as one of its best books of 2014. The book made it on to their summer list a few months ago and is now selected for their annual list. Read more about it here.

Professor Vladislav Zubok

Professor Vladimir Zubok at the at the 46th Annual Convention of the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies

On November 21, 2014 Professor Vladislav Zubok was an invited speaker at the Presidential Plenary Session of the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies in San Antonio, Texas. The panel’s theme was: “25 Years After the Fall of the Berlin Wall: Historical Legacies and New Beginnings.” He spoke on the topic: “What can we learn from the Cold War now? Personality, Contingency, Identity Politics, and the Role of Money.”

TheHistoryShow

Dr Heather Jones on The History Show

On 9 November 2014, Dr Heather Jones was on RTE Radio 1's flagship history programme, The History Show, discussing First World War commemoration in Ireland. She talked about the Irish Memorials to WW1 Dead, more specifically the significance of these memorials and how the Irish attitude to commemorating the war dead has changed over the past century. She also discussed what the Enniskillen Bombing symbolised in terms of the polarisation of Irish views of war remembrance in 1987 and how it symbolised a turning point in terms of the Irish relationship with the First World War as an historical event. Listen to the podcast here.

DonaldCameronWatt

Donald Cameron Watt, Professor of International History, Passes Away

Professor Donald Cameron Watt passed away on 30 October 2014. He taught at the London School of Economics for nearly 40 years, joining the staff in 1954 and retiring in 1995 as Stevenson Professor of International History and Head of Department. He was a Fellow of the British Academy and the first LSE academic to be awarded the Wolfson History Prize in 1990 for his book How War Came: The Immediate Origins of the Second World War, 1938-1939.

Read Professor Donald Cameron Watt's obituary written by Dr Robert Boyce. Read the obituary published by The Daily Telegraph.

Dr Roham Alvandi on Ireland's Newstalk Radio 5

Dr Roham Alvandi spoke on a panel discussion on "Nixon and Détente" for Ireland’s Newstalk Radio on 5 October 2014, alongside historians Daniel Geary, Margaret Macmillan, and Jeremi Suri. The panel was hosted by Patrick Geoghegan on his ‘Talking History’ radio show. The podcast is available here.

alvandiEdited

Dr Roham Alvandi on the Deutsche Welle

Dr Roham Alvandi gave an interview to the German international broadcaster, Deutsche Welle, about US-Iran relations and the situation in Iraq. Dr Alvandi argues that politics prevent Tehran and Washington from cooperating publicly against the Islamic State. The interview was published on 25 September 2014 and can be read here.

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Video interview with Professor Paul Preston

Professor Paul Preston’s groundbreaking and high-profile work on Spain, the legacy of Francoism and the atrocities committed during the twentieth century was submitted as one of the department’s Impact Case Studies in the recent UK Research Excellence Framework process. A short film is available here in which Professor Preston discusses his research and how it influenced the debate in contemporary Spain on these important issues.

New Gerda-Henkel GHIL Visiting Professor joins the Department

The Department is pleased to announce the appointment of Professor Kiran Klaus Patel, Professor of European and Global History at the University of Maastricht, to the position of Gerda Henkel Visiting Professor for 2014-15. This position is jointly held between department and the German Historical Institute London (GHIL) with the generous support of the Gerda Henkel Foundation in Düsseldorf.

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Dr Roham Alvandi in a Panel Discussion at the Cargenie Endowment

Dr Roham Alvandi was at the Carnegie Endowment, Washington DC, to discuss the Persian Gulf on 10 September 2014. He was part of a panel titled, “Unlikely Allies: U.S.-Iranian-Saudi Cooperation in the Persian Gulf”. Dr Alvandi " reflected on the last period of U.S.-Iranian-Saudi collaboration—during the Cold War—when the three countries were united against communism. He shared insights from his new book, Nixon, Kissinger, and the Shah: The United States and Iran in the Cold War, highlighting how the Nixon-Shah relationship can illuminate the future path of U.S.-Iranian relations". For more information about this event and to listen to the podcast visit the Carnegie Endowment website.

Eirini Karamouzi

University of Sheffield Post for Former Research Student and Pinto Fellow

One of the Department's former research students and Pinto Fellow, Dr Eirini Karamouzi, has obtained a lectureship in Contemporary History at the University of Sheffield. Her new contact details can be found here. We congratulate her and wish her all the best for her future endeavours.

