Postgraduate Study

About the Centre

The Centre for the Study of the Two World Wars (CSTWW) is a research centre in the School of History, Classics and Archaeology. It expands the remit of what was formerly the Centre for Second World War Studies (CSWWS), established in 1996. Building on the distinguished achievements of its predecessor, CSTWW serves as a focus for advanced research in the area of the two World Wars and their consequences, especially in Europe, and organises conferences, colloquia, and other research-related activities, including the supervision of postgraduate research and bids for research funding. The aim of the Centre is to promote the study of the First and Second World Wars and their consequences in a broad, comparative perspective.

Direction and Administration at the CSTWW

Director:
Professor Donald Bloxham
Author of The Final Solution: a genocide; Genocide, The World Wars, and the Unweaving of Europe: essays; The Great Game of Genocide: Imperialism, Nationalism and the Destruction of the Ottoman Armenians; Genocide on Trial: war crimes trials and the formation of Holocaust history and memory; co-author of The Holocaust: Critical Historical Approaches.

Deputy Director:
Dr Pertti Ahonen
Author of After the Expulsion: West Germany and Eastern Europe, 1945-1990 and Death at the Berlin Wall; co-author of People on the Move: Forced Population Movements in Europe in the Second World War and Its Aftermath.

Administration and Enquiries:
Anne Brockington
School of History, Classics and Archaeology, University of Edinburgh, William Robertson Wing, Old Medical School, Teviot Place,
Edinburgh, EH8 9AG
Email: Anne.Brockington@ed.ac.uk
Tel: 0131 651 1254

Previous Directors of the Centre

Dr Paul Addison (1996-2005)

Professor Jim McMillan (2005-2010)

Relevant expertise in the School of History, Classics and Archaeology

The School of History, Classics and Archaeology has extensive research strengths in the history of the First and Second World Wars and their consequences. The Centre therefore works in close association with other members of the School who are leading authorities in these fields.

They include:

Dr Paul Addison, Honorary Fellow
Founding director of the CSTWW; author of Churchill: The Unexpected Hero and The Road to 1945: British Politics and the Second World War, among other works.

Dr Felix Boecking
His research interests include the history of the Chinese Nationalist state during the Second Sino-Japanese War.

Dr Jeremy Crang
Former Assistant Director and Acting Director of the CSTWW; Author of The British Army and the People's War, 1939-1945; co-editor (with Paul Addison) of Listening to Britain: Home Intelligence Reports on Britain's Finest Hour - May - September 1940; Firestorm: the Bombing of Dresden 1945; and The Burning Blue: a New History of the Battle of Britain.

Dr Fabian Hilfrich
He specializes in 20th century American diplomatic history and modern international history. His publications include forthcoming monographs on debates about imperialism in the United States around 1900 and during the Vietnam War.

Professor Alvin Jackson
Current Head of School; author of Ireland 1798-1998: Politics and War, among other works.

Dr Iain Lauchlan
He is an expert on Russian history, particularly the revolutionary period and the origins and evolution of Stalinism. He is the author of Russian Hide-and-Seek: The Tsarist Secret Police in St Petersburg, and his biography of Felix Dzerzhinsky, the founder of the KGB, is forthcoming.

Dr Francesca Locatelli
She specializes in the history of the Horn of Africa in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, including Italian colonial rule in the area. Her monograph Order, Disorder and Urban Identities: Asmara 1890-1952 is forthcoming.

Yvonne McEwen, Honorary Fellow
She is the Official Historian of the British Army Nursing Service, and a Visiting Scholar to Drexel University College of Medicine's Archives and Legacy Centre, Philadelphia. She is the author of In the Company of Nurses: The British Army Nursing Service 1902-1922, Volume I of the Official History.

Dr Julius Ruiz
Author of Franco's Justice: The Repression in Madrid after the Spanish Civil War and of a forthcoming study on the Red Terror during the Spanish Civil War.

Professor Emeritus Jill Stephenson
Former Acting Director of the CSTWW; author of Hitler's Home Front: Württemberg under the Nazis and Women in Nazi Germany, among other works.

Dr Wendy Ugolini
Author of Experiencing War as the 'Enemy Other': Italian Scottish Experience during World War Two.

For full details of staff research interests and publications, please see the School's Staff List.

Edinburgh’s War, 1914-1918

Under the Centre's auspices, Yvonne McEwen has been working on the virtual history archive ‘Edinburgh’s War, 1914-1918’, which is now nearing completion.

Forthcoming events


THE CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF THE TWO WORLD WARS

details of Autumn 2012 seminars to follow

Everyone is warmly welcome to attend the seminars, if you would like to be added to the Centre email distribution list to receive details of the seminars and other events that may be of interest, please contact anne.brockington@ed.ac.uk.

The Lecture will be preceded by a sandwich lunch (for limited numbers) at 1pm in the McMillan Room, School of History, Classics and Archaeology. Please book for the lunch by Wednesday 25th April at: http://profklingelunch.eventbrite.co.uk. If you find you are unable to come to the lunch after booking please email cstww@ed.ac.uk so the place can be reallocated.

It is not necessary to book to attend the lecture only.

Organised by The Northern Scholars Scheme and The Centre for the Study of the Two World Wars, in conjunction with the Honorary Consulate of Finland

Fighting for Britain? Negotiating identities in Britain during the Second World War
28-29 June 2012

The Second World War is often seen as constituting a high-water mark of Britishness: a time when a strong sense of nationhood and common purpose bound together the constituent countries of the United Kingdom. Yet, the wartime drive for unity was continually subject to contestation on the grounds of national, gender and geographic difference. Through an examination of veteran experience and visual, literary and filmic representations, this conference explores the concept of Britain as a multi-national state in wartime. The conference also addresses the relationship between Ireland and Britain, in particular Irish citizens who volunteered to serve in the British armed forces.