TheLastStalinist

Paul Preston's Latest Book Reviewed by The Spectator and The Economist

The Spectator published a review of Professor Paul Preston's latest book, The Last Stalinist: The Life of Santiago Carrillo, on 23 August 2014. The book reviewer, JP O'Malley, concludes his essay by saying that "The Last Stalinist is yet another reminder that Paul Preston remains the most reliable historian in the English-speaking world for anyone wishing to understand the complicated power struggles between left and right in Spanish politics over the course of the 20th century." Read the full review by The Spectator. The Economist's review was published on 13 September 2014. Paul Preston's manuscript was deemed "both sobering and welcome". Read the full review by The Economist.

Raving Reviews on Professor Hartley's Siberia, a History of the People

On 20 July 2014, the Sunday Times published a review on Professor Janet Hartley's latest book, Siberia, a History of the People, calling the volume "a deft history", a "beautifully chosen and told compendium of life stories". Read the full review here. A few weeks later, on 16 August 2014,
the Specator published a review on the book written by Will Nicoll. He calls it a "masterful study of Siberia's people". He goes on to say that "Hartley’s skill lies in her ability to make historical events vivid and accessible" and that her book will "be particularly useful to a generation of young Siberians, eager to understand their wild region’s extraordinary past".

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Dr Heather Jones gives a lecture at the Parnell Summer School

Dr Heather Jones was invited to give a lecture to the Parnell Summer School in Avondale, Co Wicklow, Ireland, on the topic of “Violent transgression and the First World War, 1914–1918”. The lecture was to commemorate the 1,000th anniversary of the Battle of Clontarf, Dagmar Ó Riain-Raedel and was reported in the Irish Times on 12 August 2014. Read the article here.

TheHagueWarning

Professor Prazmowska and Dr Jones on BBC Radio 4

On 11 August 2014, Professor Anita Prazmowska and Dr Heather Jones spoke in BBC Radio 4's programme 'Document': 'The Hague Warning'. The programme examined "the state of the British intelligence community [in July 1939], the split between appeasers and those who distrusted every German move and why this Document and the later Venlo incident in which two British intelligence officers walked into a trap laid by the Germans, was a Secret Intelligence Crisis". Listen to it here.

Professor David Stevenson

Professor David Stevenson's Articles on World War One

On 1 August 2014, Professor David Stevenson contributed a short post on "LSE and the First World War" for the LSE blog, followed by another article on 4 August 2014 for Sky News, "World War One And The 'Short-War Illusion'".

BBC Two: Railways of the Great War

In August 2014, BBC Two showed a five-part documentary series on the Railways of the Great War, presented by Michael Portillo. Professor David Stevenson was the historical adviser for the series, and he is interviewed in Episode 4: On Track to Victory. Dr Heather Jones is interviewed in Episode 5: Railways and Remembrance.

NationwideRTE

RTE: Nationwide: WW1 - 100 Years

Dr Heather Jones contributed to the documentary "Nationwide: WW1 - 100 Years" broadcast by the Irish TV station, RTE, on 30 July 2014. This First World War special examined a collection of photos found in an Irish cellar which were developed to reveal Irish men on the front line. Watch it here.

ChileylaGuerraFria

Dr Tanya Harmer's Book Launch in Chile

Dr Tanya Harmer was in Santiago, Chile, on 28 July to launch her new book, co-edited with Alfredo Riquelme, Chile y la Guerra Fría Global. The book is the result of a conference Dr Harmer organised between LSE IDEAS and the Institute of History at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile in 2009. The event was featured in the national Chilean newspaper La Tercera. Read more about the book launch here.

NewYorkTimes

Dr Roham Alvandi contributes an op-ed to the International New York Times

On 10 July 2014, Dr Roham Alvandi wrote an op-ed contribution to the International New York Times, called "Open the Files on the Iran Coup". He argues that Britain and the United States need to release their files on the 1953 coup in Iran. Read the contribution here.

LeFeu

Dr Heather Jones on BBC Radio 3

On 30 June 2014, Dr Heather Jones was on BBC Radio 3 The Essay as part of their Minds at War series. She talked about Henri Barbusse's novel Le Feu in light of how great artists and thinkers responded to the First World War in individual work. Listen to the broadcast here.

BBCWW1

Dr Heather Jones on BBC News Magazine

On 29 June 2014, Dr Heather Jones's latest article, "WW1: Was it really the First World War?", was published online on BBC News Magazine. In the article, she ponders on whether the war we now call the First World War or World War One is really an accurate description, whether it was really a global war and whether it was really the "first". In the first 24 hours after publication online the article got over half a million hits and was the 14th most read story on the BBC website.

Dr Heather Jones on Sky News

On 28 June 2014, exactly a century after Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated, triggering the First World War, Dr Heather Jones was invited to give a history lesson on Sky News. Watch the full interview here.

FT1

Dr Roham Alvandi’s Nixon, Kissinger, and the Shah chosen as one of the Financial Times’s summer books 2014

In the newspaper's section entitled FT’s Summer Books 2014, Tony Barber, Europe Editor and Associate Editor of the Financial Times, writes about Dr Roham Alvandi’s latest book: "Knowledge of the 1970s, when Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was one of Washington’s closest global allies, is essential for anyone wishing to understand why it is so difficult for the US and Iran to overcome their differences. Alvandi throws new light on the period by showing that Iran’s last shah was more than just President Richard Nixon’s cat’s paw in the Middle East."

RohamAlvandiBBCWorldNews

Dr Roham Alvandi interviewed on BBC World News

Dr Roham Alvandi was interviewed on BBC World News television on 17 June regarding US-Iran relations and the unfolding crisis in Iraq. Speaking with the BBC’s David Eades, he discussed the potential for Iranian-American military cooperation in Iraq and the importance of opening a dialogue between Iran and Saudi Arabia to stem the rising tide of Sunni-Shi’a conflict in the region. Watch the video clip here. Dr Alvandi is the author of the recent book, Nixon, Kissinger, and the Shah: The United States and Iran in the Cold War, published by Oxford University Press.

HeatherJonesGeartyGrilling

Gearty Grilling featuring Dr Heather Jones on the First World War

In June 2014, Dr Heather Jones participated in the weekly Gearty Grilling. She discussed why the British public supported the First World War and thousands of men volunteered to fight despite reports of massive casualties. Gearty Grilling is a weekly series of short, to-the-point video debates from LSE’s Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) on key issues affecting the world today. It's purpose is to showcase the School's word class research and faculty. Watch the interview.

WW1HeatherJonesBBCRadio

Dr Heather Jones presents World War One programme on Radio BBC World Service

Supported by rare material from the archives, Dr Heather Jones talks about how war affected populations around the world beyond the static front lines in Northern Europe (Somme, Verdun, Ypres and the Vimy Ridge). The show, World War One, aired on Saturday 14 June 2014 at 8:06 GMT and at 19.06 GMT on Sunday 15 June.

AlvandiUSIranRelations

Dr Roham Alvandi Partipates in Roundtable Discussion at the Hague Institute for Global Justice

Dr Roham Alvandi participated in a roundtable discussion on US-Iran relations at the Hague Institute for Global Justice in the Netherlands on 21 May. His presentation was on the role of history in US-Iran détente and the importance of releasing British and US government documents on the Anglo-American coup in Iran in 1953. The discussion was part of The Hague Roundtable Series which brought together policymakers, academics and civil society representatives with key international expertise on Iran.

SpohrK

Funding Success for Dr Kristina Spohr's Cold War Summitry

Dr Kristina Spohr, Deputy Head of the International History Department is lead-author of a book entitled Cold War Summitry: Transcending the Division of Europe, 1970-1990, for which she has a contract with Oxford University Press.

She is collaborating on this project with Professor David Reynolds (Cambridge University), with whom she has recently won a British Academy/ Leverhulme Trust Small Research Grant as well as getting awards from LSE HEIF5 (Knowledge Exchange), and Cambridge University's CRASSH (Centre for research in the arts, social sciences and humanities) and Mellon Fund, amounting overall to £ 21,000.

This is to hold a conference on the book at Cambridge University (22-23 Sept. 2014) and a practitioners seminar at the FCO, London (24 Sept. 2014). A document collection of ca. 100 digitised government sources from Germany, Britain, France, America, Russia and China will be made publicly available after the conference by the National Security Archive in Washington D.C.

NixonKissingerAndTheShah

New Book by Dr Roham Alvandi, Nixon, Kissinger, and the Shah

Dr Roham Alvandi has just published a new book by the Oxford University Press called Nixon, Kissinger, and the Shah: The United States and Iran in the Cold War. The book challenges the conventional view of the shah as a mere instrument of American power during the Cold War by extending the study of US-Iran relations into the 1970s when the shah emerged as a major international figure. Dr Alvandi’s research draws on Persian-language sources and extensive multi-archival research, making use of recently declassified U.S. documents. The book examines the origins of Iran's nuclear program in the 1970s under the shah. The manuscript can be purchased on Amazon.