Please see the conference website, Fighting for Britain? for further details including programme and registration.

All conference participants are also invited to attend a wine reception and poetry reading, The Warrior Poets: a Multinational Perspective on World War Two on Thursday 28 June and a conference dinner on Friday 29 June.

Events of interest outside the Centre

The Second World War Society

'Witness Account: Discussion with a British World War II Vet'

29th March 2012, 5pm
Room G.11, School of History, Classics and Archaeology, William Robertson Wing, Old Medical School, Teviot Place

Graduate programmes on the First and Second World Wars

The School of History, Classics and Archaeology has a taught Master's programme relevant to the study of the First and Second World Wars, MSc in the Second World War in Europe. This is a one-year degree which provides, potentially, a qualification for embarking on a PhD.

The MSc by Research in History and the PhD / MPhil in History also provide opportunities to study topics related to the Two World Wars.

Initial enquiries about graduate study should be emailed to pg.shc@ed.ac.uk.

Research resources

There is a wealth of source materials relevant to the study of the two World Wars available in Edinburgh, only a small sample of which can be mentioned here.

As a copyright library the National Library of Scotland holds copies of all books and journals published in the United Kingdom. The National Archives of Scotland contain a set of the minutes and memoranda of the War Cabinet and its sub-committees, including the Chiefs of Staff Committee, during the Second World War. Mass-Observation file reports, the reports of the Home Intelligence department of the Ministry of Information, and the majority of the Prime Ministerial files dealing with defence and operations, are available on microfilm in the University Library.

The University Library has also acquired Voices from War-time France 1939-1945: Clandestine Resistance and Vichy Newspapers from the British Library. This is the largest collection of newspaper titles from Occupied France anywhere in the world, with many not available at the Bibliotheque Nationale de France. They were originally acquired by British Intelligence and present a full picture of the information known in Britain about the interior activity within France, and thus formed the basis on which many key political decisions were made about the conduct of the war in France by the Allies. The newspapers are now available as 206 reels of film, published by Gale-Thomson.

The University Library also possesses the recently released files of the British Special Operations Executive (SOE), the Second World War secret service tasked with assisting underground resistance movements in occupied Europe. Currently this collection includes all the relevant Western European files and is being enlarged as releases continue. The files are available on microfilm, published by Adam Matthew Publications.

Previous events

 'Conflict in History' Symposium, 24 May 2011

The papers presented at the symposium were grouped into thematic panels, and ranged from fraternal conflict in 3rd century Rome, through Gothenburg in the Thirty Years War, to filmic depictions of merchant seamen in the Second World War.

The symposium was held in the School of History, Classics, and Archaeology, University of Edinburgh.

Conflict in History' Symposium – Further details

Edinburgh's War, 1914-1918 drop in surgery, 24 June 2011

Your Country and Library Need You!

In support of National Armed Forces Day, the Centre for the Study of Two World Wars in collaboration with Edinburgh Central Library, ran a drop-in surgery. Members of the public were invited to bring World War 1 family diaries, photos and artefacts and discuss them with a team of specialists.

For more information, please email edwar@ed.ac.uk.

Seminar Programme, Autumn Semester 2011

Tuesday 4 October 2011
Dr Seumas Spark, London
'Finding the Missing Airmen of the RAF, 1939-1949'

Tuesday 18 October 2011
Professor Bob Moore, Sheffield
‘The Rescue and Survival of Jews in Nazi-Occupied Western Europe: A Comparative Perspective’

Tuesday 1 November 2011
Dr Patrick Finney, Aberystwyth
‘A Global Memory Boom? Post Cold War Remembering of the Second World War’

Tuesday 15 November 2011
Vince Colthurst, Edinburgh
‘Pragmatism Prevails: the Old Commonwealth and the '”Spirit of Munich”’

Seminar Programme, Spring Semester 2012

Tuesday 24 January 2012
Brian Hannon, Edinburgh
'Quality, Ethics and War Reportage: Past and Present'

Tuesday 7 February 2012
John Gilmour and Ian S Wood, Edinburgh
Neutrality in the Second World War

Tuesday 28 February 2012
Julius Ruiz, Edinburgh
‘Gangsterismo: Hollywood and Terror in the Spanish Civil War’

Tuesday 13 March 2012
Stuart Allan, National War Museum, Edinburgh
'Military culture wars: the Commando debate 1940-45'

Media Coverage

War stories will now live forever - Evening News, 15 September 2011

The Second World War Society

The Second World War Society gathers on Thursday evenings every fortnight for meetings at a local pub or a classroom. During these meetings students can come together and share their own interests relating to the Second World War while also participating in WWII quizzes, films, and various talks from guest speakers. Additionally, we enjoy new faces and ideas within our meetings as we encourage discussions that might bring up new positions in association with the War.

In the near future we would like to arrange 'field-trips' with students, allowing the Society to visit various places throughout Britain that in some way incorporate aspects of the War. Two of these proposed trips within the near future include a weekend journey to London to explore various history museums exhibiting information on the Second World War, as well as an additional weekend trip to the Orkney and Shetland Islands in North Scotland which were used as both a WWII base and escape route for Scandinavians trying to escape Nazi containment.

Furthermore, we feel that one of the primary aims of the Second World
War society should encompass an aspect of community involvement.
Within the next few months, The Second World War Society plans to
collect World War II books, or any other history books that anyone in
the community might be looking to discard, and to donate them to local classrooms or libraries that might need to expand their collections.

For further information on the Society please contact Ben Holzhauser, B.Holzhauser@sms.ed.ac.uk.