LSESUTeachingExcellenceAwards

Rosalind Coffey wins Award for Excellent Feedback and Communication as part of LSE's Student-Led Teaching Excellence Awards

Miss Rosalind Coffey, a Graduate Teaching Assistant in the International History Department, won the Award for Excellent Feedback and Communication, as part of the Student-Led Teaching Excellence Awards organised by the LSE Students’ Union. In the words of LSESU Education Officer, Rosie Coleman, the award stands for “someone who is approachable, responsive, provides excellent feedback and is willing to use innovative communication to help he students develop and understand”. This year, there was a steep competition with an overwhelming response from students, who submitted 993 individual nomination for best LSE teachers.

Shlala Conference

Dr Elizabeth Shlala Presents a Paper in Symposium in Turkey

Dr Elizabeth Shlala, Teaching and Visiting Research Fellow in the International History Department, participated in the international symposium 'Writing Women's Lives/ KADIN HAYATLARINI YAZMAK' over the Easter break in Istanbul, Turkey. Presenting on the panel, Representation and Invisibility, Dr Shlala gave a paper entitled, 'Using Court Records to Recover Women's Voices in the Ottoman Empire.' The symposium was held over two days and was jointly sponsored by the Women's Library and Information Center Foundation and the History Department at Yeditepe University.

Dr Elizabeth Shlala

Martin Abel González Prize Winners Announced

Rosalind Coffey, Valeska Huber, Andrea Mason, Robin Mills and Elizabeth Shlala won this year’s Martin Abel González Prize. The Department awarded the five prizes to the Graduate Teaching Assistants, Guest Teachers and Teaching Fellows with the best TQARO teaching scores.

This prize was set up in 2011-12 and is named in memory of Martín Abel González, a Graduate Teaching Assistant who served for many years at the Department and who tragically passed away in the summer of 2011. It is a prize that recognises excellence in teaching and professionalism as these were qualities that distinguished Martín Abel González.

When Soldiers Fall

Professor Steven Casey Publishes New Book

Professor Steven Casey has just published When Soldiers Fall: How Americans Have Confronted Combat Casualties from World War I to Afghanistan (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014). Buy this book from the publisher: Oxford University Press.To coincide with the publication of this major new book, which transforms our understanding of how American society has confronted major wars since 1914, Professor Casey has appeared on the American public radio show, ‘Roundtable,’ and has also published a number of opinion pieces, including "Obama was Right to Have Republican Robert Gates as Defense Secretary," U.S. News & World Report, 19 January 2014,"What Bob Gates' Memoir Tells Us about Casualties," The Interpreter, 14 January 2014,and "America's Love Affair with Technowar," History News Network, 30 December 2013.

Spohr & Scowcroft

Spohr Invited to Speak at the 2014 Konrad Adenauer Stiftung’s Conference

Dr Kristina Spohr, Deputy Head of the International History Department, was an invited guest speaker at the Petersberg in Königswinter on 5 February. She gave a lecture entitled ‘"Die deutsch-amerikanische Sicherheitspolitik in der Phase der Wiedervereinigung 1989/90",or "A story of German International Emancipation through Political Unification" as part of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung’s conference "Die Ära Kohl im Gespräch". Fellow lecturers included former chancellor Helmut Kohl’s national security advisor Horst Teltschik and former U.S. president George H.W. Bush’s national security advisor General Brent Scowcroft.

QS World University Rankings

History at LSE Highly Rated in Major World Rankings

The Department of International has performed impressively in several recent university league tables. The QS World University History Subject Table for 2014 ranks History at LSE 7th overall in the world as one of 3 UK universities in the top 10. Other UK institutions feature in the top 40 include Warwick (24), KCL (26) and UCL (32).

Complete University Guide

LSE International History Performs Strongly on UK University League Tables

The Guardian's University Guide 2014 awarded History at LSE 4th place, just behind Cambridge, St Andrews and Brunel, while the independent Complete University Guide for 2014 lists LSE in 3rd place, ahead of Oxford and St Andrews on their History subject table. Both tables also makes clear that LSE history students continue to have the best rate of employability after graduation in the UK.

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Jones Interviewed for BBC Radio 4 documentary on First World War

Dr Heather Jones featured as one of the contributors to a new documentary on the First World, entitled ‘The Great War of Words’. The first episode was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 at 9am on Tuesday 4 February, with a repeat at 21.30 that evening. It is also available through the BBC iPlayer service. For more details, please see the programme's homepage.

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